Assignment #1: Collect Coupon Inserts

Your first assignment is to start collecting coupons. Even if you don't plan on going gung ho for a few weeks, you'll want to get a good stash of coupons.

The best place to find coupons is in your metropolitan newspaper. There are usually two available each week, and sometimes you can find a third one about once a month. If you can get multiples of these coupon inserts each week you'll be ahead of the game. Maybe your parents get the Sunday paper but don't use the coupons. Maybe you can get your neighbors. I used to only get one Sunday paper. If there were REALLY good coupons I would buy another one on Monday. But often times there were great deals but I didn't have enough coupons to really take advantage of the deal (example, I was able to get canned black beans for free, but I only had one coupon so I only got one can). I now subscribe to four papers. Yes, that's right. FOUR. One for each member of my family. Having multiple coupons allows me to stockpile enough for my entire family and build my food storage.

If you are like me, someone telling you to "find the coupon inserts" does you no good. Why? Because I had no idea what a coupon insert would look like. But, once I saw one I realized I had seen them plenty of times, I just didn't realize they were called "coupon inserts."

Here is a picture of what they'll look like (sorry for the bad photo quality). Just so you know, the inserts have names. And yes, you'll need to get familiar with them. Left to right: Red Plum, Proctor & Gamble, and SmartSource. Can you see the names in the pictures? If not, look harder.
Remember how I said that this coupon world uses its own language and lingo? There are abbreviations for each of these inserts. Yes, they're pretty obvious, but believe me... once you start throwing in the rest of this foreign language you'll forget what they mean at least once.

SmartSource = SS
Proctor & Gamble = P&G or PG

Even though I don't have them pictured and they don't come out as frequently, there are a few others you'll want to watch for, too...
General Mills = GM
Red Plum = RP

There are tons of ways to organize your coupons, and I'll tell you my way in my next post. Until then, start collecting coupon inserts!! Don't cut anything out, yet. If you do you'll end up with a million pieces of paper floating around and then they'll expire or you'll throw them away.

If you want more information about accumulating coupons, check out this board at PinchingYourPennies.