Rhonda and Lisa-this one's for you :)
My site is best used in conjunction with a national site, like couponmom.com There are other great sites, that one just happens to be my favorite.
Each Sunday, I list the coupons in both the Kansas City Star and the Springfield News Leader. I began doing this, and I think that's the most important information on my site, because when I would check the national sites, they would often list coupons that didn't come in our papers. So I would search through my coupons, and be disappointed that I wasn't going to get the deal, and disgusted that I had wasted my time going through my coupon circulars.
Now when I see a coupon listed on a national site, I scroll to the date that the national site has listed that the coupon was printed, and check the insert to see if that coupon was actually in our papers. It's much easier to check on the computer, than it is to rifle through the inserts.
The second reason I list the coupons is sometimes it may motivate you to buy more than one paper. We all have brands that we love, and wouldn't think of using anything else. For instance this Sunday, the Star had 2 coupons for Ponds facial towelettes for $1 each. My daughter and I both use this product, so those 2 coupons right there, pay for the Star. When I looked through the listings, there were about $3 in other coupons that I knew I would use---so each Star I buy, I would actually make $3 on. I have said before that buying as many papers, as coupons will pay for helps our economy. Imagine if every person bought just twice as many papers as they usually do--the paper would have to hire more workers, and on and on. Plus in many cases, you actually make money on the papers that you buy.
Here are my suggestions on how to make couponing easy and simple:
1)Get 4 manilla folders. Each week for one month, put all inserts in that one manilla envelope and write in pencil, the date the coupons were printed.
2)Each week when you go shopping, visit the national site, and see what the store, where you plan to shop, has on sale. If the national site says there was a coupon, then pull up my site and see if it came in our paper. If it did, go to your manilla envelope, and clip from the insert it was listed to be in.
I think you will be surprised at the amount of money you will save, just following these 2 simple steps.
After a month, most of the coupons in an insert will be expired. Rifle quickly through, clip any coupons that you think you will use with a later expiration date, and keep those in a separate envelope.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at booklady500@aol.com, and I will be glad to try and answer them for you. One of the major obstacles at first may be navigating the national site that you choose to use, and I may be able to help you with that too, even if it isn't the couponmom.com site.
If you have any suggestions for making saving money easier, or keeping track of coupons easier, please email me those too!
There has never been a more important time in our history to use our money wisely. Let's all help each other do that.
Cindy
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