I have been getting a lot of interest and questions about couponing so....I'm BAAAAACCKKKKK!
I want to do a quick overview of coupon theory since it has been months since I last posted. Ultimately the goal is to get to the point where you are only buying what is on sale and you have a coupon for. I am absolutely not recommending that you buy 600 of something when it is on sale.....trust me a stockpile will build faster than you can imagine when you are just purchasing a few of something. My personal limit is 4 of anything, EVER. When you are first starting your savings will not be an overnight thing, there will still be things that you absolutely have to have.....please for all of our sakes, if you run out of deodorant do not avoid buying it because you do not have a coupon and it is not on sale!
Your first step to getting started with coupons is to build your collection. Your best resource for coupons is your Sunday paper. I currently get 4 copies every week. Houston has an early Sunday edition and I get 2 of those. That gives me all of the coupon inserts and the sales ads that give me the pricing that starts on Sunday. (A quick note: Drugstores, Target, Walmart, etc. update their sales on Sundays. Grocery stores update their sales on Wednesdays.) This gives me a chance to review what is going on and find out if I need to rush out to take advantage of a sale on Sunday. I also have 2 delivered to the house on Sunday morning. We have considered setting up a 3rd delivery and only buying 1 on Saturday but at some point I may cut back on the number of papers I get so we have been stalling. Unfortunately the Chronicle does not deliver the Early Sunday edition so I do have to go out and pick it up.
Depending on the size of your household you will need to figure out how many papers are appropriate for you. Start small....give yourself a chance to try it out. If you call the newspaper and they start delivering 10 papers to your house and you discover that you HATE couponing and that you are not seeing any savings and it is not worth your time (If any of that happens you get in touch with me IMMEDIATELY, we need to have a lesson!) you could be stuck with a ton of newspapers and nothing to do with it. I recommend starting with 2 that you pick up on Sunday mornings (Or Saturdays if your paper does an early Sunday). That will give you a chance to start seeing what coupons are available and what sales happen also starting to develop your shopping routines.
In addition to your Sunday paper inserts, there are tons of printable online coupons. Coupons.com, smartsource.com, bettycrocker.com & pillsbury.com just to start with. There is a pitfall to avoid with the online coupons. When I first started I was printing like a maniac, had tons of the online coupons. What I have found is that a lot of the time these are duplicates to the ones that are in the paper and they have a shorter expiration time (Usually around 30 days from the time you print them). Now, I usually only print them when I have a specific purpose in mind. For example, when I go to krazycouponlady.com and they have a listing for a sale with a link to the coupon and it is one that I don't have a paper copy for I will go print it. Another thing to know about online coupons is that you are limited on the number you can print. It is 2 prints per COMPUTER in your house. I personally have 2 computers and have access to Joe's (at least when he is not looking) so I can print up to 6. This is also a good alternative if you don't want to deal with the Sunday papers. You can skip some of the hassle and see at least some savings with an extreme minimum of effort.
However, there are deals that you will absolutely miss out on because they do not provide all of the coupons in an online format. In addition, there were some serious problems with online coupon fraud a while back so a lot of the stores banned the use of them. The non acceptance of online coupons has been lifted in most places but it still has the potential to cause some problems.
Your next resource for building your coupon collection is your store card. There are several sites that cater specifically to this. Proctor and Gamble will load directly to your store loyalty card www.pgesaver.com, also the website for your specific store (mine is www.kroger.com) will often have store coupons you can load directly. A word on this.....a lot of times your paper coupons have a higher dollar value on these items and you can use multiples. With the store cards, they will process any coupons you have loaded FIRST and then not allow a paper coupon for the same thing. These are also only good on 1 item. I always run my store card AFTER they have processed my items and coupons. Another thing to watch for is that sometimes the digital coupons just don't work. If it happens to you, get ont he phone with the 800 number and usually they can work it out for you. In addition to store coupons, you will sometimes get little pieces of paper that print from the register called Catalinas. These are coupons issued based on what you have purchased. They can be for the same item or something similar and in some cases just a certain dollar off amount on your next purchase. Look at them before you throw them away!!!!
No coupon collection would be complete without some store specific coupons. Target is fantastic for couponers since they actually provide store coupons on their website. The coupon policy at Target allows for a store coupon AND a manufacturer coupon for the same item. This week I went in and got toothpaste for $0.24 a tube because Target had a $1 off and I had a manufacturer for $1.....it doesn't get any better than that! Target also issues coupons in your Sunday paper, there are usually a few scattered in there and on occasion you get a full Target insert. When you print coupons from the Target website they are usually valid for a much shorter period so I never print them unless I know I am going to use them. They have the same limitations as other coupons so only 2 prints per computer. In addition to Target, several of the local drugstores have a similar program. Walgreens issues a coupon book every month that you can pick up in the store, those can also be matched with manufacturer coupons for big savings. CVS issues coupons from a big red machine when you scan your card. Both Walgreens and CVS have a program where they issue store credit when you make certain purchases. Walgreens has Register Rewards with no card required, so lets say they issue store credit of $3 when you purchase $10 of a certain product. They do not limit the number of times you can do this in a week so if you find a really excellent deal you can go back more than once. CVS is a little different, since they require a loyalty card to take advantage of these deals they set limits on the number of times you can use them and it is tracked on your card.
Once you start using coupons you will find them everywhere.....on products that you are purchasing (called peelies), tear pads sitting next to a product on the shelves, little machines in the aisles of your grocery store (blinkies) and so on. Coupons are EVERYWHERE!
A final note: Your store does not lose money when you use coupons. The manufacturers that issue coupons reimburse your store for the full amount of the coupon plus a processing fee. When a store issues a coupon they do it for marketing purposes, they want to get you into the store because the chances are that you will buy additional items and a higher loyalty to that particular store. Never "feel bad" about taking advantage of the savings that they are offering you. The stores are winning and so are you!
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