Coupons? Are they really worth the time and effort?

Ok, so for years I have struggled with the question, 'Are coupons Really worth it?" 

Yeah, I know they save you money and all but 'if' I clipped one or put one aside to eventually use, I would either lose it or forget about it all together.  So, after a while I just gave up on the idea of using coupons all together because it was just too much work and to frustrating.

Then, about a month ago, when I started my Enlightened Financial Journey (It's just a funky title ^_^), I had a whim to go shopping at Albertsons at about 11pm one night.  Naturally my son Josh was up for it, he loves going on late night shopping sprees with me, or walks or whatever <3.  Anyhow, it just so happened that on that night we saw two women at the store shopping away on a coupon spree.  At first I looked at them with a 'What the Heck?' attitude and then it dawned on me that I should have been doing the same thing.  My system now is similar to their but a little more my style.  So I will share with you my new hobby, as it were.

I proceeded to go to Wal*Mart, to shop smart ^_^, and bought a Trapper Keeper, Baseball Card sleeves, tape, dividers, small calculater, sticky pads and one of those little money bags.  No coupons for them but them for the coupons.  The ladies at the store just had a three ring binder and baseball card inserts. 

Now you might be saying, ok, you just went out and spent about $30 for coupons?  I know it sounds silly but in the end it has more than paid for itself.  First of all, I am actually using my coupons now, mostly because they are all in one place and I can find them.  Because I am holding myself accountable for every penny I spend, I have a calculater to keep track of how much I am spending, the money bag to put all my reciepts in and tape to use to stick the coupon straight onto the product when I place it in the basket or something similar. 

At the moment we still don't get the news paper, so I don't get coupons there but between the mail, online coupons and whatnot, I have already saved the money to cover the cost of the book for them.

Now one word of warning.  Coupons are very seductive and may make you buy things you might not normally buy.  When choosing which coupons to file in your book, think twice about them.  Do you really need that product?  Is it something you usually or often get (maybe you don't need it this month but the coupon will expire when you do)? 

So, last but not least, online coupons.  I Love Them!!!!  You merely pick out what you want and print them up for the store to scan.  So far, no one has given me any trouble about them, so they are a great way to go with coupon shopping.... Oh and yes, you can save a great deal of money on coupons.  Here are a couple of sites you might want to consider visiting to find coupons online....

BeFrugal.com
RetailMeNot.com
Coupons.com

That should be enough to get you started on your journey to saving money.  I have been debating about getting the newspaper for coupons but I am not certain that the cost of the paper is worth the few coupons I might save.  I would probably be best off just getting the local Sunday paper and seeing if the price vs. savings is worth the money.  Every newspaper is different, so this would be up to you.  If you get the paper already, then the descision isn't hard to make.

Happy Shopping!!!