Cutting Coupons, Cuts Costs... or as Matt says "Full Price is for Suckas" :)

Coupons and grocery ads have been a big help to me in saving money. I love when the grocery ads come out for the week... yes I know, I'm a dork. But really I do! It's fun to see how you will be able to save money the coming week. Grocery shopping can really be a game if you let it be.. especially if you match grocery ads w/ coupons! But let me not get ahead of myself...

Here's my coupon routine...

We get the Sunday paper and so Sunday evening (or another night that week) while we are winding down for the night I like to watch a little TV and cut coupons. I cut only the ones that I feel will be profitable. Then I file them in my coupon folder,
a small expandable file folder I found in the dollar section at Target! I labeled the dividers according to different sections of the grocery store: Produce, Meats, Pantry, Freezer, Toiletry and so on. The first section I labeled for current coupons I plan on using and the last section I left for restaurant coupons.
This takes all of about 30 minutes to do. It's nice to do this at a time when I'm not also trying to plan my menu or make my grocery list. This way my coupons are cut and I'm ready for whenever I do decide to plan my trip to the grocery store.

**I also try and make sure to go through my coupons that are already in my folder and discard the ones that have expired. This way I am sure that I won't try and use them.

On Tuesday/Wednesday the grocery store ads come out for week. (The ads at my local grocery stores run Wednesday through Tuesday, unless they are running a special BUT the sales at Target/Wal-Mart/etc run Sunday through Saturday.. just an FYI!)

When the ads come out I like to go through and circle the deals that I would like to check out. After I look through the ads, I like to go through my coupons and see if I have any that I would be able to combine with a deal. For instance, Target had cereal listed 2 for $4. I had 2 different coupons that said buy 1 box of cereal get $1 off (of this particular brand). I bought two boxes at Targets price for $4 and then used my manufacturer coupons to get an additional $1 off each box of cereal. Grand Total - $2 for 2 boxes of cereal!
I have come across deals like this quite often so just keep your eyes out! Moneysavingmom is a great site to check out for coupon/grocery store deal combinations!

None of this really takes all that long, just a few minutes here or there can save you money while at the store. Little by little your savings adds up and I'm realizing the longer that I do this the better I am at spotting deals and keeping even more money in my wallet.