Using coupons, saving alot!

Lately I have been planning my purchasing and doing research on the best sales and coupon matchups. There are several site that are created by moms that help with this. Many items they mention I don't use but the ones I do, I have saved alot and sometime getting items for free.

I have been collection coupons for almost 4 weeks. I collect the coupons from the Sunday paper and also from instore coupons at Publix. I also look for coupons by the items and collect the ones I normally use.

I got a great tip from Iheartcvs.com, from the article "collecting & organizing coupons"
I don't go as far a purchasing several copies of the Sunday paper, instead I ask family members for their extra coupons. I also look for extra coupons when I place my newspaper in the recycle area in my condo. Sometime I score 2 more sets of coupons.

Below are sites that I check prior to my weekly shopping:

For general savings: Money saving Mom
For savings at Publix: Fiddledeedee
For Publix coupons listings: Publix Coupon booklets from hotcouponworld.com
For savings at CVS: Iheartcvs

If you live in S. Fla, a cheaper way to purchase the Sunday paper if you don't want to subscribe to it; is if you purchase the Sun-Sentinel in Dade County it is $1.00 instead of $1.50 or the Miami Hearld in Broward County. There are several newpaper boxes around but you will need to get there early.

Since I have doing this I have saved at least 50% off of my transactions.

The Publix savings is straight forward but the CVS one can be a bit tricky since they use Extra Bucks as part of some of their sales. The key is split your purchases and to roll over the Extra Bucks into the next purchase and combine them with coupons. I was surprised to see what I can purchase with only $5. Check out the CVS $5 Challenge from kingdomfirstmom. I go through the other bloggers comment to get ideas on what combinations are good for me.

I am not a stay at home mom but I am a person who likes to save money especially how the economy is going now a days. I don't need to stock up on items but by using the tips from these moms I do save more than I ever had in the past. The hardest part is to only purchase what you need or use.

Thanks to all these hard working moms for creating and maintaining these blogs!