Couponing

I'm sure many of you have caught the 'coupon craze'.  From watching TLC's Extreme Couponing show to reading about it in the paper, couponing is 'hot' right now.

This past April our local MOPS group discussed couponing.  We had a guest speaker who was awesome and really started to make me think about the amount of money I was losing because I wasn't looking at this stuff!

Who would have thought two months later I am a full out couponer.  I just spent 2 hours doing my grocery list, to reading ads, to cutting out coupons, collecting expired coupons to send overseas to the military, and organizing everything so it would make sense when I go to the store.

If you haven't started doing this yet, you really should.  It does take time - I think if I was still a teacher it would be hard for me to consistently do this every week.  But there are a lot of things out there that you can get for free, or next to free if you just look.

There are a few websites I read on a daily basis to help me with these things.  Because you will learn fast to let other people do the hard work of figuring out where the deals are.  Its not as simple as taking your coupons in - you have to see where the sales are, if there is a chance to stack, and could you possibly get rewards for it?

I read the following blogs everyday: Hip2Save, Southern Savers, and Money Saving Mom.  I like that they talk about freebies online, local ads that are relevant to me, and how I can make things work without thinking too much :)

If you get a chance - check them out.  They really have helped me get things going.  Plus, we now have at least a 6 month supply of toiletries for everyone at my house for a low, low price :)