Now that you know about sale cycles and where to find coupons, you can put them together and plan a couponing shopping trip.
All you need to do is check out the weekly sales at your store of choice and then match up the available coupons to each item you plan to purchase.
The weekly ads can be found on the store's website, in the Sunday paper and on couponing websites. I will be posting links to sale cycle and coupon match ups from Publix, Target and Walmart when I can.
The first thing I do when I plan a trip is I make my list online. The links I post allow you to create a printable shopping list with coupon match ups. I usually look through the printable list and delete any coupon match ups that I know I don't have or won't use. I then link off my list to print out any printable coupons that I need for the items. Once I do that, I take my list and go through my coupon binder (more on that later) and pull and organize all the coupons I need for the sale items.
The links I post only contain advertised sales so I also manually add my regular items (ie:eggs, milk, bread) onto my printable list as well. I then go through my binder and see if I have coupons for those items anyways. I also take my binder with me on my shopping trips in case I see a great unadvertised deal or find an in store coupon I can stack with a manufacturer coupon. Target always has amazing, unadvertised clearance sales on everything from shampoo to toothpaste to napkins. Having my binder with me makes sure that I don't miss a deal or feel like I should drive back to the store to take advantage of a sale.
Coming Up: Couponing 101: Part 4- Organizing Your Coupons