Coupons - Past, Present, and a Few Good Sites

I've been couponing this time around since the last week of August 2008. I have been learning a lot of tips as I travel this route. But first, a bit of background.

My first serious foray with couponing was in 1999, when I had my first paper route. I also had a temp job at the time that was mostly repetitive phone work, with ample time to do what we wanted in between questions (okay, I was a telemarketer). So, as I sat and asked my same questions, keying in the response to a numbered pad, I also clipped coupons and perused the sales circulars for the week. If I saved 50% or more, I was happy. It was time-consuming, but I had the time and my own desk at which to do it. At the time, I lived with my sister, her two toddlers, another roommate, and her infant son. We all worked, sometimes up to two jobs and overtime each, and swapped the kids around, but at times I was the only source of income in our household. The coupons helped a lot.

Skip forward to 2008. As a stay-at-home mom, one of my many jobs is to be as frugal with my husband's paycheck as possible. I recycle, I've been freecycling for years, and I have a good source of hand-me-downs for the boy. I began thinking about how I could further stretch the paycheck. After poking around for a few weeks, I considered coupons again, and found several websites that I found to be helpful to us.

One site I find myself on constantly is Hot Coupon World. It's free, it's a discussion board, and it's very friendly to newbies. There are forums on grocery stores, pharmacies, retailers, rebates, and other topics related to couponing and saving money. I've told random strangers in stores about this site; I've also told cashiers if they are impressed with my coupon piles or binder. I've also met a few people from the site in person while shopping the same sales.

The Centsible Sawyer is another website I still find helpful. She invites people to post scenarios for various deals at stores such as CVS and Walgreens. This helps give me ideas for the items I may need. I may not have all of the coupons for all of the deals, but I can usually work out my own deals based on what I see here.

JANE4girls $800 Annual Budget is inspiring. Erin has been couponing for a few years and last year set a goal for, well, an $800 annual budget. Her budget includes food, health and beauty, pet food, and dining out. There are some good tips. Oh, and she made her budget last year.

Which brings me to my goal for the year 2009: My goal for 2009 is to spend no more than $50/week (or $2600/yr) on groceries, health and beauty, and the papers I purchase for coupons. This year, I am not including our cat food as they are on a prescription diet, or dining out, but I am including the budget for our annual summer party, which usually costs us about $400 (pre-couponing, of course).

We are a family of three: myself, my husband, and our preschooler son. We will be expanding to six when our niece and nephews come to visit for two months this summer. They will be twelve, eleven, and eight at the time of their visit, and they are also included in our budget.

I have noticed that since I have begun using coupons, we have cut our grocery budget considerably, and also have been able to donate food and other items to the food pantry at our church. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I am glad that we are finally able to do so. I have also put a personal goal of donating at least one box of cereal per week for the year 2009, in addition to anything else we may donate. The United Way in our area is having a drive for the homeless this month; I am putting together a box this week to take across the street to the neighbor who is the local collection point.

My husband is supportive, and I have sent him to the store with coupons and very specific lists. He's still learning not to pick up something else if they don't have the coupon item, but he does pretty good with it for the most part. He's happy. The stockpiling and lack of storage did concern him at first, but we eat well, the pantry is full, the freezers are full, and I'm spending half or less per month than what I did this time last year, so, I get kudos for that.

Anyhow, I really just wanted to get my 2009 goals down with a bit of background before I start blogging about deals and such.