{Couponing help anyone?? Part FOUR}

Welcome to Part FOUR of my couponing series!

If you're just joining us, this is my FIVE part coupon help series! Here are the topics, along with the first and second topics that has already been covered, just click on any of the previous segments to head directly to that post.

Part ONE: Coupon Lingo and More

Part TWO: Getting Started/Collecting Coupons

Part THREE: Coupon Organization and More

Part FOUR: Learn How To Navigate Coupons Sites/Blogs (covering in today's post)

Part FIVE: Wrapping It Up!

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PHEW! Was this information in this series a lot to take in or what?! Once you start putting all this awesome information into practice, it will become a little easier and a little less intimidating.

Now that you know the lingo, have your coupons, have chosen a method of organization, let's move on to the next and last step...learning how to navigate a couponing blog. And the couponing blog I will be using today is....YOU GUESSED IT...Fabulessly Frugal! It's the main site that I use to organize all of my coupons and shopping trips.

The great thing about the gals at Fab Fru is that they already have a video tutorial for learning how to navigate their blog!!! Keep in mind that they've updated a few things on their site since this video was made, so there will be a few things missing but you'll get the general idea from it. It's only a 9 minute video that will break down their site for you and hopefully all the things that I have gone over will start to make sense and fall into place a little more for you once you start watching it.



"Twice the Value (TTV)" coupons (is what they're known for at Albertson's), also knows as "Doubles" are sort of the equivalent of gold in the couponing world. Albertson's is known for offering them close to every other week and some stores like Safeway only offer doublers once or twice a year. The TTV coupons are actually what got my attention to want to start couponing more. What they are, are coupons that you can use to double the amount of any manufacturer's coupons of $1.00 or less. So instead of just getting a $1.00 off of the coffee creamer you've had your coupon for, when you double that coupon, you'll get $2.00 off that one item! Pretty freakin' awesome, huh?! 

Here are some tips that I have for everyone - - -

#1 - It takes some time to REALLY start seeing the FULL savings of couponing. How long does it take? Well, again that depends on you and what kind of a stockpile you want to build. I generally only have a stockpile that would feed my family of 3 for three months. I don't like to go more than that because then you start running into things expiring or going past their shelf date, which is not what anyone would want, since you all worked so hard to build the stockpile in the first place, right?!

Once you have a good stockpile going, THAT'S when you'll start to see the big savings of couponing. When you have a stockpile, you'll shop from it for your snacks, meals and when you need a few ingredients here and there to go with the items that you pulled from your stockpile, you'll see your grocery bill get lower and lower. You'll want to keep replenishing your stockpile, but establishing it is the "hard" part. When you build your stockpile and find yourself struggling to keep up with the expiration dates, DONATE! :-) If you know you won't get to certain items, donate them before it's too late so that someone else can benefit from them and it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside :-)

Here are a couple of videos on HOW to successfully stockpile:



#2 - Another important thing to keep in mind are the sale cycles. Every store has their own sale cycles and this video will tell you more about that:



#3 - Know and learn Coupon Ethics! Pretty please! I believe it is VERY important that we all continue to do couponing RIGHT and fight to educate those that abuse it, how to do it correctly. So, please do me a huge favor and take the time to read about Coupon Ethics :-)

#4 - Set a budget! Have some fun with the budget you created by participating in Fab Fru's 2012 Grocery Budget Challenge
**For my family of three, I have a budget of $250, which is actually pretty close to the average food budget for families of three.

Something to keep in mind when you set up your budget...what do you want to come out of that budget? For example, my $250 per month is for FOOD ITEMS ONLY. I know that when some set their budget, they include "anything they purchase from a grocery store" from cleaning products to cookware, etc. Just something to think about when you set up yours ;-) And if you go over your budget the first month, don't worry! :-) I would suggest keeping what you originally come up with for a couple months and then adjust accordingly :-) 

#5 - Unless you're some super super couponing hero...you will most likely have quite a few left over coupons that go unused and expire. And that's OKAY! :-) For me personally, I kind of get knots in my stomach at the very thought of throwing coupons away that I took all the time to clip/organize, but you don't have to!! Yes, that's right, you DO NOT have to throw away our expired coupons and there's something good you can do with them. The Overseas Military Program is a great way for your expired coupons to get some extra "life".

For me, unfortunately I don't have to time to sign up for the program and I don't coupon enough to have enough expired coupons to justify paying the shipping to send them overseas, so what I did was contact the gals at Fab Fru and asked them if there was a read that was already set up to do the program, that I could just send my small amount of coupons so and I got in touch with a very sweet gal that does all the organizing and mailing of the coupons overseas after I send them to her :-)

Fab Fru doesn't just share grocery deals, they also show Snapfish, Amazon, Zulily and SO MUCH MORE. Click HERE to find out about more amazing, online deals.

#6 - Fab Fru, as GREAT as it is, isn't the only couponing site out there. Here are a couple more that I keep an eye on for more deals:

• NW Extreme Couponing
• Coupon Connections
• Coupon Mom
• Frugal Coupon Living 

These are just a few of the sites that are out there and you can easily find more, especially if you have a Facebook account. You can probably find more sites that cater more to the areas that you live in too :-)

#7 - Plan out your shopping trips before you go and get your coupons organized! :-) This helps SO much when you get to the store so you're not scrambling to find things or try to remember what deals you were hoping to get. Have back up plans! I don't know how many times I've gone to the store hoping for the items I wanted, only to get to the store and see them all sold out :-( It sucks, but it happens, so have a back up plan before you leave the house, unless you're amazing at thinking on your feet and improvising ;-)

#8 - Fab Fru doesn't always catch EVERY deal out there because some stores are different and sometimes mark stuff down at one Albertson's but not at another. So, browse the clearance stuff, you'll never know, you might find an item for free or even better - a money maker! :-) 

Are you excited?? STILL overwhelmed?? Do you have more questions??

Please don't hesitate to comment on this post with any questions or concerns, etc (I can directly reply to your comments as long as your blogger account isn't set as "no reply blogger" - take a look at my comment form to find out more details on that). Or, you can email me directly at cblakley0531@gmail.com - Just in case your email gets sent to my SPAM folder, write "Couponing 101 Post" in the subject line so I know you're not a spammer :-)

**Disclaimer: I was in no way paid by FabuLESSly Frugal to write this series for my readers. I honestly just love couponing and this site THAT much. I wanted to share all my new knowledge with you!**