Sample Content Preview

Introduction to Couponing

Welcome to introduction to couponing. In this course, you will learn everything you need to know in order to successfully use coupons to lower your grocery bill. You will find out where you can get coupons, how to use the coupons you obtain, amplify your savings with sales and deals, and how best to create and manage a stockpile of your finds.

What can you realistically expect from couponing?

First, you can expect a lower grocery bill. The US Department of Agriculture’s 2022 moderate food cost estimate for a family of four is over $1200 monthly. Beginner couponers should only expect to see modest savings; you can’t expect huge savings from the start. Your savings at the cash register will increase as your couponing skills grow. Ideally, as you become an experienced couponer, your savings on food will be 25% or more, and 50% or more for non-food

Second, you can anticipate that you will get better at planning your meals. Mealtime sometimes end up being a chaotic time of deciding what to cook. With couponing, mealtime doesn’t have to be a crisis any longer. Couponing can help you plan your meals better, because you’ll have a greater quantity and variety of staples on hand. You can expect to make fewer trips to the grocery store, because with couponing, you will tend to have more of the items you regularly purchase in your stockpile.

You can now be ready for whatever crises and emergencies you may encounter. When crises and emergencies happen, you can be prepared to weather the storm. When natural disasters hit, you don’t have to run to the store with everyone else to purchase milk, toilet paper, water, etc. If you lose your job, your stockpile can hold you over temporarily until you get a new job and paychecks start coming in again. The COVID pandemic was a great lesson in being prepared for a crisis. One couponer was so well prepared, she did not go to the grocery store for an entire year when her husband experienced a huge pay cut.

As a result, you will experience greater peace of mind. Being prepared and having greater quantities of your staple items on hand means you can rest easier, knowing that you will be able to handle whatever comes your way. Having a stockpile helps reduce stress; you don’t have to worry about paying full price for the items you need and regularly purchase. Couponing can therefore mean more money in your bank account. Couponing is not a silver bullet; you are not automatically or completely guaranteed to have everything you need, when you need it, and for less. But couponing can be a great help.

Tools and basic organization

You will obviously need some method of cutting the coupons you will soon begin to acquire. Scissors are the best and most easily accessible of all cutting tools; they give you the greatest control over what you cut. However, they are best suited for only cutting one, maybe two or three, layers at a time. Like/identical coupon insert pages and printed sheets can be stacked, possibly stapled, in order to expedite cutting. For stacked coupons, a guillotine paper cutter is ideal. However, care is needed, so as to not accidentally cut into the coupons. Other cutting tools include, but are not limited to, gift wrap cutters, paper trimmers, etc.

A calculator is crucial. Make sure to keep your cellphone handy and fully charged when you shop, because you will need your calculator feature. It might actually be easier to use a separate handheld calculator, because you will need your cellphone for other functions while you shop (i.e., internet access, grocery list). You will find the calculator helpful for keeping a running tally of your total; this is especially crucial if you need to stay within a certain budget.

Using Google Sheets or a similar spreadsheet app on your phone is a great tool to use while you shop. You can set it up before you leave the house with the items you intend to purchase, the quantity, the cost, the coupons to be used, and the anticipated totals. You can then make changes in the store as necessary, according to what they may have on hand, and what you might need to adjust. Because the totals automatically change in the spreadsheet as you update the numbers, you will always be able to maintain an accurate total while you shop, which is particularly helpful if you’re shopping on a budget.

You will need some method of storing and organizing your coupons, once you begin to cut them and organize them for your shopping trips. A small coupon wallet with sections is ideal, especially for beginners. Many couponers eventually upgrade to a large coupon binder. It is advantageous because it holds many more coupons than a small wallet. It is a liability, in that it clearly identifies you as a couponer, and thus earns you some dirty looks in the store, by customers and cashiers alike.

Expert couponers usually eventually outgrow even the large coupon binders, for storing all of their coupons. They can then switch to using hanging file folders, kept at home, for storing all of their coupons, and then they pull only what they need for various shopping trips (in which case the small wallet is once again sufficient.) Coupons are maintained in chronological order in hanging file folders, and are often stored by whole insert, as opposed to cutting them all out. The advantage is that you have a small, manageable quantity of coupons when you are in the store. The disadvantage is that, if you don’t know beforehand you need a coupon, you won’t have it when you do need it.

Getting your initial start-up set of coupons

One of the most popular types of manufacturer coupons is the coupon inserts found in the Sunday newspaper. Most Sundays (except for holiday weekends), your local Sunday newspaper will have one or more coupon inserts. The three most common inserts are Proctor & Gamble, Smart Source, and Save. Try to obtain at least one set for each member of your household (i.e., if you have 5 family members, try to get at least 5 Proctor & Gamble inserts), but no less than four. One set of coupons is not really going to be enough.

Sample Content Preview

What is homeschooling?

The easiest way to define homeschooling is, schooling or learning that occurs at home. However, the concept of homeschooling encompasses so much more than what is said in this simple explanation. Homeschooling does not have to take place solely in the home, and it almost never looks like “school” in the traditional sense. A more comprehensive, yet simple, definition is that homeschooling is the learning process that occurs primarily in, but is not limited to, the home.

Homeschooling can take place in many different locations. While it is usually at the student’s home, it is not limited to their home. It can be at a friend’s home, a neighbor’s home, a family member’s home, or the home of another student. It doesn’t have to be in a home at all; it can be at a library, a museum, a planetarium, a zoo, an aquarium, a science/discovery center, or a national park. It can be in a car, a minivan, a recreational vehicle (RV)…these are just a few physical locations where homeschooling can occur.

Homeschooling as a learning process does not have to look like school at all. Learning can take place at the grocery store; a student’s learning can be reinforced in a number of ways through the use of a simple grocery shopping trip. Before leaving home, the student can create the meal plan for the next week, make note of the items needed for the meals, check the kitchen, pantry, etc. for these items, and write a grocery shopping list for the items needed. Once at the store, the student can shop for the items on the list, compare prices and sizes of the chosen products, check for any possible savings, and check out at the register. This one outing alone has taught and reinforced skills such as mathematics, home organization, budgeting, planning, decision making, just to name a few. And in no way does this exercise resemble the traditional in-school learning process.

While most homeschooled students are taught by their parents, this is also not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes, one or even both parents are not able to teach the student, and the reasons vary widely. Perhaps the parent’s or parents’ work schedule does not allow them to teach their student. Maybe it’s a single parent household. The parent might be ill or disabled. It could even just be a case of the parent not possessing the necessary skills or knowledge to teach some or all of the lessons (i.e., calculus). Yet the student can still have a holistic, age- and grade-appropriate learning experience.

Why homeschool?

Why do families decide to homeschool? The reasons for homeschooling are as numerous and as varied as the families who take this path. Sometimes the parent(s) will choose to homeschool for financial, or academic, or religious, or safety reasons. Sometimes the student will ask the parent if they can be homeschooled. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the homebound learning that occurred as a result of it, meant that homeschooling, very loosely interpreted, became a requirement for everyone—even those that did not choose this method of learning. Here’s a closer look at some of the reasons for homeschooling.

One reason a parent may choose to homeschool is because they cannot afford to give their student the quality education they desire to give them. The family may live in an area with a substandard school district, if they are even considering public schooling at all; or they want the type of education for their student that is only offered at private schools that far exceeds their budget. Homeschooling can offer a parent the opportunity to create a rich learning environment for their student, regardless of their financial situation. Great learning does not require unlimited or vast resources; with enough creativity and research, the student’s home learning experience can be just as good as the best private schools in the country.

Another reason a parent may choose to homeschool is for academic reasons. Similar to the discussion of financial reasons for homeschooling, a parent may not have access to quality schools in their area, whether public or private. A parent may even be able to afford to pay the tuition at an expensive private school, but may not have such an option in their local area, and they are not willing to send their student to a boarding school.

A parent may also choose to homeschool for religious reasons. Regardless of the cost, quality or availability of the schools in their area, a parent may desire to educate their student at home to provide the student with a foundation in their faith. All schools, even secular (nonsectarian) schools, frame their curriculum with a particular worldview and agenda, and some parents would prefer their student not learn within the framework of their local schools’ worldview. Parents who homeschool for this reason do not face the challenge that those parents face whose students attend traditional schools—namely, that they disagree with the worldview and agenda of the school that their student attends.

Parents sometimes choose to homeschool for safety reasons. Chances are, a school does not exist anywhere where there is not some degree of bullying that is occurring. Most every student will experience some form of bullying during their traditional school experience, and some bullying will be extreme and can have lifelong aftereffects. Also, by all indications, there is an increase in incidences of drugs, weapons, etc. being brought to school by other students. In extreme cases, mass shooting events have occurred. No parent wants to subject their student to dangerous conditions such as these, just to go to school to get an education. Some parents will teach their student at home, for the sake of providing a safe learning environment for them.