I consider myself a fairly frugal person. I like to save money and be as practical as possible. If there’s a coupon available, I’ll use it. However, I have never gone out of my way to locate coupons for specific products, nor have I strategized about using multiple coupons (web, in-store, and manufacturing) for the same product. I guess I have just never taken the time to learn how to do this; thinking it was probably too complicated for me.

Then two things happened. First, I was invited to attend a “couponing class” where I learn more about using coupons and saving money. I am really looking forward to this class next week, as I have a friend who already took the class and loved it. Not only is she saving money, but she’s practically making money. Really?

The other thing that happened is that I connected with a couponing site online called CouponChief.com They were featured a while back by Mashable.com , a social marketing site I trust very much. I figured they would make a great “first” online couponing site that I could go through and discover what I’ve been missing.

I’ll admit that when I have gone to any coupon-type site, CouponChief.com included, I have been a bit overwhelmed. I liked the fact that they included a tab in the upper-right corner titled “How It Works”.

The instructional video guided me through the process, and I realized that the site is heavily focused on coupon codes. I already knew about coupon codes and was using them; however, I didn’t know there was an organized place to find them. My method of madness usually included searching Google, and then wading through results.

CouponChief.com is devoted to helping people save money with codes prior to checking out online. I love the ease at which they make this available, but from what I can tell, they don’t have coupons for offline transactions or groceries. The vast number of online stores and codes they index is amazing though, and I was able to search and find dozens of opportunities I’m sure I’ve missed on recent purchases.

I have added this site to my Delicious account and will return each and every time before I make an online purchase to see if I can save money before I check out.

I will blog again after my couponing class next week to let you know how that goes as well.

I was asked by CouponChief.com to review their site, and compensated for my time

photo credit: Matt McGee