The other day my friend confessed to me she has an obsession.  We have been friends for 17 years, so I had a few ideas in mind for what she might say.   But I was wrong, I had no idea she was about to say she had a coupon obsession. What! Who is obsessed with coupons?  Well, it turns out a lot of people are, including me now.  If only I had learned sooner……

So what led to my instantaneous coupon obsession?  The idea that you can almost get products for free!  For free! Or for next to nothing!  And in some cases, because of the coupon, sales and stores that take double coupons, you can actually make money on the deal.  We are talking a few cents, but a few cents adds up.  

Before my coupon obsessed frame of mind was created, there were a few things that deterred me away from coupon cutting, but not any longer:

1)      It's time consuming.  Going through the paper, finding the coupons, cutting them out, and then organizing them. Time is not something I have a ton of, and my guess is, either do you.  So I have found ways to sift through coupons easier.  It’s called online coupons.  I have included my new favorite coupon websites and a description of their time saving magic! 

                                                               i.      Money Saving Mom – This website is insane with the amount of coupons, sales, deals, and freebies it offers.  It provides links to coupons sites, information on sales, and situations where items are on sale while a coupon can be applied.  This is the site that turned me into a coupon fanatic.   Check out the list on the right hand side for easy navigation. www.moneysavingmom.com

                                                             ii.      Coupons.com  – A recommended site by many parents for coupon finding. You can search by category or by brand which leads to easy coupon finding.  www.coupon.com

                                                            iii.      FlamingoWorld.com – This is a site with coupons for clothes, attractions, automotive, grocery, restaurants and more!  It is easy to search through, and shows the expiration date and value while searching.  Look to the left for the categories to navigate through. www.flamingoworld.com

2)       Another problem with coupon cutting is that when looking through the paper, I have found that a lot of the coupons that I find are for products I would not normally purchase.  This is another advantage to online coupon cutting.  You can define your search on all of the sites listed above.  I love it!

3)      How do you know who takes double coupons? There is a site dedicated to this. It lists stores that take double coupons, and lets you search by state.   

                                                               i.      Grocery Zone – Double Coupons Stores By State  

Another exciting thing that I have found along the way is free give a ways! There is a particular site that consistently updates freebies.   When I say consistently, I mean just about every day. I do not know when this woman sleeps!  Since I found this site less than a week ago, I have a pastel paint set coming, a reusable grocery bag, samples of several different products, a “What to Expect” book on keeping your house clean and toxin free, a 12 month subscription to a decorating magazine and 3 different samples of my favorite tea, all for free.  Each product took about 1-5 minutes to fill out the information area. 

**When filling this out, I do recommend using an email address you don’t check often to avoid an infiltration of spam.  I have not seen it happen to me yet, but I think this precaution is necessary.

i.         You can click on the link to this website here: Money Saving Mom Freebies

Happy Coupon Cutting! Enjoy your freebies!