Starting Out

My sisters and sister-in-law always e-mail back and forth about good deals we find so I thought this could be a good place where anyone who also wanted in on the good deals could look.
Here are some tips for beginning couponers:
1. Subscribe to the paper (although I go back and forth on whether this is worth it or not. It seems like I go through periods where I either use a lot of newspaper coupons, or hardly any at all. For the time being I still subscribe-I get a paper everyday and 5 papers on Sunday for $19.99/mo.) I've found that you can get a lot of coupons off the internet so it's not completely necessary to subscribe. In fact I would probably suggest seeing what you can use from the internet before you subscribe.
2. Check out grocerysmarts.com or pinchingyourpennies.com. Both places have grocery lists that match up sale prices with coupons giving you the best value for your dollar.
3. Become familiar with the lingo. The grocery lists or coupon blogs will tell you which coupons to use, but it can be a little bit difficult to interpret. I'll break down the following for you:

Litehouse Product, any $1/1 (3-31-10) SS-12/13

$1/1 means if you buy one Litehouse product you will get $1 off. The (3/31/10) tells you when the coupon expires, and SS 12/13 tells you which insert the coupon came out of.
There are 3 inserts that come in the paper.
Red Plum=RP
Smart Source=SS
Procter & Gamble=PG
So this particular coupon came out of the Smart Source insert that came out on December 13th.
Whenever I get the inserts I always label them with the date so I know where to find a coupon when I need it.
I hope this is helpful for those interested in getting started.