Christi the Coupon Coach ~ Review

I was recently given BLESSED with the opportunity to review Couponing Made Simple by Christi the Coupon Coach.  ($18.00 paperback book/$4.99 ebook at Amazon)

I am a couponer.  Have been for a few years.  Not an extreme couponer, I tried that...not for me....but I would save an average of 35% each major grocery trip.  I didn't have any special tactics or routines. I just followed a few blogs, clipped my coupons, made note of the extra special deals that I wanted and went from there.

Recently, our major grocery store stopped doubling coupons (you know who you are, I don't have to mention any names)...since then I have struggled to keep my savings percentage in the 30-40% range where it used to be.

Look....Christi even autographed it!

I was actually heading out the door to the grocery store when my book arrived. Yes, I had considered ~ briefly ~ just staying home to read the book before I left....but the kids were hungry, so I decided to go to the grocery ;)

As soon as I got home and put the groceries away I started reading my book.  Just about read the entire thing in one sitting....except that I had to go fix dinner....did you know you have to feed your kids every day, no matter how many books you really want to read!!!

Couponing Made Simple is an easy to read & understand guide to couponing.  The photos, graphs, charts are extremely helpful & encouraging.

Christi walks you through a Step-by-Step process of couponing:

       1. Buy Newspapers
       2. Sort Newspapers
       3. Find the Deals
       4. Make Coupon Matches
       5. Organize for Coupon Run
       6. Shop and Save
       7. Wrap up at home
       8. Celebrate & share

In the book, Christi recommends buying one (1) newspaper per family member to build a good supply of coupons.  I don't typically buy newspapers because we don't always have it in the budget. But I do follow along with Sunday Coupon Preview to know whether or not there are coupons in the newspaper that week that I will use for my family, then I can plan to buy the number of papers needed. I also get coupons in the mail each Tuesday and I use mostly internet printed coupons that I print off from Swagbucks.  I get 10 Swagbucks for every coupon redeemed. Swagbucks can be turned into gift cards and/or PayPal cash.

Christi tells about using websites that do all of the "coupon matching" footwork for you....this is a great tip! These websites make it so easy to find the deals that really save you money.  Christi doesn't list specific websites in her book but does have a list of her favorites on her website.  Doing a quick internet search will find you many others that may be more suited to your area and/or stores.  Two of my favorites are Totally Target and Kroger Krazy.

Organization is key to couponing....Christi walks you through the system that she uses to organize her coupons.  She has develop a system that works for her & her family.  I have tried several different methods of organizing my coupons and have settled on a smaller binder that has been working for me for awhile now.

First, I had to re-organize my binder before I started......

I went to my favorite coupon matching websites....I always check to see if the coupons are on Swagbucks coupons before printing them from the matching websites.  I also went to Target to print off the store coupons.

After I printed all of my coupons, I put them into my binder.



Then I loaded my Target Cartwheel, Ibotta deals, & Kroger digital coupons....matched up the printed coupons with specific items in the store ads & put them in envelopes to have easily accessible and then was able to write out my shopping list for the two stores that I was going to do my shopping at.


My budget for today....$250.00 (this is two weeks of groceries for us)

Off I go......

I started my Target trip off right with a snack....that I saved 10% with my Target Cartwheel ~ it isn't good to grocery shop when you are hungry!

Yes, that is my tiny little coupon binder....it holds ALL of my coupons!

I love Target....you can use Target coupons, Manufacturer Coupons, Ibotta, & now the Target Cartwheel for lots of savings in one trip!  Now that is some serious coupon stacking!!!

On this trip, the total before coupons & the cartwheel savings was $155.64...OOP $110.74  A total savings of $44.90....plus I had $1.75 for products in my Ibotta deals that I will be able to transfer to my PayPal.  (sorry no photos...the kids put all of the groceries away before I could snap a photo)

Next stop Kroger......

As you can see I "stacked" a coupon with a sale price for the Allegra to get it a good price.  And I kept my eye out for those little red and white closeout tags.....I sure wish I had some coupons to go with that closeout price....but I stocked up on them anyway at $.42 per box!

I had a couple Kroger coupons (they mail them out) for items from the deli, so I was able to get lunch meat & sliced cheese in this trip.  Also, in this trip were pull-ups, milk, eggs, meat, cereal, & more.  I always check the meat section for the "Managers Special" marked down meat....which I found about 4 pounds of ground beef that had been marked down to $2.19 a pound.

My total at Kroger before savings & coupons was $205.80 my OOP $122.59.....a 41% savings!

And I had money left over from my budgeted amount!

Like I said before, I have been couponing for a few years now...so most of the information about coupon lingo, organization, where to get my coupons, etc that Christi explains in Couponing Made Simple...I already knew....but I definitely received the motivation I desperately needed to keep going with my couponing!  

So thank you, Christi!!!!  

I highly recommend Couponing Made Simple to anyone just starting out or anyone looking for that little boost of motivation to keep them going!