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The ABCs of Coupon Shopping
I am a shopping dolt. If there is a way to use coupons to make things cost more, I can do it. But my friend, Faith, can bring home car-load after car-load of products from CVS, Target, and Walgreen’s (Wags) using coupons and either:
- spend very little money
- spend no money at all
- spend no money and also bring home gift cards given to her by the very store where she “bought” all those products jamming up her pantry!
I know! Sounds illegal, huh?
Well, there are tricks to this “coupon magic” and Faith shares them freely with everyone she knows. She even takes her friends to the store and shows them how. And now, for the seventy-leventh time, she is helping me.
First and foremost, you must, must, must start buying the Sunday paper. At least one copy, more is better. If you have a big family like me, you might want to buy three or four copies. You don’t need the daily paper, just the Sunday. Save all the coupon inserts.
Next, you want a printer for your online coupons.
Hot Coupon World is the place to start. Before grocery shopping, check their forums. Select the grocery stores link. Your grocery store is likely listed. The current (and past) weekly ad and the coupon match-ups for online coupons and the coupon inserts from your Sunday paper will be there.
When you are buying things other than grocery and drugstore items go to SlickDeals. It’s a great place to do research or find deals.
The sites to check for Walgreen’s, CVS, and Target deals are:
While you can get most of the same info on Hot Coupon World, these sites tend to whittle the info down to just the really cheap deals and free stuff.
You need to organize your shopping trips by deals. It’s a different way of shopping. You can’t walk into a drugstore and just shop your list and check out all in one go. Pretty much, each deal needs to be a separate transaction. Start small, one or two deals for your first several trips to the stores. Analyze what you want to do. Write it down, attach your coupons to your list with a paper clip.
When you come back home, study what you got, the coupons you used, the whole thing. It’s a whole new skill you are trying to learn. You gotta study. Sorry!
When deals are rock bottom or free STOCK UP! It doesn’t matter whether you NEED an item or not. If it’s something you will use, buy lots of it when it’s cheap or free.
And when a blog says HOT COUPON then you need to print it right away… before all the available prints are gone.
I’ve written a few posts detailing some of my experiences with coupon shopping (with Faith’s help). You can find them here, here, here, here, here and here.
Really, you don’t have to read all of those to learn how to coupon shop, but there is some good info there and lots of links to some of the good coupon deal sites.
It has helped me a great deal to go to Money Saving Mom and read (and re-read) her articles about it.
I’ll leave you with these two thoughts.
- The deals that work out best are those where you can combine a manufacturer’s coupon, a store coupon and a good sale price.
- When you have a coupon that is a buy one, get one free, and the store is having a buy one, get one free sale, BINGO, both items are free!
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Thanks Becky!
Hey there! This is totally off topic, but I was awarded a Favorite Blog award and part of it includes passing it on to some of my favorite blogs. I picked you and if you want to participate you can pop over to my blog for the rules. Hope you’re having a great day.
If they aren’t saving you money then it’s not worth the bother. I certainly can’t be bothered with a lot of the items the there are coupons for. If it’s not something I would normally use, then I just don’t need to buy it (unless it’s a money maker, then I can just give the product away!).
My husband won’t let me use coupons. he says the majority of them is for stuff we don’t use or for processed food. We don’t use most canned goods, packaged goods or frozen foods that are sold in grocery stores. We eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. I tried to do the coupon one time but 90% of everything I saw was for things we do not use at all. I do save money buying meat that are on sale. 90% of the time I pay less than $2.00/ lb for meat. I have a freezer and I stock up. Toiletries I just buy what works for us. My husband has sensitive skin so we stick to what works. Also I don’t like to stock up. To me it seems I am spending more money on stuff I don’t need right then. I might buy a couple more or even a few months supply if it is something we use often, otherwise just because it is on sale does not tempt me at all to purchase it. We are a growing family of 6 and I am very frugal but coupons have not convinced me.
I am glad that they work for you. BTW, thanks for sharing. 
Tereza
You all are getting me excited about couponing (yes, I realize that is not actually a word)! Thanks! I need the motivation.
Really! She does this in her sleep! And in all her waking hours! But, she don’t spend 1/16 what I do on groceries. I tease her, but she laughs all the way to the bank!
See what I’m talkin’ about, people? Couponing is her life’s blood!
Sure, Natalie, my e-mail addy is ship full of pirates (at) gmail (dot) com
I get a lot of rolled oats for free too with coupons, and cream of wheat, as well as free toilet paper, shampoo & conditioner, toothpaste, baby wipes, natural cleaners, spices for cooking, pain relievers, fever reducers, first aid supplies, and really…the list goes on and on. Dont just look at coupons for groceries, think the drugstores too!
Also, don’t forget staples that we all use such as pasta, eggs, milk, yogurt…etc…there are tons of those coupons around. I just got 40 lbs of barilla ww pasta for free a couple of weeks ago! And, target carries several organic items that they put coupons out for that are stackable with manafacturer coupons. http://www.organicgrocerydeals.com
WOW! Great ideas. Donate a can of stuff not used. I just wrote a very lengthy comment, but decided to abstain from boring everybody. Mother hen, can I em it to you instead? You can decide if you want to post it or if you’d rather me break it down into pieces
I got a lot to say even though it’s 1 am in my neck of the woods. it’s all about coupoing and saving questions. I just ordered Debi Pearl’s book the Vision to help it make in the top 100 on B&N. used my educator’s discount card, bought 2 more items I already had in my wish list, got free shipping and shopped thru ebates to get 4% cash back on my order. Though I am officially a failure with coupons I feel pretty good about my savings with B&N. Are you smirking yet? LOL! It did take me some time though. I wonder if i should have coupon clipped instead. Got 2 Sunday papers untouched. It’s been very busy after a 4 day absence from the house. I am paying for it.
I love couponing! glad to see you are giving it a shot!
If you don’t want to buy the Sunday paper, see if you have a friend who is also a paper-boy (or girl). they often get extra flier inserts and just chuck them (my landlord is a paperboy and i have picked his trash on numerous occasions for the inserts)
also, if you come across free convenience food that you don’t want, donate it to a food bank! this week campbell’s soup is free at wag’s and i hate the stuff so i donated it!
its so much fun!!!!!! good luck with it!!!
ps i got a bunch of king arthur whole wheat flour for cheap recently…
Ooh, great idea on the filing! Now I feel bad for throwing them all away, lol. Thanks for the great tips, as always. Keep ‘em coming.
love the frugality with faith..
a blessing amen
gp
Well, Melissa, coupons for ingredients are far more rare than those for “convenience items” but they do exist. Esp. around the Holidays. For those of us who don’t eat a lot of factory made foods, the coupon thing is not as big a deal, but certainly for paper products and other non-food items it can still be a good money saver. As for keeping your coupons organized, you’ll notice that the “deal sites” refer to the date that the coupon insert came in the paper. This date is printed on the spine of the insert, so I keep my coupon inserts intact (I don’t clip), and file them by date, in file folders in my desk drawer. No clutter! YAY!
Are you able to find coupons for real, unprocessed food, cleaners and personal care items? I want to use coupons but can’t find the time or motivation to clip, organize and find the deals. How much time does this take you? I just threw away a huge stack because it sat there for a month and was cluttering up my kitchen. Thanks for the help.