Finding the Food Coupons You Need

There are two main places to find food coupons in order to save money off your grocery bill. The first is in the Sunday paper or small mailers. While this is a time-tested way to save money on food, it offers little variety and you must choose from the coupons that you receive each week. You also have to sort through them, clip, them, and find somewhere to store them. Plus, you have to go through them once in a while to throw away those that are expired. Some people have so many of these coupons that they spend an hour going through them to see what they need, before they leave for the grocery store. That is a lot of wasted time!

The second – better -- way is by printing free coupons from the Internet. You can get these coupons one of two ways: directly from the manufacturer’s website or from a reputable coupons website on the Internet. Getting ones directly from the manufacturer’s website is great because you know exactly what you will find there. However, there are usually only a few coupons and it would take a lot of time to go to every manufacturer's website to search for coupons. The best way is to go to reputable couponing websites and search through the variety of coupons that they offer.

How to Use Food Coupons to Save the Most Money

Try to always pair your food coupons with in-store deals and sales, especially on double or triple coupon days, in order to save the most money. This can be a little time consuming, but the amount of money you save in the end just may be worth the effort. Other suggestions --

1.Make a meal menu for the week and use it to make a list of the foods that you will need to buy.

2.Get your coupons (based on your food list) and your weekly ad mailers together. Make sure you have a stapler handy.

3.See what food items from the mailers and the coupons match up. Even if you don’t need them now, they may be cheap enough to justify buying right away.

4.Take all the coupons that you will need for each store and staple them to that store’s ad, then put them aside until double or triple coupon day.

5.Take the coupons to the stores that are running the specials on double or triple coupons days, if the store has them. Most weekly ads run for the full week, so you should be able to get ad bargains on these days.

Quick Couponing Tips

• Make sure your Internet coupons are legit, so that they don’t get rejected at a printable coupon friendly store.

• Get a coupon organizer to store your coupons in. Having them organized allows you to know when coupons expire and helps you find them easier before a trip to the store. It is also an easy way to take your coupons to the store with you.

• Plan your grocery list in advance, so that you will know which coupons to take and which to leave at home.

• As said, pair coupons with in-store deals for the best savings. See above for complete steps.

• Swap coupons with others in order to clear out some coupons you don’t need and get extras of ones that you do need, for free.

• Buy coupons from auction sites in order to stock up on ones that you use regularly, but can’t find for free.

That's it – happy couponing!