Living on one income! Coupons !!

My name is Kim. I am a stay at home mother of 4 (14 months, 4, 8, and 12). I have a wonderful husband (who is helping me with this blog) who I love dearly. And lets not forget “Big Lazy” Saddy Hoss, our mastiff.

Our quest begins with my husband (should’ve been an accountant) wanting to save money. Actually, he was sick and tired of spending $600-$800 per month on groceries for our family. So I decided to help him out. One day about a year ago I was searching the web for ways to save money on your grocery bill. I, like everyone, am familiar with coupons. What I wasn’t familiar with is how to use them. After tons of research, help of other stay at home moms, and lots of practice we figured out how to pay pennies on the dollar for our groceries.

Our first successful attempt we purchased 12 packages of Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs, 20 Boxes of Kellogg’s Cereal, 4 jars of Miracle Whip, 4 boxes of Ritz crackers, and 4 bottles of Kraft Salad Dressing. Total before coupons and savings was about $78. We left the grocery store with all of this stuff only having to pay $17!!! It felt like we almost won the lottery. It was great. Since then we have been hooked. That is what we are here to do, help you have that same feeling and save tons of money.

Here is a list of some of the top coupon sites we could not do without!
Mommy Snacks http://mommysnacks.net/
Hotcouponworld http://hotcouponworld.com/
coupon.com http://print.coupons.com/CouponWeb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10

So now your wonder OK here is the sites now what? I don't have time for this lots of things run through your mind or your so enthusiastic your about to pee and cant wait to find out how this coupon stuff works! Well here is the the beginning to your new obsession.

1. Keep all coupon inserts from Sunday or anyday and mailings you have.
2. On the front of them in black marker on the front page write the month and day.
3. Get a binder. Load it with clear page protectors and slip each weeks in order that you save them as a whole into a page protector. This helps you tremendously when matching postings about coupons from other sites on the deals for the week.
4. Print all coupons from coupon.com that are available to you for the week.
5. Now there are a 1000 different websites that automatically match the deals in the ads for all the stores to the coupons available. One of our favorites is Mommy Snacks http://mommysnacks.net/ but there are more out there. (OK so your like this is too much! Its really not. Open a new window and look at her site.)
6. Ok so your getting the idea but you don't have that insert! Relax your just gettting started you can start now and being for the week of what you do have or you can go a little over the top and order whole inserts from old issues! Yeah crazy I know. Where? Coupons & Things by Dede http://www.couponsthingsbydede.com/?Click=2225. Missing a coupon or use an item more than other you can also order coupons for that item here!
7. So why would I pay to order a coupon to save 30 cents? Your not saving 30 cents.
You have begun 2 things what we in the coupon world call stockpiling! And your holding out to double that coupon with a matching printable coupon and a sale! That coupon ends up making the item nearly free or cheaper than you can imagine! And if you can do that for many items, ah yes your having a light bulb moment!
8. When you first start doing this you will get overwhelmed but when you go to check out hoping your not upsetting the people behind you and the check out guy with your many coupons and the 100 total drops to $68.42. You will be so happy you may freak out right there and scare the heck out of the haters behind you! And after a while you enjoy the envy of those behind you mocking your coupons. When you see their and the check out boys jaw drop!
9. You will have to check back more often for more on this because I have 4 kids and dinner is almost done.
10. GET BUSY~~