Couponing 101: Why Should I Coupon?

 I’m going to start a series of posts to help people who are new to couponing. If you have already been couponing for a while then you can just use this as a refresher. To start with let’s discuss my thoughts on why I coupon. Let me make one thing clear, I do not do extreme couponing. I do what I call realistic couponing. I buy enough to last my family through the sales cycles ( I’ll get more into sales cycles later). If I am able I will buy a couple extra items to donate to my local food bank but you will never see me clear a shelf of products in the grocery store.

I coupon to save my family money by using coupons on the things we need so that we are able to buy things we really want, like vacations or new tech gadgets. I actually started couponing after I graduated college. I was able to save up for a down payment on my very first home while I also had to pay off my student loans (I’m still paying on them by the way). It would have taken me a lot longer to save if I hadn’t discovered couponing.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me they think it’s great that I’m able to do this but they just don’t have the time to coupon. I personally don’t think that couponing is very time consuming. You can put as much or as little time into it and still save money. If you just want to spend 10 min a day clipping or sorting your coupons that’s fine. You will at least be saving some money even if it is $5 ( that’s a Starbucks latte!) I clip and organize my coupons every Sunday so that they don’t pile up. It usually takes about an hour but I do it while I am catching up on my favorite t.v. shows.

So, what will be your motivation for using coupons? Do you want to save for a new car, pay off some bills, or just have enough for your daily Starbucks fix? Whatever your reason I hope my couponing tutorials will help. In the next series post I will show you all the different places you can find those wonderful coupons 😉