Couponing 101

Chris and I started couponing over the summer and we have saved a bunch of money. I have had so many people ask me to do a blog post on how its done. I've been thinking about doing this post for quite some time, but with moving, being out of town, having a sick baby, keeping the house in order, and working on other projects, I have finally reached a couponing post on my priority list. Sorry for all of you that have been waiting.

So here it is!

For those of you who are visual learners, you'll love this. And for those of you who are less visual, hopefully you can keep up.

Just an apology ahead of time, I'm sorry if some of these are sideways. Sometimes blogger changes them for me and other times blogger is just weird. Bear with me.

Here we have our coupons from the Sunday newspaper. Chris and I have a monthly subscription to the Post Register. We get 1 newspaper for every day of the week, and Saturday, and 3 on Sunday. Sunday has all of the big coupons, so we get 3 of every coupon, pretty awesome. For our monthly subscription it's only $17 a month.

A new system for organizing coupons that Chris and I came up with just this Sunday. It make sour couponing lives that much easier. Instead of laying every coupon out the notecards above have categories and underneath we have separated coupons into subcategories, then when I went to place them in their subcategories I can separate them out. Yes, it may sound confusing, but its pretty easy and went by super fast.

A close up on one of the categories, along with a few of the subcategories.

My couponing binder. I use the front zipper pocket for receipts so every weeks I can see how much I've spent couponing see how much we've saved.

Upon opening the binder on the left you can see this is where I store current weekly store ads. I also store every stores coupon policies there as well. Below that is my storage of notecards. I use notecards to write down what I'm going to coupon at each store. It makes it very simple to go in, get what I want, and then go on to the next store.

Here is where I store my supplies. We've got some extra tabs, a pen and pencil, a pair of scissors just in case I can't find my paper cutter. We've also got a few highlighters and another place for note cards.

This note card just happens to be one for this week that I've written on for specific stores telling me what I should get at each store and how much I should expect to pay.

Here we have the first section of coupons. Its on one side away from all my other coupons. Why? We'll as you can see, well may, but at the top the tab reads "expiring soon". I have all of the coupons that are expiring this week in this section so its a good idea to have these separated from everything else so you know to use them fairly quickly.

A close-up of the tab.

Here we have a perfect place to put all of my membership cards so when I'm ready to pay I don't have to rifle through my wallet to find the right one. I always know where they are and its really easy.

And now onto the rest of the tabs....

Cosmetics. These coupons are going to be face cleansers and tweezers, make up and such.

Deodorant. Very self explanatory, I think.

Feminine. Everything your husband would be too embarrassed to be walking around the store holding onto.

Hair. Here we have coupons for shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, hair gels, hair dye, and everything hair.

Lotion. I also include hand soaps in this category.

Medicine. I also put baby medicine coupons in here.

Mouth. Here we have everything mouth from toothpaste to toothbrushes and floss.

Body. This is mostly going to be body wash. There are so many body wash and soap coupons that come out every Sunday.

Bottles. This is in a difference color because this is the start of my baby section.

Diapers. Also I include coupons for diapering needs such as rash cream and powder.

Baby Food.

Baby Toys. There aren't many coupons for this section, but with the holidays coming up I'm sure they're start coming out soon.

Wipes. Both for baby and Adults.

A different color again? This is the beginning of our food section. Baking. I include sugar, flour, Vegetable Oil and all other baking needs.

Beverages. Anything you can drink.

Bread, both store bought and refrigerated.

Breakfast. Cereal and frozen pastries.

Canned. Here you have your canned veggies, fruit, and soups.

Canning. In the summertime they had a bunch of coupons for mason jars and fruit pectin of all kinds.

Chips. Trust me, there are a ton of chip coupons, especially from pringles. Pringles has coupons coming out almost every single week.

Condiments. Mayonnaise, Mustard, Jelly, Salad Dressing, Croutons, just anything that is an add-on to food.

Dairy. Milk, Yogurt, Butter, even Eggs.

Frozen. Anything that you can stick into the freezer that isn't in another category.

Kitchen. Baggies, Dish Detergent, Foil, that kind of thing.

Meat. Lunch meat and any other kind of meat.

Quick. This is for quick dinner coupons such as mac and cheese or hamburger helper kind of things.

Snacks. Here we have nuts, popcorn, candy, anything you can find to snack on,, chips have there own section just because there are so many chip coupons.

Misc. I use this for anything that doesn't fit anywhere. I've noticed its mostly gum and batteries.

New color! This is the household section. Cleaning. Any cleaning product coupons you can find. Other than dish soap and laundry soap.

Laundry. All your laundry needs from soap to fabric softener.

Paper. I use this section mostly for paper towels and toilet paper.

Office. Here is a section for anything office from pens and pencils to ink coupons and glade air fresheners.

Free! The best category. This is for anything free, not for buy one get one, but for things that are actually free.

Eating out. We use this section for all of the coupons for restaurants we get in the mail.

Crafts. This section is for all of the craft store coupons that come in the mail and newspaper. Here in Rexburg it would be Porters, Joann's, and Michaels.

Here is a picture of a different kind of coupon. Online coupons. There are some sites that offer to let you print coupons for free. This is from coupons.com

I hope that this has helped you. Post a comment if there is more that you want to know. :)

Websites that I use frequently.

If you're just getting into couponing this is a great website to use.

This website is awesome for deals. It tells you what deals are current and what coupons to use with what. Its pretty great!

Just a few to get you started.

Happy Couponing!