Couponing: The Lists

First of all, the winner is (drum roll, please)....Mrs. G! My nephew did the honors of drawing the winner from a bowl as Zachary looks on.

It was pretty funny when I explained what this was all about.
Nephew: (looking in the bowl) There's only 4. What was the prize?
Me: (showing him the prize) A coupon organizer!! Isn't it cute??
Nephew: (glancing at Gary) Ummm...yeah.
Me: Maybe I should get a better prize for next time.
Nephew: That would be good.

So maybe I will get a better prize for next time.

Mrs. G - I will be contacting you to get your address so I can mail you your prize. Thank you for reading my blog. :-)

Mrs. G is actually someone who I went to high school with. We were in band together. Isn't that cool?? (yes, I am a dork, hee hee)

Ok, based on the comments I have gotten maybe I should have posted this lesson first. I really didn't want to overwhelm everyone at first. The thing is, this whole process is a tad overwhelming until you get the hang of it. My goal was to start with the whole list thing in a couple of weeks so you could have about a months worth of coupons to refer to.

There is a whole database out there of coupons and sales. The stores do base their sales on the coupons that are out. What we want to do is catch an item on sale with a coupon. For example, a few weeks ago Softsoap was on sale at my Albertson's for $1. I had a .33 cent coupon that was tripled. I got that Softsoap for.01! Plus, since I had 6 coupons I got 6 Softsoaps (by doing 2 different transactions since they will only double 3 coupons per transaction). I'll let those goosebumps I know you have settle a bit before going on. So instead of spending the usual $2 every time you need it or however much it usually is, I spent.06 right now and I am stocked up for awhile. Some stores like Target, Walgreens, or CVS even have store coupons you can stack with Sunday coupons for even more savings. The thing is the Sunday coupon may have come out months ago and who can remember when it was or where we put it. This where The List comes in. These lists do cost money (with the exception of The Coupon Mom) to receive, but they will more than pay for themselves. The List tells you in a chart what is on sale, where you can find the coupon (1/1 RP = January 1 Red Plum coupon packet) and how much you will pay for it. These are the sites that have "The List"

The Grocery Game - this site has the option of choosing which stores you want to pay for. You can also get a free trial, which is great for you who are just wanting to try things out. I pay for Walgreens, CVS, Albertson's, and Walmart. This is the site that has all the store sales listed in the Walmart list so you can use it to price match.

The Coupon Mom - Like I said this site is free and I just learned about it. To get a free membership you have to click through some pages with offers on them, but just keep skipping and you will get to finally sign up for free. It has a lot of good info on it. It has a coupon database that you can search for a sale item and it will tell you the week and packet the coupon was in. Priceless!! I use my other lists less and less now that I have the concept down and I look at the ads myself. and go search here. This is also where I found the free ebook that had a lot about the concept of couponing. Required reading for anyone who wants to seriously do this. It is not long and hold vital info. You can read it on Adobe Reader from this site.

Groceries Dirt Cheap - This is a local site for the Dallas/Fort Worth area. One thing this site does have is a free Wal-greens list. It even tells you how to read the list. This is a great place to start getting familiar with The List and the look of it.

Go explore these list sites. Find one that may work for you. Ask any questions you may have. I will post another couponing lesson on Tuesday on how I use these lists to shop.