Getting Started

Trying to get this whole blog thing set up. I am going to start with what YOU need to get started . If you do not spend a little money up front and get yourself organized you will not be successful at this. You will need to purchase the following items:

3 of 4 inch binder (I started with a 3 inch a few months ago but am now in a 4 inch)
3 packages of 8 tab dividers (24 dividers total...I use the ones with pockets)
50 - 75 trading card sheet protectors. (baseball card holders)

Here is the list of labels that I use. You may want to tweak them a little bit but this works for me.

Breads, Pastas, and Cereals
Canned
Cleaning
Condiments
Dairy
Deodorant
Dessert
Drinks
Feminine
Fresh, Deli and Produce
Frozen
Hair Care
Laundry
Lotion
Makeup/Face Cleaning
Medicine
Office/School
Oral Care
Paper/Plastic/Batteries
Pets
Shaving
Snacks
Soap
Restaurants


The most important thing that I do is to make sure I buy 6 newspapers each week. Basically you need at least one paper to represent each person in your family. I just buy 2 extra so when items are extremely cheap or free I can get more. Wait until Sunday to buy your newspapers because you can buy the double packs for $2.50 vs. paying $2.00 for one paper. If you live in the Acworth area there is a person that sits in the Target parking lot on 41 on Saturday and Sunday that sells the papers for $1.00.

Now you are sitting at home with all your stuff complete and you need to figure out how you are going to have time to cut out all 6 newspapers right? Well let me just tell you, it's EASY and doesn't take any time at all! Let me share!

Go through each of your newspapers and pull out all the coupon inserts. Usually each week there are smartsource and red plum inserts. These are the ones you will see most often. Proctor and Gamble will throw some in there every now and then. Pull them all out and discard the paper. Stack all your smart source coupons together and all your red plum inserts together. After you have done this you just tear out each sheet in the smartsource insert. So you go through the first set and have all the pages torn out to where they are individual sheets. Then you take the 2nd smartsource insert and you tear out the first page and put it behind the first one you tore out.....tear out the second page and put it with the matching page from the first one...so on and so on. At the end you will have all 6 inserts together and each page will be together. So the front page will say smartsource on it and you will have 6 of those together. The second page may be coupons for Pillsbury stuff and you will have all 6 of those pages together. This is KEY! These pages are very thin and easy to cut. When you have all 6 pages together you just snip those coupons one time and you have all 6 coupons cut at one time! Cut out a few pages and then file your coupons under the divider that they go with. After you get the idea and try it you will see how easy it is and it will take you on average about an hour each Sunday (or whatever day you get around to it) to cut out all 6 papers and file them away.

Ok this is a lot of information. The last step after you have everything filed is to look regularly at southernsavers.com and couponmom.com. I look at couponmom.com each week and it shows you the coupon match ups to what is on sale that week. You click on the items that are a great deal and it will print out your shopping list. You take your list to your binder...match up your coupons....then head to the store!

I know this is probably really overwhelming. Just take baby steps. Get the binder set up...buy the papers....then take it from there. Comment here if you have questions or email me and I will do my best to help you!