Friends I’m bringing back a great post that was originally published on 11/28/2010. I continue to credit this course with teaching me how to coupon effectively, and I thought some newer readers could benefit. Plus, the cost of the program is now less than half of what it was when I first tried it out! Affiliate links included at no cost to you.
Before Darah was born, I was a pretty good coupon user. I wouldn’t have ranked myself as one of the very best, not by a long shot. But weekly I would get some pretty sweet deals and keep our pantry and freezer rather stocked for cheap. Our toiletries were borderline out of control, because almost every week I could get toothpaste, shampoo, etc. for free or really close to free.
This, again, was all BEFORE Darah was born. Once she hit the scene, I just ran out of steam. Making a quick trip to one store became an act of Congress, so the idea of hitting up 3 or 4 different places was pretty much out of the question. So, I just stopped using coupons. They say that if you don’t have time, you’d better have money. This isn’t the case for online shopping, though. Nowadays, there are so many websites like Raise out there that help you to save money at shops like Kohls, it’s hard to avoid using them! I made the choice to just start spending more of our money on groceries and household items and spend that extra time with Darah. I don’t think it was a bad choice.
Fast forward to present-day. I’m staying at home, so I do have a little bit more time (although I’m most definitely BUSY!), and money is a more precious commodity now than it was when we had two incomes. I’ve known for a while that I needed to get back into couponing, but the thought really overwhelmed me. Where do I start? How do I do this on the terms that work for me? How do I learn about all the different ways to get good deals? All these questions were making me put off getting back into it, even though we really needed to be saving more money.
How to Coupon Effectively
And then I heard about an audio series called Grocery University. It is described as, “a 2 hour 19 minute audio course that will teach you everything you need to know about making the most of your grocery budget – regardless of whether you’re new to bargain shopping or have been a super-shopper for years.” I thought this would be a good thing to try out, but I honestly didn’t think it could teach me anything I didn’t already know about saving money in the stores. But perhaps it would get me excited about getting back in the game.
Well, it did get me excited again, so that’s good. But I also learned a ton. I took notes as I listened to the series (each section is between 4-12 minutes, so you can really pace yourself with this course, which I love!). Now I have 9 pages of notes, and everything I wrote down was something I didn’t know before!
And, if you aren’t so much of a note taker, that’s no problem! Grocery University comes with a really detailed student workbook for you to look through while you listen and refer back to later. It also comes with a price sheet that can help you with that initially daunting task of finding rock bottom prices of items you frequently buy. If you just can’t bring yourself to do it, this has a general guide for several items, though do keep in mind that prices vary by region.
So after going through Grocery University, I had the motivation I needed to start my coupon binder (a task I’d been putting off for a year, seriously). I also had a specific game plan for how to slowly get back into couponing. If you try to go all out right at the beginning (as I’m inclined to do) you will burn out and give up. Grocery University shows you how to take it slow and focus on the most crucial things first.
I’m very glad I had the opportunity to review this product. I think it is absolutely worth the $9.97 price. Just this week I did my very first trip to CVS and I didn’t even go nuts with the couponing there, and I still walked away with $60 worth of products that I could use for $23. Not too bad for a first try! So you can see how very quickly you’ll recoup your investment (week 1 for almost everyone!).
Buy it!: Grocery University is bargain priced at just $9.97. You will most definitely not regret the purchase!
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