Southern Savers Couponing 101 Class

My mom is a major coupon-er. When I moved home in 2012 I was completely shocked at the transformation my mom had undergone. Gone were the days that if I asked please with it dripping with sugar and batted my eyes she would buy me one treat from the store. [My favorite at the time being Cinnabon cereal, which NEVER goes on sale, hey Kelloggs throw me a bone and send me some coupons? Pretty please?] She made a list at home and clipped coupons and we only bought things that were on sale. And each time I would ask for something I would get the same reply: "Is it on sale?" And generally it wasn't but I really wanted it!

Then in 2012 when my mom broke her leg I pretty much had to do the shopping for two months and in the beginning it was painful. I list from each store I had to go to with coupons galore that I had to use and sometimes I had to plan it out and make multiple transactions to get the discount. And after about 3 weeks I was hooked. I couldn't believe that I had been paying full price for stuff that I was getting for pennies on the dollar! It was like a rush when I would get the receipt and see how much I was saving!

My mom has two sites she really loves to use I Heart Publix and Southern Savers. Jenny Martin, the brain behind Southern Savers, travels and does some Couponing 101 classes. To look for a class near you click here if there isn't one you can email her about hosting one in your area at workshops{at}southernsavers{dot}com. She did one in LaGrange, Georgia last week and my mom and I went. For a small fee you get treats, water, a handbook and 2-2.5 hours of instruction and help. It's a steal! I would definitely recommend taking it the class. I want to coupon even more now.

Some of the favorite things that I learned:

• 40% and over is on sale
• if there is no price listed in an ad then it's probably not on sale
• when they put "surprisingly low price" all it means is they had nothing nice to say about the price
• grocery store sales run in cycles (6-8 weeks in the south and 10-12 weeks in the north)
• you don't need to buy enough to last eternity just enough to get you to the next sale, maybe a little buffer. 
• the best printer for coupons is a Brother laser printer (HL2240 and the wireless version is the HL2270 and they go on sale once a month for $50 and $79 respectivley)
• You should never pay for coupons online or fill out tons of personal information
• The newspaper coupons you should look for are Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter and Gamble (that last one only comes out once a month)
• Call companies and ask for coupons (KELLOGS -I'm for real, get with me about some coupons for that Cinnabon cereal!)
• You can use expired coupons with rain checks at Publix (check your stores, they may do it too)! If they expire the day the rain check was written you can still use them! Just have the person who wrote the rain check staple the coupons to the rain check.
• Shop with apps!
• Shop Savvy
• Southern Savers
• Ibotta
• Checkout 51

There's tons more that you learn but you'll just have to go to a class!

I was not paid or asked to write this post from Southern Savers. This is genuinely how I felt about it.