1. Decide how you want to organize your coupons. There are different ways such as the envelope method, the binder, and your own filing systems. To start off I would recommend the binder method which is buying a three ring 2" binder and a box of baseball card holders that fit into the binder. Also buy a package of page dividers.
2. For your first time buying Sunday newspapers I tell people to start small and work your way up in how many you buy at once. I did not follow my own advice and bought 10-12 at once. I was okay with doing that because I was eager. It took a while to work through, but now that I have the hang of buying that many it goes smoothly. So, for someone just starting I would say start with 3-5 papers.
* You can find coupons in other places, too, but to start off the newspaper is the easiest. Some other places to find coupons is the ALL YOU magazine, your mail box, weekly ads, store ads, in stores, online, facebook, and also contacting the company directly that you wish to get coupons from.
3. Clip your coupons, organize them into categories that you are comfortable with. I have household items, personal items, cold/freezer section, snacks, pet food, and non food items. Use the dividers to help you out.
4. Lastly to get the deals, take your weekly ads from the local store you want to start off with (choose one grocery and one drug store to begin with and when you feel better you can add as many stores as you want). From clipping my coupons and looking through my binder I remember what coupons I have, so as I'm searching the ads, I match the ads and coupons up. I pull the coupons I'm going to use, make a grocery list from the store ad, and put it all together in a zip lock bag. I also look up blogs to see some ad matches they may have already done for me :). Remember when deal searching and ad matching make sure you know your Coupon Lingo!
