I feel like Im doing this totally wrong!

[LearningToSaveFl]

Can someone please explain to me the exact process of how they match up coupons with sales and so on. This is what I did and I am thinking there has to be a better way.

Ok, so tonight after my daughter went to bed and I could think straight I dove into the Sunday papers I got today ready to save some $! I cut out the manufacturer coupons I thought I would use. I cut some other things only bc I figured if they were super cheap I would get them but otherwise I dont want to just buy anything.

So, after I got the coupons I thought I would use I figured I would start looking through the sales ads for target, publix, walgreens etc trying to find products on sale that matched up with the man. coupons I cut out. After about an hr and a half after I began I had cut the man. coupons out and looked through the walgreens sales ad only and thought I have to be doing this wrong. Am I? Is this how everyone does it? If so I dont know if this is for me lol.

So, with all that being said I would like to know what is your plan of attack? How do you find what man. coupon matches a sale product and then matches maybe a store coupon?

Thanks so much for all your help so far!

[wookin]

No worries, you're not doing this totally wrong. There is no right or wrong way just the way that works best for you. Here is what I do.

I search the store forums that I shop at. For instance CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, Kroger and Publix. Most of the forums already have the coupon matchups done for me. Then I decide what I want or need to buy and clip those coupons to match the sale. Then I put the clipped coupons in my coupon organizer. I put store names on the dividers. So my CVS run has just the coupons that I want to use this week and so on. I do this every week so when my little organizer is empty, I know I'm done shopping until next week.

Don't stress yourself out. Master one store at a time. It gets overwhelming to start out and shop too many places at first. Baby steps. It gets easier the longer you do it. Oh and don't worry if you miss a sale, there will be another one around the corner. Have fun with it and watch your stockpile grow.

[ELLE-TN]

listen to Wookin!

since it's all new to you, follow the matchups that are readily available here in the store forums.

start slow!

[isis]

I never do all the deals. First I look through the ad and circle all the things I'm interested in. Do I have matching coupons? If I do, I want to get things as close to free as possible. So take Walgreens...this week is slow for me. The only thing I plan on getting is the Electrosal/Finish tabs. They're 3.49 and I got a $2.25 coupon in todays insert. Since I've been shopping at Wags, I already have in my coupon file a $1 RR to spend from a previous deal. So I'll add a filler, probably the .19 mechanical pencils.
So 3.49 + .19 = 3.68. Less $2.25 manf q & $1 RR = .43 + tax and get a $1 RR in return.
Then I can use that $1RR on next week's deal (that's called Rolling)

Plenty of members have been doing this for years and have a huge arsenal of coupons on standby. When you're just starting out, you won't have all the coupons you need for every deal. If you haven't already, I would suggest joining the Trader In Training (TNT) group to get your feet wet with trading. Get a wish list together of the products you use. (click my General WL link below to get an idea) Find traders who are offering potlucks, (Lori63 sends very nice ones!!) you will be amazed at the variety of coupons floating around!

It takes time to get the hang of it. Start slow & do small transactions. In no time, it will be second nature.

[empyo]

Can someone please explain to me the exact process of how they match up coupons with sales and so on. This is what I did and I am thinking there has to be a better way.

Ok, so tonight after my daughter went to bed and I could think straight I dove into the Sunday papers I got today ready to save some $! I cut out the manufacturer coupons I thought I would use. I cut some other things only bc I figured if they were super cheap I would get them but otherwise I dont want to just buy anything.

So, after I got the coupons I thought I would use I figured I would start looking through the sales ads for target, publix, walgreens etc trying to find products on sale that matched up with the man. coupons I cut out. After about an hr and a half after I began I had cut the man. coupons out and looked through the walgreens sales ad only and thought I have to be doing this wrong. Am I? Is this how everyone does it? If so I dont know if this is for me lol.

So, with all that being said I would like to know what is your plan of attack? How do you find what man. coupon matches a sale product and then matches maybe a store coupon?

Thanks so much for all your help so far!

Apart from the daughter thing.. I did the same thing today. Weird and honestly... I'm just as confused as you are. This may take some time..

[wrestlegirl]

Don't stress yourself out. Master one store at a time. It gets overwhelming to start out and shop too many places at first. Baby steps.

This x1,000,000!

One store at a time. You will drive yourself insane if you try to learn every grocery store and every drug store in a week. It won't work, you'll wind up with frustration and anger, and you may decide coupons aren't worth it.

They're worth it. They're very worth it. But this is like learning to ride a bike or drive a car or design a bridge; start from the beginning, learn the basics first, and take one (baby!) step at a time.

I know you're itching to dive in headfirst and get all sorts of free stuff. I promise you, the free stuff will keep coming, so if you miss some this time around you'll get it again later.

Start with one store. When I started about 4 months ago, our grocery bills were out of control so I learned my closest local grocery store first. I didn't use a single coupon at a drug store or another grocery store until combining sale + coupon + Catalina to cut our grocery bills by at least 50% came naturally. I just took it week by week; some dirt-cheap cheese at first, then some free ketchup, then coffee at rock-bottom prices, then a pile of free pasta. All the sudden we had a few hundred extra bucks in the bank account that were hadn't spent on groceries and the crazy couponing thing started to make sense.

Once I got the hang of the grocery store (it took a month!!), I took on one drug store. My first trip to Rite Aid was pretty sad by my current standards. It cost me like $18 and I got six boxes of cereal and something else inconsequential that I can't even remember right now. It was disheartening because I wanted that stuff for free - but I got some reward dollars back and I thought I was on to something.
Then a week or so later I tried a simple deal at CVS. I walked out with a razor, some shave foam, and some Mentos gum for $5.45 and I got a $5 ECB back. It clicked. Once I saw a simple deal done with my own eyes, it all made sense. It's just like the grocery store, only way more free stuff is involved.
I went to Rite Aid and managed to get some body wash, deodorant, and Ziploc bags for just the cost of tax and I've been a loyal "RAIDer" ever since.

Once your brain gets used to taking all the variables into account when you look at a sale ad, it really becomes like second nature. I promise. It just takes some time to learn how to do it.

Start small, with one store, and concentrate on items that you use a lot. Pasta fan? Gather pasta coupons and watch your grocery store for a good sale so you can use those coupons to get pasta for pennies. Need toothpaste? Gather toothpaste coupons and wait about 5 minutes for it to be free at a drug store (you will get overrun with toothpaste!).

One thing that's helped me tremendously is that I don't clip coupons. Not right away, at least. I file the whole inserts by date. When a new sale ad for my grocery store comes up, I look it over and determine what I'd like to buy. I then use the Coupon Database here (link up top) to see if there are any insert coupons to go with that item. If there are, I pull my inserts, clip the coupons, and put the coupons in my grocery envelope. Once my Qs are clipped, I determine if there are Catalinas involved and if I want to separate my trip into different transactions to "roll" the Catalinas into additional deals. If so, I paperclip each transaction's coupons into separate bundles. All the while I keep a running "shopping list" on a little spreadsheet I have with the item, quantity, Q description, Q amount, and any Catalinas/rewards back to come up with my final out of pocket cost. This way I can see at a glance what my spending is likely to be and can plan accordingly.
When my shopping is done, I enter the shelf price, sale & coupon amount, and rewards/rebates earned as a line item in the spreadsheet which tracks how much I'm actually saving. If I spend $40 at the grocery store but I made $10 at a drug store, I can see at a glance how well I'm doing for the month. This helps tremendously - to be able to see the numbers showing how much you've saved over time.

The first time you walk out of a store having only paid tax for something - and it will happen, I promise! - that switch in your brain will start to flip and you'll understand intuitively how those coupons match up to sales.

[Whispered]

TAke deep breaths, and as wookin and others ar, have said.. go slowly..
give yourself a year say.. so that takes the pressure off.

Pick either walgreens or cvs, and start at one of those 2 stores.
(Personally, I like Cvs best)

Choose 2 grocery stores,.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another deep breath, do you know what type of notebook, you want to use for your Q's? Do you like large binders, or small? I got mine as a small photo album book, at 99 cents store, which works perfectly, for me... but might not, for someone else.. (there are threads on this).

This is a loooong learning process..think of it as if, learning the bible, lol, theres always something new to learn! Or another new state~

Find out what the deals are, for each wk, mark your Q organizer, w/ the various stores, and foods , etc..

Just go slow, do a lot of reading.. ohh today was fun, Cvs, gave me, a
1.50 in FREE money!!! just for scanning my card!! Love that!

I'm reassesing some of my own systems.. not the above, but other parts, i'm tuning up and tweeking.. just don't get frustrated, just be prepared to put the time, in and you'll get the hundreds of dollars back and thousands and more~
and feel free to ask ?'s~

[aimeebee]

I'm not new at this and it did take some time for me to figure this out...but, after a while I found it worked better for me if I do things the opposite of the way you did them. I look at the ads first, find out what is on sale that I need and what the loss leaders are and then I look for the coupons for those items in the database, the inserts, online etc.

[CW&M Mom]

Walgreens can be obscenely confusing. If your gonna try WAGS I would suggest going and only getting the electrasol. so you can only purchase one box at a time. ONe box...one coupon...and the RR should spit out.

This will give you darn cheap dishwasher detergent (money maker (MM) after the register reward).

Now you cannot use that register reward to purchase more electrasol...it won't spit out a register reward if you try.

I would then suggest either saving those register rewards for another product that will produce an RR before it expires...or using them on something you need like toilet paper...to get your OOP (out of pocket) down.

If you try to do a bunch of different scenario's at WAGS you'll probably get very overwhelmed. start tiny.

[MrsPinecone]

Question about WAGS-- will it only spit out one RR if you buy multiple Electrasol in one tx? I've never been close enough to a WAGS to do deals there.