by Sarah Salas

Created on: February 20, 2009

Coupons are a great way to save money and cut your grocery bill. Here is a quick guide on how to get the most savings from your coupons.

Get Organized

Find a system that works for you. Some people put their coupons in envelopes; some prefer binders with clear base-ball card holder pages, while others use boxes with dividers. You also need to decide how you want to separate your coupons. Alphabetically works best for some people, while others sort by grocery store sections or aisles.

Get More Coupons

There are lots of ways to get more coupons.

The Sunday newspaper is a good place to start. Go through and cut out coupons for products you know you will buy that week and add them to your coupon box/file. Save the inserts incase something goes on sale or you find you need it later. Put a post-it-note on top so you know when it's from and put it in a file or box with inserts from previous weeks. You can get extra copies of the paper by asking your paper guy or friends, or from asking around at local nursing homes, libraries, hotels and recycling centers. Another good place to try is local gas stations-they usually just return the front page at the end of the night for unsold papers and some stores may be happy to save the extra coupons for you.
Grocery and drug stores usually have coupons throughout the store. Grab them as you go and put them in a special place to be filed later.
Online. The internet is a great source for coupons. You can print them out from places like smartsource.com or coupons.com. You can also trade coupons you do not use on free web boards like mycoupon.com or subscription sites like refundcents.com. Finally, if you are looking for a larger quantity of coupons you can order them from a coupon clipping site like couponsandforms.com or thecouponclipper.com.

Be Loyal But Shop Around

Sign up for store loyalty cards to get the best prices, but shop around. While one store might have low prices on non-perishable items, another might have great low-price meats. Get to know your local stores and view all of the weekly sale ads to plan your shopping trip.

Many stores have rebates, coupons just for their customers. Some stores have Catalina coupons or "register rewards" that print out after you buy a product. These can either be coupons for specific products or money off on your next shopping trip when you buy anything. Look for shelf tags or advertisements for products that prompt these coupons. Ask cashiers or managers if you can take loose Catalinas or register

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