Saving 101: Find Deals

So you have collected a bunch of coupons and organized them. You've planned a budget and started paying attention to what you are paying. Now, where do you find the deals!?

This is a time consuming step at first, but trust me it gets better. If you are reading this you know at least one place to find good deals! But there are many more. No one blog or site can cover every deal for every store. Some of the top-notch blogs (like Money Saving Mom) are great for national stores like CVS, Walgreens, Wal-mart, Target, etc. But for grocery deals, smaller blogs come in handy. The big bloggers have never even heard of small regional stores like Festival!

I suggest you find two or three blogs that have list deals for stores in your area and read them daily. As you read, don't feel like you have to participate in every single deal listed. Sometimes, especially when you are first starting out, it's good to just see what deals come up. Most deals go in cycles so if you miss something this time you can catch it next time around, but as you read you are learning to spot deals and put product sales together with their coupons.

You have lots of options when it comes to following deal blogs and sites. You can bookmark your favorites. You can subscribe via email or feed reader, and now most sites also have a Facebook page where they link to their posts. Find the easiest and most convenient way for you. I, personally, use Google Reader. It brings all the posts to me and I can organize and search for deals easily. When I am making a shopping list I can look at all the deal sites on one page!

So here are a few suggestions for you as far as what sites to check for certain stores, but you don't have to take my word for it! Just Google any store name with the word "deals" and see what pops up. Or head over to Money Saving Moms store deals page and follow the links back to their original posters.

• Piggly Wiggly, Festival, sometimes Copps... right here at GB Savers
• Copps... Common Sense With Money, Creative Couponing, and Pocket Your Dollars.
• CVS and Walgreens... Money Saving Mom, Common Sense With Money and CouponMom
• Target... Money Saving Mom and and Common Sense With Money
• Wal-mart... Money Saving Mom and Common Sense With Money
• Menards... Creative Couponing and Coupons in Our Hands
• ShopKo and ShopKo Express... none that I am aware of.
  
• Freebies... Freebies 4 Mom

As you can see I highly recommend Money Saving Mom and Common Sense with Money. Almost ALL national deals work there way to these two sites. They have huge numbers of readers and when someone finds a deal it gets passed along. Speaking of that, if you find a great deal or freebie be sure to share it!