Beginner's

When you first start out in this world of mega savings it is very easy to get overwhelmed! I still get overwhelmed at times after a little over a year! The main thing is don’t break down and give up, it will get easier!
Now first things first you need coupons…Duh! So where do I get my coupons?
I buy the Kansas City Star every Sunday they can be found in Springfield at Quick Trip, Kum and Go, Walgreens, and many other gas stations. The Kansas City Star will have more coupons than the Springfield news-leader and some will be a higher value!
I usually buy 4 or more KCS every Sunday, so that when something goes on sale I have more than one coupon to stock up on that item!
**If you are joining us from a different city, look for a bigger cities paper they generally have the most coupons and the smaller cities will have less.
Printable Coupons
I also print coupons. Printable coupons are great they are usually high value and you can find them everywhere! A few sites I visit often are coupons.com afullcup.com,  couponmom.com, redplum.com , and smartsource.com.
You can also find great coupons via facebook, just search your favorite brands and wait for them to post coupons! They tend to post coupons a LOT on facebook!
Ecoupons
Another way to get coupons is by loading them directly on your shoppers card. In Springfield Dillons is currently the only store with this ability! All you do is register your card on the site and then select the coupons you want and they come off automatically at checkout! There are a few different site that allow you to do this dillons , cellfire, and upromise are all the main sites that have ecoupons.
*Note ecoupons are manufacturer coupons and CANNOT be used in conjunction with paper coupons, also if your store doubles generally the ecoupons will NOT double.
Magazines
All you magazine is available at Walmart and averages $70 worth of coupons and issue!
Home mailers
Home mailers are a great source of coupons, they usually come straight from the manufacturer so they want you to go buy the product. You can sign up for mailers from P&G , home made simple and a many other sites.
Ok so now you have your coupons lets talk organization!
I have my coupons organized in a binder with baseball card holders. There are many ways to organize your coupons just find one that works best for you below I will briefly describe the different ways.
Binder by category
This is the method I use it is categorized by the isles in the store. I have all the categories separated by dividers and all the coupons are clipped and put into baseball card holders in its category. This method takes more time at home but much less time in the store shopping.
Binder by date
This method is similar to the one before but instead of organizing by category your organize them by the date they came out. This method uses sheet protectors instead of baseball card holders because you do not clip the coupons out until its time to shop. What you do it tear all the pages from the insert apart at the seam put all alike pages together facing the same way and staple them and slide into the sheet protector. This method takes less time at home but more time preparing to shop and more time in store.
Coupon organizers
This method I don’t care for at all. You can buy coupon organizers in the store they are usually just little pocket book type things with little dividers. This method will take forever at the store because you will be constantly looking through loose coupons to find the ones you need.
Ok now we got our coupons organized..now what?? Matching!
Now you have all your coupons nice and neat and easy to find! Now it’s time to match them to the store ads!
Drugestore ads come out on Sunday, while grocery store ads (in Springfield) come out on Wednesday.
What you want to do here is match the coupons you have to the stores sale ads for example-
You see that Dillons has Crest toothpaste on sale for $1.00
You go to your binder and look in the oral care category or go to a coupon database website and find the date the crest coupon came out and go to that date (this is where the category method saves time)
You find there is a 1.00 off any crest toothpaste coupon…so here is what the match up looks like
Crest toothpaste-$1.00                                                                                                                                                                                                                     $1.00 off 1 crest toothpast 4/3 pg (April 3rd Proctor & Gamble insert)
Final Price: Free
You take out your coupon and put it with all the coupons you plan on using.
Grocery Stores (Dillons, Price Cutter, ect)
Now keep in mind at grocery stores (aka Dillons, Price Cutter, Harter House, ect) ads can be confusing what if that same toothpaste is listed as 10 fo $10? Do I have to buy 10? The answer is no you can buy one and still get it for $1.00.
Also if Dillons is having a sale Buy 1 get One free- the item will actually ring up half price so you can buy one for half off! (Please note these tips are for Springfield, MO store ONLY check with your local grocer on policies)
Drugstores (Walgreens, CVS, ect)
Drugstores are a little more tricky! In Springfield we mainly deal with Walgreens and CVS both had rewards programs that are thrown into the mix Walgreens has register rewards and CVS has Extra Care Bucks. Both programs work about the same with a few differences that I will explain in more detail later in the Walgreens and CVS categories. Here is how a typical sale may look at these stores.
Crest Toothpaste -$3.29 receive $2.00 extra bucks when you buy 1
So if I buy crest toothpaste before coupons,ect I will pay $3.29 but after I checkout the register is going to print me a coupon for $2.00 off my next shopping trip, it’s like paying $1.29. So here is how a match up would look
Crest toothpaste-$3.29 receive $2.00 ecb (extra care bucks)                                                                                                                                        $1.00/1 Crest toothpaste
Final price:$0.29
You can do more than one transaction to “roll” your rewards to pay as little out of pocket as possible.
Now we have went over the basics the only thing left to do….SHOPPING! Yay!
Now that you have your list of sale items and coupons all ready to go, grab your binder and hit the stores. Note you want to have your coupons ready for your list but always take your binder you may see a great sale that wasn’t advertised!
The first week of couponing will be the most expensive as you won’t have any rewards at the drugstores to use but do more than one transaction to get the most bang for your buck, you will still save tons!
Hope this helps any questions just ask! Thanks!
Jennifer