Once you’ve got your coupons and you’ve honed your coupon skills, it’s time to start planning your shopping trips around the best sales.

If you live in a large city with lots of shopping choices, just creating your shopping list can be a little intimidating. There are so many deals out there. And even when you live out in the woods like I do, it’s important to plan your excursions to make the most of your trip to town.

Fortunately, the internet makes it simple to find great match-ups. You can find many blogs that do the complete match-ups of coupons to the sales you can save on everything from household cleaners to groceries and toiletries.

You will also find websites that offer searchable coupon databases and forums with endless information on steals and deals.

I’m a bit of unique case when it comes to looking up coupons and deals. I read A LOT of deal blogs and forums – not just for my personal use – but in an effort to help you.

You may wonder why I don’t do my own coupon match-ups on Northern Cheapskate. The reason I don’t is that compiling these shopping lists takes an incredible amount of time and energy… and so many other sites do it BETTER than I ever could. I would rather use my energy in other ways to help you save money.

So here is a list of my favorite sites (in no particular order) for deal match-ups. Every single one of these resources is FREE to use. While there are sites that offer paid weekly or monthly subscriptionsfor these store match-ups, I find that there are plenty of wonderful, free services out there that do the job just as well… if not better. For example, check out:

• A Full Cup – free forums and a searchable coupon database to help you plan your shopping.
• Hot Coupon World – similar in feel to A Full Cup, but a whole different community, often with different deals!
• The Coupon Mom – This is how I got started in couponing. Her shopping lists aren’t always as comprehensive as some of the blogs, but she does offer a lot of good advice for the beginning couponer.

A few blogs I also check before shopping:

• Common Sense with Money (one of my favorites for Walmart, Target, and drugstore deals)
• Stretching a Buck (GREAT for Target deals, and I’m a Target junkie)
• Deal Seeking Mom (Lots of matchups for lots of stores, plus the site has recently launched its own coupon database)
• Pocket Your Dollars (a fellow MN blogger; I love to check her Cub Foods deals)

Please check out my blog roll for a list of the many other blogs I turn to for match-ups. And if you use these resources, please tell the people who put all of the work into them a big “Thank you.” They do a great job!