Couponing Made Simple (Review)

Christi the Coupon Coach has a strong desire to help others save money. You can tell from the tone of her book and the encouraging emails we’ve received as part of the review crew. I have tried couponing before, but life got a little chaotic, and we stopped. Plus, we make a lot of our own things, have food allergies, eat as healthy as we can, etc. However, there are still things we need like toilet paper and razors. There are some things we eat that we can save more money on. Enter Couponing Made Simple. This was just the spark I needed to dive back into savings again.

Couponing Made Simple is a quick read at 123 pages, and will get you on the road to savings in no time. Christi breaks the whole process down into easy, understandable steps. She starts out by sharing success stories, explains the new way to shop and related terms/phrases, shows you how to organize yourself, and leads you through the step-by-step process from gathering coupons to your shopping trip to once you’re back home again. She shares tips and tools, couponing ethics, how to network, and ideas on saving on other things like clothes and Christmas gifts.

I was already familiar with a lot of these ideas, but I still learned new things. Christi is making me rethink how I do things, and encouraged me to start planning ahead rather than do things last minute. There are so many more ways we can save even more money–something we really need as we work our way out of debt and also, as we prepare to sell our house.

A Successful Trip to Walgreens
We have a new Walgreens, so I decided to try my first couponing trip for this store. Our first transaction was for Colgate toothpaste which was on sale: 2 for $6. I had a coupon for $2 off of two. And I got a register reward for $3.00. So we repeated the exact same transaction again. Netted another register reward for $3.00. OOP – $8.00 with $6.00 towards my next purchase. 43% savings on both. Not awesome, but not bad.

My third transaction was bigger, but also taught me a lesson. First of all, the deals:
~ BOGO on Degree deodorant plus I had two $1.50 off coupons.
~ BOGO on backpacks. No coupon, but we needed some, and I spent $10.99 on two. Hello.
~ Kleenex tissue on sale for .89. I had two .50 off of 3 coupons.
~ Hallmark cards. Again no sale, but I needed cards, and I had a coupon expiring soon – $2.00 off of 3.
~ Drawstring bag (set of two) on clearance for 3 something. However, here is where I learned my lesson: look over the receipt before leaving the store. I didn’t discover until after I left the store that it didn’t take the clearance price. So I spent $5 on these. Not bad, but miffed about the loss of extra savings lol. We needed these for wet swimsuits.
~ Then we used a store ad coupon for $3.00 off a $10.00 purchase, plus my two $3.00 off coupons from the first two transactions.
~ OOP: $18.48. Savings 65%.

All three transactions: Total OOP = $26.31. Total savings after sales and coupons = $39.44

I think I did pretty good on my first go around considering I had things I needed to get. I’m encouraged to keep trying, but also get to where I can walk away from deals that aren’t as great as they can be.

What I Think

Again, I knew quite a bit, but still learned some things. I plan to revamp my old system a little using some of Christi’s ideas. Plus, I will slowly incorporate other money savings ideas as I go along. If I try to change everything at once, I’d be overwhelmed. But each new thing I do is money saved. And I’m okay with that. Planning ahead and being prepared goes a long way to save money. When your child walks off the bottom of his shoe while still wearing the top, you’re forced to make an emergency shopping trip for new shoes. But if I see his shoes beginning to wear out, I can take a little more time to find a great deal. This concept is so true in so many areas–I’m learning to change from fire fighting to fire prevention.

My favorite part of the book? Christi shares how to have a relationship with Jesus at the end of the book. Wonderful.

Pricing and Other Information
Couponing Made Simple is available on Amazon in paperback for $18.00 or kindle for $4.99. I like the paperback format for ease in referencing, but if money is tight, the kindle format is a great price.

If you’d like some great resources for couponing, check out Christi’s Favorite Websites. She even gives tips on how to run searches for couponing sites in your area or with special diet issues. You can also find Christi on Facebook.

*Pricing and information is accurate to the best of my knowledge at time of posting.