One of the biggest recommendations I can give you about couponing is learning your store's coupon policy. If you know what the policy is before you go shopping, you can be confident and less nervous when it comes time for check out. There have been a lot of times that a cashier has had an issue with some of my coupons or something didn't ring up like it should have. Because I knew that I was right and had checked on the coupon policy before I went shopping, the issues ended up being worked out and I received the full value of the coupons. Sometimes you will panic inside and you may be embarrassed because the cashier will argue with you, but stand your ground if you know that you are right. Don't pay for something you know you shouldn't be paying for.
You can find a summary of a ton of store coupon policies here. Although some stores have a corporate coupon policy, my advice is to always call your store and ask them personally what their policy is. I do that for my local grocery stores and drugstores. Just find their phone number and ask to speak to customer service. The store will tell you if you can double or triple coupons, if they take competitor coupons, or even how many coupons you can "stack" per item you buy.
If the last sentence confused you, here are what those things mean. Some stores will let you double or triple a coupon. When I would shop at Walmart, they allowed me to double a coupon up to $1. So if I had a $.50 off coupon, I would really get $1 off. As for competitor coupons, when I would shop at Publix, each Publix would have a list of stores within a certain radius that they considered "competitors". If a store was on their list, you could use their store coupons at Publix! And to "stack" coupons is to use multiple coupons per item. Target is one of the best stores for this. They let you use one manufacturer coupon, one Target coupon and the Cartwheel app for every item.
Now what are some items that are difficult to coupon? It is rare that you can coupon produce & fresh meat. I have been able to coupon milk and eggs, but fresh fruits, vegetables and meat are a bit more difficult. The best thing you can do for produce is to buy items that are on sale or in season. As for meat, there will be random times you will find a coupon for it and when you do, stock up! I remember there was a month where every package of ground turkey had a buy one get one coupon attached to it. I would buy about 8 packages at a time and freeze it.
On the flip side, there are definitely items you should NEVER pay for. These items you will always be able to get for free or get paid to purchase. The list is a bit long, but some of these items are: toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, shampoo, deodorant, pain relievers, soap...
It never failed - every week I went couponing I would get some of these items for free. Now if there is a certain brand you want, it may never be free, but it can definitely be much cheaper than normal! For example, I am not brand loyal to shampoos, but one week I had coupons that allowed me to get any John Freida shampoo or conditioner for $.50. It is regularly $5-6 a bottle at that store, so I ended up buying about 10 total. I got all 10 for the regular price of one. I still am using this shampoo and conditioner.
If you want to see the "rock bottom" price for a large list of items, click here. This is the lowest price you will probably ever see for these things. So in other words, if you have coupons and can get near this price, that's the time you should buy it! You will also see a large list of items that you can get for free.
One other great little trick: Try to buy items on clearance WITH coupons. One day we needed coffee and Truvia. About 6 flavors of Dunkin Donuts coffee happened to be on clearance. Also attached to these bags was a coupon for free Truvia when you bought two bags of coffee. So we bought 6 bags of coffee at clearance price and got three boxes of Truvia for free! It ended up costing us a total of $30 when it should have cost around $55. Just always be sure to check expiration dates on items that are marked for clearance!
So that is just a quick and easy rundown on store coupon policies and prices to look for when you are out shopping. Next week I'll start talking about how to put everything together and actually start couponing!