Today, I have a guest post for you from Kate from Stay at Home Mom with Money Saving Tips!
Hello, I am so excited to do a guest post for Wading Through Motherhood! To introduce myself, my name is Kate Corcoran, I have been a stay-at-home mom for the past three years and have been a "couponer" for the past four. While my husband works full time outside of the home, I work inside the home raising our two beautiful children, and saving money any way that I can. I hope by the time you finish reading my post, you are inspired to start saving money as well!
Hello, I am so excited to do a guest post for Wading Through Motherhood! To introduce myself, my name is Kate Corcoran, I have been a stay-at-home mom for the past three years and have been a "couponer" for the past four. While my husband works full time outside of the home, I work inside the home raising our two beautiful children, and saving money any way that I can. I hope by the time you finish reading my post, you are inspired to start saving money as well!
On average I save about $50-$75 a week with coupons, and finding the best deals at grocery stores. We are a family of four, with two little ones still in diapers, and I find myself spending about $150 a week on groceries, diapers, and personal care items. My grocery bill is definitely cheaper in the summer, because I can get better prices on produce and fruit at local farmer markets. Right now a large portion of my grocery money is spent on fruit, vegetables and meat (things there are typically not coupons for).
Every Sunday I get about 5-10 newspapers. I used to purchase them, however, I have made friends will the clerk at a local convenience store, and he saves me all of the inserts from the papers. When a store doesn't sell their papers, they only give back a portion of the paper, and they get to keep the rest of it. I encourage others to ask when they go somewhere - it can't hurt!
I organize my coupons in a filing system, by date. I have a folder, dated, with each week’s coupons, and cut them as I need them. (The picture below is very messy, because my one year-old finds it fun to rip all of the inserts out, and my three year-old thought it would be fun to play with play-dough on the carpet!)
Once I have all of my coupons organized, and an idea of what I need for the week, I ALWAYS check my favorite coupon matchup site, livingrichwithcoupons.com. You can check almost any store, and it will give you a list of what is on sale and the coupon(s) that matches that item. I typically do my "big" grocery shopping at ShopRite, and then go to Stop and Shop, CVS and RiteAid (since these are the stores closest to me) during the week; if I can find good deals that is!
A couple months ago I had the idea to start my own website and FaceBook page, called Stay at Home Mom with Money Saving Tips. I share my coupon tips, online deals, crafts, and other inspiring quotes and articles for moms and dads. I have had so much fun doing it, and have met some incredible people helping me along the way, including Melissa from Wading through Motherhood! If you are interested in following my site, check out my Facebook page.
I hope you have found this information helpful. I don’t pretend to be an expert on couponing; I am learning something new every day, and am so happy to share with you what I have learned so far. Happy couponing!
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