My Couponing tips: Effective, not Extreme

Coupons have become a way of life for me.  No, I'm not an extreme couponer by any means, but it has radically changed how I do the grocery shopping for my family.
Whereas it would take 30 minutes to check my pantry, plan my meals, and make my list, now takes me about 2 days of preparation, and hopefully I will get faster and faster as I get my method down.  I don't strive to be extreme, which works just fine for me and my family.  Of course, when it comes to saving money, I always want to do better.

Here are my basics on saving money at the grocery store with coupons, and without.

1.  Plan Plan Plan.  I cannot stress enough how important this is.  With no plan you have no direction. That is when failure officially starts.  I don't care how good your memory is.
a.  Start with keeping an ongoing grocery list of all the things you need as you use them up or run out.  I have a whiteboard next to my pantry that as soon as I use something up, I write it down.  This saves me a lot of time when planning my trip.
b.  Plan your meals.  Check your appointments for the week, and make a menu for each day of the week through the next time you know you can go shopping.  Include lunches, (where needed), and even plan out a couple of special snacks, and desserts.  I used to shop for just a week's worth of groceries, which I think most people do, but have changed to shopping for two week's worth.  This has worked out to saving me about $200-300 per month as 1.) I can take better advantage of the sales and coupons that are for multiple items.  2.)  Keep me out of the grocery store more, so that I am not impulse buying, risking spending more money on things we didn't really need. and 3. it makes me make better use of everything in my pantry, knowing that I will NOT go until the two weeks are up, rather than running to the store for a quick this or that because I was in the mood for it.

2.  Scan the ads.  Before you plan your meals, if you are really looking to save the most money, make your menu based off what's on sale.  Dillon's comes out with their sale items every Tuesday.  If you don't get the ad delivered to your home, you can go to their website to see the current sale ad.  I start with the meats, and build my meals from there.  This is a big part of getting the multiple item savings and such.  I just started using a new website called Food on the Table.  This site actually pulls all the ads for stores you select, into one place, and then matches recipes according to the items that are on sale.  This is a great and fast way to menu plan since it's all in one place. Another perk is you can add your own favorite recipes to the site so that when those ingredients go on sale it will match it up for you.  Check them out here.

3.  Clip and load.  I do majority of my coupons off the internet.  See some of my favorite sites here.
Make sure you use your loyalty cards to their full advantage linking them up with sites like shortcuts.com, cellfire, and SavingStar.  I love the fact that all I have to do is load them to my card, hand it to the cashier, which I have to do anyway, and they get automatically taken off. If you can't remember what is on your card, you can print off lists of the items you've loaded.  Sometimes I take that with me, in case I see a good deal I missed in planning, to see if I can get an additional savings on it.  Do check your favorite stores policy on coupons.  Some are now blocking your ability to use digital and paper together, or multiple on one item.
I also scan the coupon sites frequently between shopping trips looking for any great savings on items I would buy for my family.  I just print them or load them as I find them.  This is better than trying to remember where you saw them a week later.

4.  Organize.  So my fellow shopping companions don't wear out on me, I pull all the coupons out that I know I will be using and place them in the front of my coupon organizer.  Between going to the store, as I find coupons I would use I print them off, cut them out, and then organize them into several categories in my organizer.  I have a section for each store I go to (store specific coupons), a section for "manufacturer's coupons" (coupons I could use at any store), and restaurant coupons, and entertainment coupons. I try to keep this on me or in my vehicle when I'm out and about, just in case, but usually I forget or it's just to heavy to lug in my bag with everything else. (This is another important reason for planning.)

5.  Take it as a Mom getaway.  Okay I know this doesn't sound fair, or even appealing, but look at the grocery trip as a chance to get away from the family/kids for a bit.  If you go by yourself, you can take your time, carefully shopping your list, enjoying your coffee while strolling along humming to the overhead light hits from the 90's.  This doesn't always work out for me, but when shopping for two weeks worth, we usually need two carts, which means I need my husband. But I have figured out to send him with a list to the other end of the store, and I still get some shopping peace, and I get done in half the time.  Just make sure you trust him with all your deal planning.  ;)

Should you take the time to develop a system that works for you, and follow these tips, you should have success in staying in your grocery budget and saving money at the register.  You don't need to be extreme to play the game, just effective! Good luck!