Guess Post by Nicole

I'm Nicole from Nicole's Random Things. My blog started out as a place where I wrote about various articles I came across online and TV shows I watch. But since I started my blog about 9 months ago, I've started writing about things going on in my life. And I've also started to write reviews and host giveaways. I'm just a girl who wants to share my opinions with the world. So come join me on my journey of finishing up college, becoming a bride, and becoming a teacher!

Today though, Suze has let me do a guest post on my blog so I'm going to give you my advice on couponing!!
Couponing...where do I even begin on this subject. Most of us are familiar with the show Extreme Couponing on TLC. And then most of us, like me, get inspired to do the same thing so they can save money at the grocery store. Personally, I think the way it is done on the show is totally unrealistic so here are my tips on how you can coupon without spending hours and hours a week.

• Newspapers and coupons: The people on the show buy about 5 or more papers every Sunday!! I think that's a bit too much so I'm just sticking with 2. And, I get mine at the Dollar Tree where they are only a dollar each and they aren't taxed, so I spend $2 a week for my coupons.
  
• Clipping: I find that it only takes me about an hour to go through both of my papers and clip the coupons that I think I'll use. I don't clip every single one, just the ones for things that I might buy.
  
• Organize: Now you wouldn't have to do exactly what I've done to organize my coupons, but I got a binder and baseball card holders to put my coupons in. At first I had them just paper clipped together with a piece of paper that had the name of the category on it, but I found this too confusing. Check out my post here to find out how I put together my binder.
  
• Using your coupons: The best piece of advice I can give anyone about couponing is to pair your coupons with the sales at the store. I found that when I organized my coupons, as I was putting them into the different categories, I subconsciously memorized what coupons I had. So now whenever I look through the ads, I know what items I have coupons for. But if this method doesn't work for you, here's what you can do: say you're looking through the ads and you find something that you want to buy, look through your coupons to see if you have a coupon for that item. This shouldn't take you that long if you have your coupons organized by category.

Couponing doesn't have to take up hours and hours of your time every week. It can take you as little as 3 hours a week to go through the weekly ads and your coupons. That's about how much time I spend a week on my couponing. What I love the most about couponing is the sense of accomplishment I get when I get that receipt and see how much I saved. Who cares if I don't get thousands of dollars of groceries for next to nothing. I don't have that kind of room or that much time to be able to get that much stuff. I'm fine with saving 5, 10, $15 every time I go to the store. That's 5, 10, or $15 that I can spend somewhere else. I hope I've inspired at least one person to give couponing a try!! Good luck everyone!!! I leave you with pictures from my first shopping trip as an extreme couponer along with how much I spent and saved.

Spent: $15.49

Saved: $14.37

Spent: $57.89

Saved: $39.33

So come check out my blog to check out more of my savings!!

Thanks Nicole for stopping by...Don't forget to go and visit her :)