Here’s part 2 of Adventures in Couponing by Ginger of Attention Target Shoppers. If you missed the first half, check out part 1 of Adventures in Couponing. -Shayna

While I can’t cover everything in 2 brief posts, you’ll learn enough to get started. Grab your couponing tools and let’s begin again.

Coupons come in many forms:

• Preprinted on paper: find in newspaper inserts, Parade Magazine, All You magazine, many women’s magazines, company booklets, manufacturer snail mail, coupon clipper services, etc.
• IP’s (Internet printed): Coupons that you find on the Internet in your email, coupon sites, those found on manufacturer or product web sites that are printable
• Blinkies: Found on grocery store shelves usually with blinking lights and a “take me” sign
• Tearpads: Found in grocery stores hanging from shelves. Tear off the coupon and use or save for a future purchase.
• Hangtags: Found hanging around bottle necks of wine, soda, BBQ sauce, etc.
• Email: Sent in emails to you following signing up on the site to receive email from a manufacturer. These are considered IPs too.
• E-coupons: Electronic coupons are paperless and can be found at a handful of sites. To take advantage of them you need those little loyalty cards you can put on your key ring or in your wallet. You visit the websites, create an account, log in, use your loyalty card number and “clip” coupons. If as by magic they are loaded onto your loyalty card within a few minutes and you have the cashier swipe your card at the store to receive credit.
• Peelies: Found on products and generally MUST BE REMOVED BY A CASHIER TO BE VALID!

The point is not to purchase everything you have a coupon for but to have a plan. Use your grocery list and sale papers. Make note of what is on sale that is on your list. Match with a coupon. Coupon + sale price = MAX SAVINGS. When you find really great buys, purchase more than one and begin stockpiling a manageable amount for your family’s use. Example: if you have children and use LOTS of dry cereal, you’ll want to buy probably 10 boxes when it is on sale with coupons. You’ll likely save an easy 50% or more.

Additionally, sales tend to run in a 12 week cycle. This means that you should keep a price book (log book) journaling the item, size, brand, and price for items you purchase most often by store name. This will help you decide and define how much to purchase between sales for your stockpile. The other benefit is you get the max savings possible by following sales trends and being able to shop the lowest priced store with coupons while they are having a sale.

To get the maximum number of coupons, some of the ways you can get them would be to sign up for email on manufacturer’s web sites, coupon sites, visit blogging sites that focus on coupons, network with friends and neighbors to get coupons from them or trade. You can also harvest coupons off of the grocery aisle shelves, packaging or by contacting the manufacturer when you have a problem of particularly like an item. Most of us who use coupons have a separate email account for the sole purpose of signing up for emails and email coupons.

There are other coupons around for non-grocery items. Find and use those in much the same way. This is a choice and by making it you become acutely aware of the amount of money you can save almost immediately. The more you coupon, the better you will be at finding deals, saving the max amount and having money left over at the end of the month rather than month left over at the end of the money.

For more info, please visit AttentionTargetShoppers.com.