Couponing, Is It For Me?

This is my dilemma. I have several friends who share their excellent shopping skills in the grocery store. They save a ton of money and I'm always impressed with what they are able to find.
I'd say I'm pretty good at finding good sales for clothing and I never pay full price for those items, but I tend to be fairly clueless on couponing. In fact, sometimes when I'm in a store I see a "sale" and am not even sure if it is a real sale or not.
For instance, I recently went to Kroger and saw their Old Yeller 50 lb dog food bag advertised "on sale" at the same price it's been for at least 6 months, which is about a dollar more than it was a year ago. Not much of a sale in my book. Now, I can recognize this as a marketing strategy because I purchase this dog food once a month. I know the price and I know what I believe to be a savings on the matter. I also am not naive enough to fall for Walmart's marketing ploy. They are at least gracious enough to post their savings on their "look for falling prices" sticker. I don't even remember the item it was marked on, but it was promo-priced at $9.96 with the "WAS" sticker proclaiming $10. Ummm...four cents may be enough to sway me to fill up at one gas station over another, but on clothing? Yeah, no thanks. That isn't really classified as a savings. It just means you can say "less than $10".
So, then I think all about that couponing thing again. I've purchased the paper to get the exclusive sales coupons found in the notorious Sunday paper (and I hated every minute of getting it on the Sabbath to begin with!!). When I looked in the paper, sure, there were a FEW things that might be worth it, but I didn't get savings immediately. It was like for things if I sign up to be a frequent shopper of that particular store and then I'd earn money off my next shopping spree. These items weren't even actually groceries, so I may purchase this once but then not again for five months or more! Sure, maybe the savings will still be stocked up on that card, but will I remember it and will there be another sale worthy of using that "free" money I supposedly saved? Probably not.
So, I still sit pondering about the coupons. I'm pretty frugal as it is and I can't say that the coupon items are even things I'd purchase. Know what? I even looked at getting the $5 rebates offered when you buy Beauty and the Beast and Campbell's soup or the bagels' offer. But...I didn't. Know why? My family doesn't really eat canned soup. We make soups from scratch, so it's not even an item I'd regularly purchase. If this, then I'm not actually saving money, I'm just distributing it out over more items. This then leaves a MINOR savings, but not less than I can find with other deals (like shopping at Movie Stop and getting someone's used DVD b/c they upgraded to the newly released version).
So, I still sit here in awe and wonder at my friends who seem to make great purchases for groceries without a clue to if it is even practical for me to worry my "pretty little head" about it. I think I need a bit more Scarlett O'Hara when it comes to money and figures surrounding groceries. (And, if you don't know, Scarlett may have been manipulative and vain, but she certainly DID make good business decisions....just so you know.)