yes you can but I the type that just jump in with both feet and go for it. lol I did waste a lot doing it that way but I got the feel of the mat boards too as I cut them. And most was my math errors I not strong in math. some was errors of not paying mind of what I was doing. if you are tried do not do it. Just go to bed and do it when you not falling asleep. I overcut  that way on two of the boards. now I was cutting big mats for big images the images was 18x24 and it would take a whole mat board to do it right. 
If you got photos that is 5x7 you can get a lot of mats out of on mat board which if i remember right is 30x40. do the math. a 5x7 photo needs at lest a 9x11 matt so you can cut at lest 4 matts I guess i not good in math. but if you can cut 4 matts it will just cost you at $2.50 a matt board it be around $0.61 cents. better than $5.00 each if cut at the store; and they will take halve inch off on the sides of your image. I just got a fourth of a inch around my image cut off.

what you see is not what you know; it in your face