New to couponing?

I have been talking to a lot of women on Cafemom lately that want to know how to coupon but don't know where to get started. I always suggest checking these three posts out first, but here is another way to get started. I'm teaching couponing classes in the St. Louis area so if anyone is interested just email me.

Go to www.grocerysmarts.com.

Choose your state.

Choose your store.

Click start, and the white boxes will go gray. Click on the deals that you want to try.

Print your list, and then go through and double check to make sure you have all of those coupons. If you don't, just scratch it out. If you start with a decent pile of coupons from the last few weeks, you should do well with this type of list. If you don't have any coupons, don't get discouraged. Start your coupon binder and in a week or two you will be couponing like a pro.

Repeat this process with each store you visit.

(Look at the image below.) The arrow on the left shows the number of stars this deal has. Grocerysmarts.com puts the best deals in red. However, sometimes they will say it's a GREAT deal when it really could be better. For example, on today's deal it says BAN (deodorant) is $1.49 at Walgreen's. That's true, but if you use your $.70 coupon that came in today's paper, you'd get it for a lot less. So be sure to watch your coupons, your store ads, etc to get the very lowest price.

The arrow in the middle shows the price before coupons, and the arrow on the right shows the price after coupons. The column to the right shows where to get the coupons if they are printable, or where to search in your binder if you have clipped them already (it will say 6/5 SS, for example).

Remember that Extreme Couponing (like the show) is not realistic. You don't need 186 bottles of mustard. Just focus on saving your family the most money. Don't worry about anything else!