Couponing can take up a significant amount of time especially in the beginning. You need to cut out your coupons, organize them, perhaps in a binder or file folder, and maybe remember what you have in the process. Some people buy the newspaper to get the weekly ads and other people buy inserts in bulk from distributors to get the manufacture coupons. It's really hard not to get overwhelmed while looking through your weekly ads and going through your cut coupons at the same time. One good practice is to create a list for each store.
For example: say you have coupons for Tide laundry detergent that is currently on sale at Target.
- Pull that Tide coupon out of your binder
- Start a grocery list for "Target"
- Write down the item "Tide"
- Write down Target's sale price
- Write down how much your coupon is for
- Rinse and repeat for the rest of the other stores!
Keep in mind that lots of stores will have the same products on sale during the same week. So it would be beneficial to scour your weekly ads to find the best deal on that Tide, so that when you apply your manufacture coupon, it will be that much cheaper!
