Extreme Couponing : Day One

So over the course of the past week I've made the decision to attempt to extreme coupon. I've read a few ladies' blogs/posts/sites to do research & until I came across one in particular, NONE of it made sense. So many of them only show you the coupons and not how to organize the chaos that is coupon mountain.

I used to put my coupons in a little folding organizer with 6/7 tabs. I'd forget to look at them and usually let them expire before I ever had the chance to use them. This weekend I got a 1" 3-ring binder with about 30 baseball card sleeves. I clipped all of my coupons before I sorted them into departments. Then I stuffed them into Their individual pockets. If I had multiples of one item, I put them in together. I did all of my clipping, sorting and stuffing this morning in about 35-45 minutes while my daughter napped. I haven't read up on any store policies for couponing YET! I just decided that with us building within the next year or so I couldn't afford to pay full price for groceries anymore. I PLAN to tighten our grocery budget even more over the next few months.

Anyhow, today I made 2 grocery trips. I went to food lion first, used very few coupons due to sibling rivalry in the cop car buggy. However my second trip, to Bi-Lo, was much more productive. I was able to turn a $106 grocery trip into a $48 grocery bill. I had a $10 off $50 purchase coupon, along with several catalina coupons (store print outs), and a few manufacturer coupons. Saving $58 at the end.

Also to any mommies who are okay with freebies & getting email coupons:

*Visit the websites of any companies you use (ex: Kraft, P & G, Gerber) and sign up for coupons.
*Get any rewards cards at any stores you frequent
*My personal favorite savers are Disney Movie Club & Disney Movie Rewards.  I have absolute no issues with deep discounts & freebies from the Rewards club.  We've gotten our 15th free DVD this past month and have gotten 2 free DVDs from referring a friend to the Movie Club.
*Publix Paws & Publix Baby Club also send great coupon for all babies (furry or not) and send birthday cards and simple gifts to your children.
*I'll update anymore i become aware of, those are just off the top of my head.

I just wanted to share this amazing new hobby with my friends & loved ones and outline just a few starter tips since I've had a few ask how I have done it =)