I have to admit that couponing is something that totally eludes me. I have read a few book about it and do subscribe to a couple of coupon sites, but that is about the extent of it. I recently received for review Couponing Made Simple by Christi the Coupon Coach, which was an easy read and then set out to see if I could learn a thing or two.
Couponing Made Simple starts off by whetting your desire to save money with a handful of success stories. The book then shows how by couponing you will learn a whole new way to shop. The first thing you learn are the first two Rules of Couponing which are:
- Rule 1: Buy on Sale
- Rule 2: Stack Coupons
The author, Christi, then gets into the nitty-gritty of couponing by covering many different topics such as:
- The language of couponing (blinkies, peelies, etc.)
- How to organize your coupons
- Tips and tricks
- Ethics in couponing
- Networking and communicating
- Other ideas and ways to save money that don't require couponing
I tried implementing her system, but again it was a no-go. As much as I liked her idea of filing the inserts in a file folder and cutting out as needed I discovered that that didn't work for me. I need to handle every coupon to help put it into my visual memory.
One problem I have with coupons is that we don't use many of the items that they give coupons for and yes, we eat processed food. Outside of Target, I don't know of too many other stores that you can stack coupons at. Every once in while I can do it at Fred Meyer, but those occasions are few and far between.
I also usually ignore what Walgreens and Rite-Aid have on sale since I HATE shopping at those stores, but that being said I did read the through the blog posts from the coupon sites that I subscribe to and honestly, I didn't see anything there that I really needed to stock up on. I checked thoroughly through Safeway and the Fred Meyer ads each week, but again the deals were for things we just wouldn't eat or use. Because of this I didn't think the time it took for me to research out the deals was worth it. (The author did tell us that she only devotes a couple of hours every two weeks to shopping and couponing.)
I had the biggest success at Target where I scored 4 bottles of body wash, 2 bags of mini Kit-Kats, and a can of shaving cream for $7.09.
Even though I wasn't successful I do think if you are interested in couponing, Couponing Made Simple is a great introduction to couponing and chocked full of other money saving tidbits.
Couponing made Simple by Christi the Coupon Coach is available in paperback for $18.00 or in Kindle for $4.99. She also has a page where she lists her favorite websites for matching coupons.
One problem I have with coupons is that we don't use many of the items that they give coupons for and yes, we eat processed food. Outside of Target, I don't know of too many other stores that you can stack coupons at. Every once in while I can do it at Fred Meyer, but those occasions are few and far between.
I also usually ignore what Walgreens and Rite-Aid have on sale since I HATE shopping at those stores, but that being said I did read the through the blog posts from the coupon sites that I subscribe to and honestly, I didn't see anything there that I really needed to stock up on. I checked thoroughly through Safeway and the Fred Meyer ads each week, but again the deals were for things we just wouldn't eat or use. Because of this I didn't think the time it took for me to research out the deals was worth it. (The author did tell us that she only devotes a couple of hours every two weeks to shopping and couponing.)
I had the biggest success at Target where I scored 4 bottles of body wash, 2 bags of mini Kit-Kats, and a can of shaving cream for $7.09.
Even though I wasn't successful I do think if you are interested in couponing, Couponing Made Simple is a great introduction to couponing and chocked full of other money saving tidbits.
Couponing made Simple by Christi the Coupon Coach is available in paperback for $18.00 or in Kindle for $4.99. She also has a page where she lists her favorite websites for matching coupons.
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