Couponing the right way

I have spoken with many people who believe that couponing is a scam and that when they used coupons they never saved money, store brands are always cheaper...bla, bla, bla.

When I was shopping this week, I came upon a situation that made me think those people. I needed some vegetable oil. I had a coupon for $1.00 off any Crisco product. That was a pretty good coupon.

I looked a the shelf tag for 32 oz. Crisco it was $3.99, so it would be $2.99 with my coupon. Hmmm...that still seemed kind of high.

Right next to it on the shelf was the store brand that was on sale for $1.99. Hmmm...again.

Needless to say, I bought the store brand.

I think that there may have been some people who didn't even look at the store brand and would have just purchased the Crisco brand just because they had a coupon for it. That is the wrong way to use coupons. Of course you can't save money that way.

The reality is that in order to save money couponing, you have to spend some time to find the items that are on sale and match them up with the coupons that you have/can get. Luckily for all of us, there are some rockin' bloggers out there that do a lot of the work for us.

Check these out for great match-ups (these are the ones I use regularly):

Be Centsable - This is the home of The Grocery Gathering. The writers of this blog have come up with this awesome concept. Stores all over the country are assigned to different bloggers to find deals/coupon match ups. Check it out to find a store in your area along with the appropriate links.

Money Saving Mom - I think she is amazing and a wealth of knowledge and information. She shares Walgreen's, CVS, and Walmart deals each week and tidbits of other great deals as they become available.

Mommy Snacks - she shares Walgreen's, CVS, Meijer, and Kroger each week.

If you are really interested in some great ways to save money on your grocery shopping, I highly recommend Money Saving Mom's E-book, Supermarket Savings 101. For $8.97 you get that e-book and several others including topics like home management, recipes, craft ideas, gardening, etc. I purchased these when I first started couponing and I have never regretted it! Click here to find out more.

Good luck and please e-mail me with any questions!