Day 4: Making your store list

 (If you have missed the first few days of my beginners guide to couponing I suggest you read those first: Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3) Now that you have had a chance to start compiling your coupons and have read over your stores’ coupon policy,  lets take a look at how to make your shopping list. Pick the stores in your area to shop at. It is important to understand that you will be shopping at multiple stores, but your orders will be a lot less than when you would go shopping for the items that you needed. At first, focus on one or two stores. It can be very overwhelming when you start, so make it easy on yourself until you get the hang of everything. How do you choose a store? This can be your preference. Maybe the one that is closest to you? It is hard to say that one store is necessarily cheaper than another because it depends on the coupons that you have for the items they have on sale. Stores like Walmart do not have weekly sales, they offer rollbacks. This means that you can get their everyday low prices all the time, but that does not mean that it is necessarily the best place to shop. Each week before you go shopping you will want to plan your list and stick to it! You will have to pay attention to what items are on sale each week or on rollback. Pick a shopping website to help you make your list. I strongly recommend using FrugalFanatic.com! Once you have picked the website you will use, you will need to find the weekly stores’ coupon matchups. Now it is time to make your list! To start out just pick a few items. When writing your list make sure you include the exact brand and size of the item, the current sale price and the coupons that you will be using on the item. This will save you a lot of time and confusion when you are actually at the store getting the items from your list. Most coupons and sales are on a specific size, so to save yourself the hassle of getting to the register and not having the item from the coupon matchup make sure you write everything down!Once you have all the items that you will be shopping for you will need to clip the coupons that correspond (or verify that you have them if they are already clipped in your binder). Tip: If you are buying an item that is on sale for BOGO, you will be able to use 2 coupons – 1 for the item you should be paying for and one for the free item. (Click HERE to read more about BOGO). Make sure you check the stores' coupon policy first because many of them differ on the use of buy 1 get 1 coupons. You are now ready to go shopping! Take a look at this week’s matchups… Pay attention to the final price after coupons. Did you see any items that look like a good deal? Any items that you need? Do you have the coupons that the deals matchup to? Next step tomorrow is Day 5: Creating your Stockpile