First, you have to assess yourself. What kind of person are you?

If coupon clipping, sorting and going through the sale papers is torture to you, then it's probably not going to work out. Maybe secret shopping would be more your thing, or paid surveys. You have to figure out which things will work for you. Because if you hate doing it, you won't keep doing it, and you'll stop saving money.

Of course, the BEST thing to do is all of it! Rebates, coupons, secret shopping, surveys, and more.

First, you NEED to go to Slickdeals.net. There, you can find all sorts of threads about freebies, hot deals, etc. It's great to sign up for free samples of toothpaste to come in the mail, but the real value comes in the threads about specific stores.

Make a list of the ones you have in your area (grocery and drug.) Search in thread titles for those stores. All of the information is a little overwhelming at first, but is very helpful in pinpointing what the best sales are. The CVS topics are typically the hottest ones.

Also, you can visit the stores' websites and bookmark them, or sign up for their weekly newsletter, so that you can see the deals for the week (if you don't get the sales papers in the newspaper.)

The people on Slickdeals match up the best sales with coupons. The coupons that match the sales aren't necessarily in the same Sunday paper. You might have to go back a few weeks.

Personally, I save my coupon inserts in a filing cabinet, so that I can go back when I need to and clip coupons that I normally would not have clipped, but there is just a hot deal for them.

This might not be feasible for you, so that's where the thecouponclippers.com comes in. You can buy the specific coupons that you need. They're not expensive, typically about 10 cents each. Sometimes you have to buy 10 of each one, or more desired ones may cost more. You can also check ebay if Coupon Clippers is out of the one that you want.

At Slickdeals, they often have info about a store's sales a couple of weeks in advance, which gives you time to get you coupons ready (and to buy the hot ones before most people realize that they will even be hot!)

Even if you can't get an advance preview, you can still place a coupon order the first day the sale paper comes out, and you'll most likely receive them before the sale is over.

Don't be afraid to buy brands you don't normally buy! Or to stockpile things! There is no shame in having 20 tubes of toothpaste. As long as you have the storage space, it's a great thing. I recommend clearing out a closet in your house specifically for your stockpile. It will be worth it, trust me.

My personal stockpile is filled with shampoo, conditioner, soap, bodywash, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, floss, face wash, makeup, haircolor and more that I paid nothing or next to nothing for. This is the little stuff that was killing my budget a year ago. I'd run out of bodywash, and have to run up to Walmart and buy more. It'd be their "everyday low price" but it's still not free. Even if you are not a high maintenance person, a couple can spend $90 a month on toiletries, if you count up all the things I listed above. (Razors are a real killer.)

I also have medicines like Tylenol, Maalox, Alavert, and Excedrin stockpiled. These are easy to get free, and you eliminate those 11pm runs to the convenience store where you pay $8 for some stomach medicine.

You can stockpile laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and dishwashing soap. These things, especially paper goods, will kill your budget if you don't pay attention to them. If you buy toilet paper at a normal grocery store, you can pay as much as $1 a roll. Yikes! I typically pay about a quarter a roll, and that's at CVS where I'm usually paying with Extrabucks, so it's like it's free.

All these things add up. It takes a while to build a proper stockpile (took me 6 months) but once you have it, it's easy to keep going and you always have supplies on hand. That's an easy savings of $100-$200 a month when you have necessities already in your house (plus the gas to run out all the time to get things you're completely out of!)

A stockpile doesn't have to be junky or scary. I know you might be picturing the crazy cat lady down the street who saves old newspapers and tin cans. This is nothing like that. You can keep them organized and neat, and hey, it's useful stuff, not trash. It is worth it!