Earlier this week, I watched Extreme Couponing for the first time. I knew that people were saving big using coupons, but I had no idea that they were walking away with carts and carts of merchandise for free, or even getting all of their items for free and then getting money back from the store. Of course there were things that I noticed about the show that helped me to understand that there are drawbacks to the whole coupon thing, such as the types of foods and items that a person can find coupons for and the time that extreme couponers must invest in order to pull off their amazing feats.
Even with those couple of drawbacks that I could see, I am interested in giving this coupon thing a try. Money is tight in our house, and every penny that can be saved helps. Before I started looking up how to get started with couponing, I decided to make a few basic ground rules for myself to follow during my initial foray into the world of couponing. Rule number one is that I will not stray from the standards that I currently apply to my grocery shopping regarding nutrition. We do not buy anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, and I also do not give my almost two year old son anything that contains more than a couple of grams of sugar. Rule number two is that I will not let couponing take me away from my top priorities, which include my family and my two home-based businesses. With these guidelines in place, I am excited to learn about how to get started with couponing.
I looked for some information about couponing for beginners. The first bit of advice that I saw is to make a list of what stores are in my area, and what their coupon policies are. I’ll have to go out and see what the coupon policies are, but there are only four kinds of grocery stores close enough to shop at regularly – Shaws, Price Chopper, Hannaford, and a couple of CoOp’s (which I adore but they can be pricey). I am a little sad about that, as it seems that people in other places have many, many stores to pick from. For example, my parents in Massachusetts have at least ten different stores within fairly easy reach including a Wegmans, which I visited yesterday. That said, I would not want to live anywhere else in the world no matter how many grocery stores they have. I also read that non-grocery stores like Dollar General sometimes take coupons, and we have a Dollar General in town so I will have to look into their policy too.
I’m clearly just getting started here, and I encourage you to chip in with your couponing words of wisdom or just follow along as I continue my adventures into the world of couponing.
Photo by jusben on morguefile.com.