Coupon 101 Series: 5 Things You’ll Need to Start Couponing

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Be sure to check out the article How to get started with coupons first if you haven’t already.

COUPONING 101: GETTING STARTED (5 THINGS YOU’LL DEFINITELY NEED)

Okay, so you’ve decided to make the plunge into the wonderful (although sometimes hectic) world of couponing. Welcome to the club! Despite what you might think, couponers are a very friendly and cooperative bunch, and we’re more than happy to help out a fellow couponer in need. Starting with blog entries like this one, which offers some tips on how to get started.

 

To begin your couponing journey, you’re going to need a few basic items.

 

1. A SHARP PAIR OF SCISSORS – Your grandmother used them, your mother used them, and even in the 21^st century, you’ll use them too. A good pair of sharp scissors are the most important tool in any couponers arsenal. You’ll use them often, so make sure they’re comfortable to use (hand cramps are inevitable, but a comfy scissors can help) and, for goodness sakes, make sure they’re sharp!

 

2. A BINDER – You mother might have stored her coupons in a recipe box, and many people still do, but I don’t recommend it. Instead, you should use a sturdy, three-ring binder filled with plastic baseball card sleeves (you’ll find them, of course, in the sports card section of your local department store). I’ll dive a little deeper into how to sort and organize your coupon binder in a future blog entry.

3. A COMPUTER AND PRINTER – In this day and age, as many as half of your coupons will come from online sources. Although you can still save plenty of money the old school way (clipping coupons in the Sunday paper), you’ll need to tap into the power of the Internet in order to maximize your savings potential.

 

4. COUPONING RESOURCES – Every good couponer has not one, not two, but three or more places where he or she goes to find coupons. To get started, you’ll need at least three resources: The circulars in your Sunday paper (grab your scissors!) and at least two web resources. We’ll take a closer look at where to find coupons in an entry a little later on.

 

5. SOME SPARE TIME – If you don’t have time to spare – about two hours a week to start with – you’ll need to find some. At least one, uninterrupted hour of that time will be spent scouring the Sunday circulars for deals. The other hour will be spent checking out your other couponing resources and organizing your coupons. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll become quicker and more efficient in your searches, but you may also decide to spend a little more time hunting for coupons.

 

So there you have it! Five basic tools you’ll need to get started in your couponing journey. Like I said before, we’ll go into more detail on a few of them in future blog entries, so stay tuned!  You can find all of the How to Coupon Series posts here.