Couponing 101-

A couple of months ago I discovered a new way to make money, save money, and essentially pay off debt. It is called couponing. I am currently a student and so I feel it is necessary to find ways to save money. Couponing has changed my life for the better and over the next couple of weeks I will be posting tips on ways to save, all of the free food, toiletries, and household items that I get. Discounts at restaurants, on telephone service, movie tickets, etc.

Many of you out there are probably skeptical about couponing because "it take too much time," "you really aren't saving anything" and list goes on and on and on. However, I beg to differ. Couponing only takes at the most two hours a week if you do it the right way.

1. "Go to the store" before you actually go to the store at southernsavers.com. This website has saved me so much time and money. The host of the website is a stay at home mom who maintains the website as a job. She matches up all of the sale items with the coupons for the week and all you have to do is drive to the store with your coupons and get the items. This website will allow you to print off a shopping list of all of the items you want to purchase so that the trip to the store will take less time, you will not have to fumble through coupons while in the store, and you will be focused on what you are going to purchase, nothing more, nothing less.

2. If you are afraid a store might be out of a certain item, call the store before you drive there so that you will not be disappointed when you get there if they don't have the item, especially if you are only going for one or two items.

3. If a store is out of an item that you want to use a coupon for and it is on sale, ASK FOR A RAIN CHECK. Typically the store will give you as many rainchecks as you want and they do not expire. Just be sure to use the raincheck before your coupon expires.

4. But how do I get the coupons in the first place? Well I am glad you asked. Typically the Sunday paper has coupon inserts that are filled with valuable coupons. I am now in the habit of purchasing two papers every Sunday. I also print coupons online, get coupons from certain stores when I shop there (Target, CVS, Publix), and I get coupons sent to me by email or in the mail.