Money Monday: The Art of Couponing

It's been so long since I wrote one of these posts. And since I really took my finances into account. I told you guys I need this to hold myself more accountable.

In the old days, there were just the coupons you clipped, now there are a million ways to get them digitally, too. Trying to figure it out has been both exciting and overwhelming.

First, I want to mention that if you're looking for coupons for shopping, fitness, etc., then sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are the way to go. I got a pair of shoes from ShoeDazzle for $20 with a Groupon discount. Since every shoe on that site is $40, it turned out to be a 50% discount. And I was able to use the coupon for a year, which helped because I didn't find a pair I really liked until a month or two later. If you're a shopping addict like me, sites like this can help you indulge your addiction without breaking the bank. I actually haven't been shopping since spring, so I'm really proud of myself.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about groceries. Clothes are important, but I wouldn't suggest eating a cardigan. Where's the nutritional value in that? I looked around the Internet and found four sites that were immediately bookmarked:

The Krazy Coupon Lady: Anyone who finds a coupon for $1 Kettle chips is a winner in my book. A lot of her information stipulates that it's for the 90210 area code, so some may not translate to your area. It doesn't hurt to find out, though. Thanks to my friend Yara for suggesting this one!

Southern Savers: There are certain stores that are pretty much exclusively located in the south, like Publix. It's nice to have a site that caters to southern chains. They also post a lot of stuff about magazine subscription discounts. I've cut down severely on my monthly magazine budget, so I hope they have a deal soon for a publication that I used to buy regularly.

Smart Source: This is an easy way to go through and check the coupons you like. When you're done, you can print them all out. Instead of the blog format in the others, this one is more straightforward with just the details of the coupon and box to check if you want to print it. I can get through it a lot quicker that way.

Target: I don't know how well known it is that Target puts their coupons on a subdomain. It's a similar set up to Smart Source, but  even easier to find what you're looking for. It also helps relieve some doubts about whether or not items will be a in store. If you get a coupon for a certain brand of chicken online, you can't really be sure if it's at the store you're going to. This gets rid of a little of that inconvenience, but all Target stores aren't exactly created equal.

One thing I'm definitely going to watch is the coupons that want you to buy multiple things. That's how the people on Extreme Couponing end up with a garage full of food that they'll only finish in the event of a nuclear holocaust. I eat frozen food on occasion, so that will be an exception sometimes. A couple of dollars off of three Lean Cuisines is a problem I'd like to have.