How do I start?

OK do I start by using coupons however I can and first shop around to find out store prices? I have no idea what stores charge what so I don't know the best stores to shop at for deals. Good thing is I have 3 groceries all within 5-10 mins of my house. We get circulars for all of them and have shopper cards for each as well.

I'm thinking spreadsheet with prices for each store of stuff we buy (brands and just generic). I have to be organized b/c I can't keep that in my head and do this right.

My suggestion would be to when you get the circular's go thru find out what is on sale. See if you can get the coupon policy for your stores. What stores are they I might can help. Do you get the insert coupons?? There are several places to order coupons if you need extras. The way I started was took the Publix circular, circled everything I needed, what was a good price/bogo; then I go to the coupondatabase on hotcouponworld.com to see what coupons are out. If it's a printable I print 2 if it's an insert I look to see if it would be benefitial to find more than 4 of the coupon (that's how many sets I get a week). If it's something I know I will use and it's a great price I will find more coupons.

Does any of that make sense???

Then I pick 1 item a week to stock pile.

my suggestion is go to hotcouponworld.com look up your store and if u see if theres something u use with coupons..(they will tell u what coupon goes to what product... u can then go to ebay and buy the coupons.

That does make sense Julie. We get circulars from all the local stores, inserts in the Sunday paper and we do look online for coupons although admittedly not as much online.

We do look for the 1/2 price-BOGO deals and get them as well as the deals on meats, produce, and anything else.

I do a mix of buying what we need and stockpiling just a few things (soups, pastas, cereals, juice boxes, snacks are a few things that come to mind.

Sounds like I've got a good start.

We have Shop-Rite, Stop-and-Shop, Pathmark and A&P. Wegman's too but that's a bit far. I know Pathmark doubles up to $0.99.

Oh and I am bad at the math quickly so I am a unit price shopper. It helps that we are only brand loyal on a few things.

Have you tried hcw??