To Coupon or Not to Coupon....

I myself have struggled with the notion whether to clip coupons or not to waste the time it takes. What it boils down to is a. how much time are you willing to spend looking and b. if you personally purchase brands that actually distribute coupons. In my current situation I beleive it's worth it and heres why; coupons have a bad rap. They are not for "cheapskates" and are not a pain to get a hold of - if you know where to go. Coupons have in the past been known to save you a ouple bucks at the grocery store, and honestly I get more savings out of them at my "miscellaneous" monthly shopping trips. This would include the trips to Target or Walmart for toothpaste, make-up remover, etc - on average I save about $10 each (monthly) trip to Target and about $5 each weekly trip to the grocery store. All in all thats about $30 a month, which could be a trip to the movies or Starbucks money or some beautiful new hair accessories for my little one from Miss Maddie....So where to go:

1. Subscribe to your local paper - for weekend service only. My area paper (Sacramento Bee) offers weekend service (Fri-Sun) for $.99 a week and the Sunday paper is full of coupons. To buy from the newspaper stand each week costs you $1.50 so it's worth it.

2. Register with your grocery store. Most grocery stores have websites with a member email service. My store (Raleys) send me weekly free printable coupons that include anything from $.50 off deli meat to a free bag of mini carrots. Plus stores have promotion sales too that give you early sale info - for instance my store every other month or so offer a $20 coupon if you spend $100 or more. I love this coupon and look for it constantly!! It's basically free $20 worth of groceries.....so check with your store's website

3. Online coupon sites. There are some sites out there who offer free printable coupons, it's finding the good ones that takes time - after that you can have them sent directly to your email inbox. Here are a few I like and use often:
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.couponloop.com/
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/
http://www.wow-coupons.com/grocery.php

4. Check your snail mail. I often throw away the junk advertisements every week, and then started looking through them to discover restaurant coupons! I keep the ones I actually will use (otherwise there is no point) such as Subway, Togo's, etc. for when we stop to pick up lunch to go on the weekends and such. And since weekends is where we tend to spend a lot of money, this is a way to keep budgeting even while on our way to the park!

These are the 4 main places I get my coupons and I have it down to a science now, so it really doesn't take too much time. Good luck coupon clippers!