Saving Money With Coupons: Start With Baby Steps!

Trying to save money with coupons is becoming more and more popular, and I receive emails every day asking me how they can reduce their grocery budget by at least 75% immediately

Let me tell you this…anyone who says that you can quickly and easily go from spending $200 per week to $50 per week on groceries is either lying or trying to sell you something.  It is a process. Some can do it almost immediately…..more will see their grocery bill gradually go down each week until they are consistently savings 60-95% each week.

One other thing:  not every week is a good week at the grocery store.  Those amazing shopping deals that you saw on TV?  Most of them were during a "super sale" at the grocery store (or they just bought 50 bottles of mustard and 30 bottles of laundry detergent that week....which I guess makes for an interesting menu plan for the week!)

So how can you get started?

1.  Get your coupons organized.  I spoke about my coupon organization Coupon Binder System, there is The Couponizer. There are several other methods and we will explore them more in-depth in future posts!

2.  In almost all cases, menu planning is the key to saving money.  That doesn’t mean that you have to have a schedule from which you will not waiver, but a “general idea” is a necessity.  If you find a great recipe online and decide that you want to try it that night, chances are you will end up paying full retail for the ingredients.  If you see a recipe that you want to try but don't have the major ingredients on hand, save the recipe and add those ingredients to your list of items for which you need a find a good sale!

3.   Decide what approach you want to take to couponing.  Do you have a large pantry or an extra freezer that you can stock with the good deals?  Do you have limited space and need to limit the amount of “stuff” you bring in?  If you stockpile (as I do), you can base your menus based on what you have on hand (with a few produce and dairy additions from that week’s shopping).  If you have limited space, you may need to go through your circulars, see what is on sale and plan your menus from that (FYI – this method is FAR more time consuming, in my opinion)

4.  Use the printable list feature in my grocery store posts and take them with you to the store!  You don’t have to worry about price comparing every deal in the store.

5.   If at all possible, try to do your shopping alone in the beginning.  With 3 kids under the age of 10, I know that this is easier said than done.  But the less distractions you have, the better!

After that, it’s just a matter of clipping your coupons and following the deals.

And don’t worry….you WILL get better (even those of you who live in The Land Of No Double Coupons!)