I am now a Couponer

I have stepped into the wide wide world of couponing. Yup, I'm taking the plunge. 

I was one of those that thought coupons were a waste of time and money because really the generic brands seem cheaper. But from some wonderful Blogs that I have found, my mind has been changed. 

Before starting all of this I didn't really know anything about coupons. 

I mean sure, I knew to bring one in and get $1 off. 

But I didn't know about stacking coupons or CVS Extrabucks or anything!

Well this week I have begun my journey into the coupon world. 

I know that I am going to learn a lot. 

My goal throughout this is to save money!!

And in saving money my ultimate goal is so that when we have kids I can stay home with them! We are planning now and I can't wait to slash our grocery bill!

Along the way I will hopefully be sharing great sites and things that I find. 

And after reading a ton of couponing sites, I am ready to begin my process. 

1) First thing I needed was a Sunday paper. 

We live outside LA and knew that the biggest paper I could get {the bigger the paper the better the coupons *usually*} would be the LA Times. 

So I googled "LA Times Coupon Codes" and found a code for a year's worth {52 issues!!} for $9.95. Yeah...did you just do the math? That's just over 5 cents an ISSUE!

Wow! So I subscribed to get two papers a week {Maybe I should have gone for three?!}

I got my first paper yesterday and started clipping away. 

There were a ton of great looking coupons this week and now I have to be patient and wait for things to go on sale. The hard part is coming still, which is knowing when and where to use your coupons to get things for free or almost free! 

I also decided to dive into the CVS world as well. From what I could tell, CVS is the easiest drug store to start with. I'm hoping to add Wall-greens and Right Aid later on. 

I decided to spend a little more today so that I could have a nice amount of CVS extrabucks to begin with. 

So after class I headed to CVS and got:

Spent $20 got $10 EB

Got a 2 pack of tooth brushes and 2 pack of Hubby's favorite tooth paste and got $4 EB

So all in all I walked away with $14 EB! 

Now I need to get the sale for next week and then use my $14 and get more EB with it.

 My plan is to keep them rolling as long as possible :)

If you are utterly confused by the language or anything in here then check out these great sites that have helped me out so much.

Coupon Teacher's Savvy Shopper Course

Money Saving Mom's 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget

And a recent gem I found is Grocery University

This series includes 18 MP3 Audio files, a workbook and a price list. 

It's normally $24.95 but I found a coupon code on MoneySavingMom.com to take $15 off!

So I was able to get the complete Grocery University for $9.95. 

Get the coupon code HERE

Now I haven't tried out the Grocery University yet but it sounds promising. I'll let you know as I get into it.

Can't wait to get into this whole crazy couponing world :)

Any other crazy couponers out there?

Any advice for a newbie?