The easiest place to cut down in a household budget, when a family just can’t find anywhere else to cut, is the grocery budget. You may not feel any wiggle room, but if you aren’t shopping with coupons I can almost guarantee there is some room. You just have to be willing to invest the time and effort. This will help you to Be a New Shopper in the New Year. One of the most important things for you to know is where to get your coupons. Obviously you can get them in your Sunday newspaper, but where else? Here is a rundown of every resource for coupons I can possibly find. There are probably more, which is where you come in. Leave comments! Tell me what I’m forgetting and help newcomers. I’m going to list the places to go to get coupons; I will explain the “lingo” in another post so you’ll know what the different types of coupons are.

Paper coupon resources:

• Sunday newspaper- This is obvious, however there are a couple of things you should watch for when getting your Sunday newspaper. First, get the Sunday paper for the largest city in your area that you can get. For me, I have a choice between The Birmingham News and The Huntsville Times. I can get The Huntsville Times more readily because I live closer and it’s sold more places. There’s almost never any difference in coupons, and it’s $.50 cheaper so that’s what I buy most of the time. For weekends that there is going to be a very large amount of coupons, I split up my purchases and buy a couple of each. This is especially true if there’s going to be a hot, free product coupon in the paper. I use Sunday Coupon Preview to find out that information. Try to buy your newspaper in a store, not a box, so you can ensure that your inserts are actually in the paper. Just do it, and trust me because I’ve wasted at least $20 this way. It stinks. You may actually want to buy 1 of each large paper if you have more than 1 big city paper to choose from, and then decide from there which city you will continue to purchase. If that doesn’t make sense, comment and I’ll try to explain better! You may also find newspapers at Dollar Tree, but again make sure that they have good coupons in them. Our DT sells them for The Gadsden Times, but the coupons for that city are almost never as good. However, if there’s a “free product” coupon in there, and it’s actually in that paper, I will buy another couple of papers if it is an item I really want (like those Glade soy candles from awhile ago). Also, buy extra papers for awhile, especially in your earliest couponing months. You will want to get more than 1 of any given freebie so that you can develop a stockpile. Some say that you should get 1 newspaper for every person in your home, which is a decent rule for when you’re established, but I’d say to pick up 4-8 newspapers in your beginning few months so that you can quickly establish a stockpile of items you use and coupons for later use. I did this. If you have BOGO sales, 4 papers will ensure that you get (technically) 2 deals since you’re buying one and getting one free. If that sounds excessive, and you don’t have time, buy 2 papers so you can get 1 extra item to put up for later use. We’ll talk about stockpiling in a day or two; basically, get enough newspapers to buy enough of an item to last you until it gets to that rock bottom price (from your price book) again. It takes 6-8 weeks for an item to go on sale. Your friends and extended family will, I’m sure, be more than happy to take extra items you have on hand. Food pantries are ALWAYS in need!
• Friends and family- Remember those people with a coupon phobia? Ask for their coupons. You may have enough friends and family who donate their inserts to you that there’s no need for you to buy multiple newspapers. This is ideal. Trade with them- tell them you’ll get them a free tube of toothpaste or a bottle of shampoo with their inserts if they will give them to you; chances are if they were going to throw them away anyway it won’t be a problem!
• Free store publications- Walgreens is a great example of a place to go to get coupons; they always have at least their monthly booklet with store coupons as well as their Diabetes & You publication (free by the pharmacy) with manufacturer and store coupons in it. Usually there’s 1-2 more coupon booklets, at least, available. Other stores like Publix have booklets all the time with a mix of manufacturer and store coupons (that can be stacked..more on that later). Never go into a store without scanning it for coupons again. Repeat that over and over until it’s stuck in your head. Gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores..they are a coupon treasure trove.
• Store Shelves- The little flashing red machines on store shelves that spit out coupons are your friend. Take the 2 that spit out, then walk away for 90 seconds. Go back and take 2 more. Those coupons are often the same that are found in the newspapers, but can be of a different or higher value. You should always try to get 4 of those coupons; more is good but please don’t empty the machine. Be a conscious couponer. You’ll see pads of coupons throughout stores, too, and the same rule applies. Take 4-6 of each, and that will be plenty for you to stockpile the items. Take the coupons even if it’s something you don’t use- I’ll explain that later. Look for items that you are already going to purchase that have coupons on the packages. This is an obvious thing, but some packages are specially marked with coupons inside the packages; if you’re already buying that item, buy those! It’s kind of like a child and their cereal box toys. Now, you’re an adult and you get the coupons in the box. Keep an eye out for special displays all over your stores with coupons on them, too.
• Contacting the manufacturer- If you love, hate, or have never tried a product, contact the manufacturer. Tell them why you have those feelings, or how much you want to try their products. Chances are they will send you a few coupons to try their products at a greatly reduced price, if not free. I did this last year quite a bit, and was rewarded for my time with a ton of free item coupons and high value coupons for things we use daily. Start with the products in your home. Call or e-mail each of the manufacturers and see what happens; your mail box will fill up!
• Sign up for every manufacturer’s mailing list, both e-mail and regular mail because companies reward their loyal customers with savings not offered to others.
• Sign up for programs like Vocal Point. Some programs are developed simply for word of mouth advertising, and will supply consumers with a product for free and/or high value coupons so you can try the product and spread the word about it.
• Doctor’s offices and pharmacy counters- Look for special discounts on OTC medications as well as prescription meds for those of you without adequate insurance. Ask your doctor for coupons or discount cards (if not samples) for prescription drugs. Preferably samples, as I actually had to ask for yesterday at my doctor’s appointment. Try to realize what meds your insurance won’t cover, such as brand name antibiotics, and if there’s no generic available ask for samples or coupons. Drug reps spend a ton of time getting doctors to write Rx’s for their drugs, so chances are they left the Dr. wtih something to help you.
• Magazines- Make sure that you scan every single magazine that comes into your home for coupons. You’d be surprised at what you can find. Women’s magazines are filled with great coupons each month, and occasionally you’ll find a coupon for free items. The best magazine for a coupon resource is All You, and I’ve never seen it with less than $30 worth of coupons that you can actually USE each month. It’s $2.44 at Walmart, but if you visit my special fund raiser you can get 24 issues for only $20. That’s only $.83 per issue and you can make that up in just 2-3 coupons per issue. I promise it’s an investment, not an expense, because it pays for itself times four! The fund raiser goes to help my local elementary school’s 2nd grade, who is using the money for instructional supplies since their funding was cut this year due to pro-ration. My mom is a teacher there, and we all really appreciate any orders. Obviously, please don’t buy anything you don’t need. I started this fund raiser in order to offer my readers this step discount on All You as well as to help my mom’s school. You can also get renewals on your current magazines at deep discounts as well.

I’m sure there are more resources for paper coupons; I’ll add them as I think of them or as you leave comments (I will give you credit-just help my poor memory out!).

Printable Coupons are another great way to get valuable manufacturer’s coupons. Often, a manufacturer will release a coupon that’s a much higher value than those you will find elsewhere. There are dozens of printable coupon resources, so I can’t list them all, but I can list the best of the best. The ones I use are the ones I’ve researched and trust and have never had any problems with.

• Coupons.com- Updated regularly, usually a couple of times per month, this is one of the most reliable sources for printable coupons. You can almost always print 2 of each coupon by using your browser’s back button. The coupons you get will depend on your zip code; you won’t always get the higher value coupons if you live in a smaller area of the country. It’s regional just like a Sunday newspaper; sometimes that stinks, sometimes it works to your benefit. You can print these from my side bar or from the website, or you can also print them from your MyPoints account. Do this and you will get points for each coupon you print and redeem that you can use to buy valuable gift cards.
• RedPlum.com- Red Plum is another great printable coupon resource. There are often many exclusive to Red Plum coupons for items that you don’t normally have coupons for. Right now, they have many coupons for wine! You should print those now for holiday celebrations. You can also print those from MyPoints.com to redeem for points toward gift cards.
• Smart Source- This is the 3rd site I use for printable coupons, but it can be temperamental. If you can’t print the coupons from one browser, try another. I have better luck using Safari and Sea Monkey on this site. Again, go to MyPoints.com to print these for points!
• Cool Savings- Register here for access to more savings and printable coupons; this process takes a few minutes, so be prepared to go through the junk to get to the jewels.
• Coupon Surfer is a portal to help you locate and print coupons. There are a lot of fun things about this site!
• Coupons Inc.- This is the list of almost every printable coupon available. At the bottom of the page there is a huge list of printable coupons that won’t be found on the top 4 sites. These are usually from manufacturer’s websites.
• Health e Savers- This site will allow you to print out organic and health related coupons. I’m not familiar with many of the products since they aren’t sold near me, but a few of them are really great that I can tell.
• Delicious Living- This site has a few organic/natural product coupons for your enjoyment. Again, I’m not familiar with the products but those of you who shop mostly organic probably are.
• Mambo Sprouts- This site offers printable coupons as well as you can request a coupon booklet for organic products. I get mail form Mambo Sprouts quite often, and I always enjoy it. The coupons are for nationally-known brands that aren’t always native to the health food stores we don’t have in this area.

I hope this list has been beneficial to some of you who aren’t couponers yet. I realize that I skipped over e-coupons, and that’s because they will be their own separate post. There’s just too much to add to this already-lenghty post that I just couldn’t see anyone sticking around long enough to read it all the way through I’m hoping some of you are still here now! E-coupons deserve their own post, if nothing but for the fact that there’s so much controversy around using e-coupons in conjunction with paper coupons. I have to research some stuff; we don’t have anywhere near me to use e-coupons and I don’t want to steer you wrong.

I hope you’re all familiar with where to get coupons. Please let me know if I missed anything! I’l gladly check it out and amend my list if it fits.