Using coupons can be overwhelming, confusing and seem unrealistic. Is it even possible to realize the savings that you see on TV? How can you best use your time and resources to maximize your savings with coupons?

Know What is RealisticUnderstanding Sales Cycles

The biggest key to coupon success is understanding the sales cycles. While you can gather this information yourself, it's easier to use one of the available databases. These deal-finding services compile all the ads from a certain area and match them with current coupons. Some sites will even highlight which items are currently at their rock bottom price. Using this system regularly is the absolute best way to save with coupons. Some couponing databases are free to use, while others require a subscription fee.

Get Multiple Copies

To make coupons work for you, it's important to have more than one copy of the available coupon fliers. Despite the increase in printables, most coupons still come in the Sunday newspaper.

While you can pick up several Sunday papers at the newsstand, they are more expensive and are more prone to tampering. Coupon experts recommend that serious savers subscribe to their papers.

The number of copies that you need depends on the size of your family, but most regular coupon users receive at least four copies of the newspaper and included coupon inserts.

Know the Policies

Each store you shop at has different coupon policies. If you don't know what those policies are, you will miss the best deals. Wal-Mart, for example, allows coupon overages. If you match a purchase with a coupon valued at more than the purchase price, you can apply the difference to the rest of your order or even receive cash back, so plan accordingly. You should also know ahead of time whether you store doubles coupons, matches competitors' prices or limits the number of sale items you can purchase.

Take Home Free Products

While most shoppers won't bring $1000 worth of groceries down to a single digit bill, almost every couponer can get some items free. Most freebies are earned by matching high value coupons with the smallest package size of a particular product. If a coupon doesn't exclude trial sizes, you can get regular freebies in the travel section of your store. It's also easy to get full-sized items like toothpaste, razors, body wash and deodorant free by watching the sales cycle and matching rock bottom prices with valuable coupons.

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