Couponing!

Let me start by saying that my life is WAY too busy to coupon.  I love to get things for cheap but who has time to figure out all the deals and then run to 5 different stores, not to mention that I would have to tow 3 kids, 5 and under along.  After buying them snacks along the way as we marathon shop, I am sure to save nothing!  Nevertheless, I coupon.  Without kids.  And it takes only a couple hours or so a week.  How?  An online site.

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There are tons of sites out there that do the leg work for you.  They figure out the best deals, the coupon to use and you simply print out a list and you are on your way.  My personal favorite is couponsense.com.  I am AMAZED at the amount of work they do, which makes even less work for me.  They have even gone so far as to compile a list of online coupon sources. Which you can access here! Most of their resources are only available for subscribing members.  It is a $15 monthly fee and it is WELL worth it.  The deals I posted above are in the last 2 weeks.  As you can see, the savings more than pay for my newspaper and website subscription.  Your subscription supplies you with a coupon coach and all sorts of tutorials on how to get started, how to get the best deals and how to organize your coupons.
Although the site supplies you with all the leg work, there is still the problem of dragging several small children to multiple grocery stores. My solution is this: First, I limit the stores I visit to 2 a week. Usually the deals are mostly at one or two stores anyway and it has to be an amazing deal for me to spend any more time than that. I also do my shopping in the evening. When hubby gets home, we have dinner and then he does bedtime while I run out. I can tell you from experience that my trips are MUCH shorter and I stick to buying what I came for if I go without kids (or hubby)!
I have to warn you, couponing is quite addicting and you may find yourself standing at the checkout line grinning as you watch your bill go lower and lower with each beap of a coupon being scanned!