Couponing!

I am pretty new to the art of couponing but from all I have read if you're a frugalista and want to save money...couponing is key in helping you towards this goal. The way I view it, if you can save money on a product then do it.

Mind you, I think it's silly to spend hours mulling over coupon sites to save .50 cents on an item. I would devote x amount of time to the process per week and be done with it.

Remember the idea behind couponing is to save money, theoretically on things you need. Toss any coupons you receive that can be used towards items you will never use. Though this sounds extremely straight forward it's tempting to use a coupon for anything you can get money off on.

Last night I did my meal planning for the week but I also knew I had to get extra items for the household and baby. I sifted through my coupon organizer to see which coupons I had available and I created my list around them. Ie. We were having lasagna for dinner and I had a coupon for Catelli smart brand noodles so I put that particular brand on my shopping list with a big "C" for coupon beside the item.

(On a side note for couponing we also shopped from our pantry. Instead of buying the tomato paste and sauce we would need for the recipe I checked to see if we had it available in the house already).

If you can combine coupons on top of existing store sales, you're really maximizing your saving capability. This is where I pick up the store flyers (both the grocery store and drug store to see what items to get where).

I ended up saving $30 with $13 dollars worth of coupons yesterday by using coupons on already existing sale items.

Eg. Royale Toilet Paper was on sale from $8.99 to $4.99 plus I had $1 off coupon

Tide was $4.99 each but I had a $5.00 off when you buy two Tide products coupons

I had a $3 coupon for Hudson's formula.

Pampers were on sale from $19.99 to $15.99 and I used my $3 off coupon.

I am new to couponing but I was so happy with my success!!

As for sites I use: gocoupon.ca, smartcanucks.ca, websaver.ca, save.ca, and brandsaver.ca