How to Coupon

Here is my step by step guide to how to coupon. It's fairly easy, once you get the hang of it. You can be a simple coupon shopper, not using coupons for everything, you can be one of those "extreme couponers", or anything in between. The choice is yours. My guide is not a "do it this way and no other way" guide. It's just to give anyone new to coupons a way to work into becoming a couponer.

1. First step would be to buy a Sunday newspaper that has an insert that week. Almost every Sunday has coupons except for the Sundays before holidays. Some people either buy many newspapers to have multiple inserts, they get them from family or friends who don't use coupons, or they order them from sites like Coupons & Things by Dede, or The Coupon Clippers, where they pick exact coupons they want and only pay a handling fee. There are many ways to get coupons, and many sites to by coupons. Even eBay sells coupons. 
2. Second step would be to get the ad of the store you're going to shop at an make a list of what you plan to buy. Don't worry about coupons yet, just pick what you're going to get first.
3. Third, match your coupons to your grocery list. You can either do it by going through your inserts, or you can use coupon databases found on the internet. I use HotCouponWorld's database. Just type in the brand name of the product you're buying and they'll let you know if there's a coupon in an insert, if there's a printable one available, which they usually have a direct like to go to it, and coupons found in other places, like tearpad, hangtag, peelie, home mailer, booklet.

Now you're on your way to starting to coupon. If you already do this and would like to get more into it, you can go on sites like For The Mommas or Coupons For Your Family that have weekly coupon match-ups so you can use the most of your coupons.