Where to start?

Welcome to the world of never having to pay retail price for anything again!  No, seriously. Once you make the commitment to coupon, I promise you will never go back. 

What  a lot of people don't realize is that there is coupons for everything these days. Toiletries, food, clothes, car maintenance, hotels..and the list is endless.  Honestly, there is no reason why people are paying retail or full price for ANYTHING anymore with everything manufacturers send out.  The trick is acquiring these coupons. 

Before I start rambling on about my minor kind of major obsession, I will let you know that couponing is somewhat time consuming. I'm not talking like thirty hours a week, that's just insane! Maybe five to ten at most depending on how you choose to coupon. There are so many websites and Facebook pages that post about coupon match ups it's not even funny. These pages will be your life line!  I've used my litter, Houston coupon moms, and Houston coupon Lovurs to aid me on Facebook. They are all constantly posting coupon match ups, deal scenarios and what's coming out this week in the inserts. I use southernsavers.com as a coupon database to look up what items have coupons, it saves you a TON of time.  There's also a new website out called texassmartbuys.com that matches the items on sale to the coupon for maximum savings. It's really easy to use, I highly recommend it. 

So if you're still reading, obviously minor time consumption isn't an issue. Yay!  First step in couponing....ready?  Get a Sunday newspaper!!  You can find newspapers in gas stations and a lot of grocery stores.  In these newspapers, there are coupon inserts which is the equivalent of money in your hands. There are three coupon inserts that show up in the Sunday paper. Sometimes all three are in a paper one weekend and the next there's one, so if your paper doesn't have three one weekend..it's ok.  

First there's proctor and gamble (PG). PG comes out once a month and they have some valuable coupons for items that every household uses that you will mostly get dirt cheap or free.  Then there's smart source (SS), it's an every week insert. And then red plum (RP).  All of these inserts are valuable. You can find these inserts in Houston Chronicle (HC), La Voz (LV), and I've recently found them in Semana.  There is a downfall to getting a LV versus a HC and that is the type of coupons. Unfortunately LV doesn't carry a lot of the good coupons everyone needs when sales come out, but they still have coupons and that's important. 

So now you may be asking, "Well how many papers do I need?"  It's recommended that for every person in your home, you buy a newspaper. If you're just starting, one will work or two. Don't go buy a million papers at first because there is a high chance you will get frustrated or feel confused and then you'll just be angry that you blew tons of money on something you have no use for.  I have four papers delivered to my door every Sunday even though I provide for nine to eleven people depending on the day. I get only four because well, papers are kind of expensive and I don't like spending money hence this blog..  I get a lot of my inserts from papers I find. Last week I managed to get my hands on ninety papers just from my neighborhood. 

    See? Pretty. :)

These papers have a tendency to sit on the sidewalk for a while because no one claims them.  Again, most people have no idea that there are coupons in here.  Forshame!  

Once you acquire the inserts, you might have the itch to get cut happy.  Dont!!  Why you ask?  Well, it's simple. Do you really want to spend your entire weekend cutting coupons and then having to put them away and hope you remember how you organized them?  I know that's not how I spend my weekends. Instead of clipping, file it away!  The most important part of couponing is being organized.  So people find it easier to clip, while i personally cant stand the thought of clipping so many coupons especially since I get fourth plus inserts a week. When you get a paper, write the date on the front and put it away. That's it. So where do you find the date?  Either the newspaper it came out in will have it on the front or to be on the safe side you can check on the spine of the insert. The print is really tiny and sometimes hard to read but it's there!

That's pretty much all there is to starting couponing.  I promise this isn't it, but I feel as though this is enough for you to take in for now!  Especially since there's actually more to learn. Your brain may need a break. :D