itunes, new mac

I just switched to a mac this last week (got it as a graduation present) and i noticed that when i transfered all my music to itunes on my mac, it created an additional copy of them in my "itunes" folder.
my question is is it alright to delete the original mp3, that way i dont waste disk space with a double copy of every mp3 i have?

if you have Keep my iTunes folder organised and Copy files to my iTunes folder selected in iTunes preferences then you can delete copies outside your iTunes folder

thanx man.
but it organizes my mp3's as soon as i play them in my itunes, so basically as soon as it does that i can delete the original (just as long as i dont mess with the mp3 in the itunes folder).