You said you shop every week, isn’t that expensive?
No, when I say I shop every week, I do, but I don’t “shop” every week. Let me explain what I mean. Last week men’s razors where on sale and we had coupons for the sale items. I shopped that week for men’s razors. That was all. I didn’t buy every item on sale, only my needs for my stock pile. The week before that women’s body wash was on sale, so I shopped for women’s body wash. That was all I got. Because I already know what we use and I have taking the time figure out what a 5 month supply is for that one item, I go through my list and see how many more I need to stock pile or replenish. That’s all I buy that week. But I have been doing this for awhile, so I don’t need to buy 50 different items. If every week, you buy extra of those will needs, eventually you will be shopping just to refill those items. The bottom line is, I only shop for items that are on sale that I can combine with coupons and other deals that are on my needs/will needs list.
Where do you get your coupons?
(No need to dumpster dive! That’s nuts, just use the sources you already have)
Sunday Paper- 80% off all food and household items coupons are found in your Sunday paper. Don’t forget to look through the paper, sometimes local stores and restaurants put coupons in the printed sections of the paper.
Online-
Printable- You can print Coupons online, there is Smart Source, Red Plum, Coupon Network, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and many more.
E Coupons-If your store has a loyalty card, chances are you can go to their website and load coupons onto your card.
Face book- If you like a certain product, go and like them on Face Book. They have coupons that will either mail to you or you can print up. This happens all the time.
Blogs- there a ton of blogs that where show you where and how to get coupons.
Company Websites- Most companies have a promotions tab that offers you printable or mailable coupons.
Emails- sign up with your favorite brand or store and get coupons in your inbox. I have had coupons from Staples, Kohl’s, all the way to pickles and birthday candles.
Catalina- These print up at your store when you buy certain products and can be used on future purchase.
On the products- Some products have peelable coupons right on the outside of the product.
In the products- If it comes in a box, cereal, shout color catchers, pasta and so on, look inside the box. A lot of times you will find a coupon inside the box, printed right on the box. I bought some Bounty once and on the bottom inside the wrapping it had coupons. Also I have peeled off a label to find a coupon on the other side.
Store ads/books/coupons machines- When a new store ad comes out, a lot will have an in store coupon, you can usually combine these coupons with manufactures coupons (called stacking). Some stores have coupon books for their store or that is full of manufactures coupons. I know Walgreens has a savings book full of Walgreens coupons, you can grab it at the front of the store where they display that weeks current ads, at the commissary they have booklets and pamphlets at the entry way, it has commissary coupons and manufactures coupons. CVS has a coupon machine, you scan your CVS card and it spits out coupons.
Mail-
Samples- Usually when you sign up for a free sample, a coupon will be with it for the product you are sampling. I normally give the sample to charity and keep the coupon.
Family and Friends- I have a mailing list, my two sisters, and my mother, four of my friends. They all mail me coupons and I mail coupons back to them. For the cost of stamp we all get the coupons we need. We also mail all expired coupons to a military family overseas. She splits them up with the people there. So no coupon is going to waste.
Junk Mail Tuesday- I love junk mail days! These annoying mailers are full of coupons!
The Company- Sometimes if you mail a letter, or email a company they will send you coupons for their products.
Binkies’/Tear Pads- These are those things hanging in the aisles at your store. I always grab at least four of each. Then I wait for that item to go on sale and use them!
Rewards- Everything from CVS bucks to Kohl’s cash. These print up at the register for future use.
Magazines- All you is a favorite, it sells only at Wal-Mart, and if you don’t have it at your store, it’s worth the sign-up. It’s always full of coupons. Also we have found coupons in Runners world all the way to the kid’s magazines. So After you read one, go back thorough it, you never know what you will find.
Mobile- You can get ecoupons sent to your Iphone, you give the phone to cashier and they scan the code on your phone. My husband as an app, that when we go to the movies, he checks in and we get free popcorn!
Phone Books- Usually you can find these in the yellow pages, local business will put coupons in there.
Other ways to get discounts- Ask if they take AAA, Military Discount or Student ID’s. You might surprise yourself when they say yes. Many stores, like payless give a AAA discount, a lot of parks/theaters will give you military discounts, and a lot of restaurants give student discounts, always ask, the worst they can say is no and the best is yes and you score a discount!
Do you buy coupons; I heard this is the thing to do?
Nope, I don’t. If you read on the coupon you will find it says,”VIOD IF SOLD”. Currently there is a law suit against several “clipping services” including eBay for selling coupons. But my reason for not buying goes beyond that. I can’t think of any coupon I need more of, that I can’t get from the places I have mentioned above. Also I am totally concerned with my “OOPS” (Out of pocking spending), my weekly paper comes to me at 58 cents a week. I can buy three more at the store for $2 each. That’s $6.58 a week, assuming I always buy the extras and I don’t. Clipping services, which like I said are misusing coupons and technically the coupons they are selling you are VIOD, offer one coupon. Why would I pay $5 for one kind of coupon when a normal paper at $2 dollars gives me many more? If you are using a clipping service, you are wasting your money and you may shortly find yourself in big time trouble, due to the legal issues behind it.
Does everything go on sale?
Yes, but on some things, like electronics, you have to wait for the newer brand to come out. True discounts on those items, furniture, electronic and vehicle, to name few you have to wait for the newer model to come out, and then you get a discount on the older model. This is the same with cloths shopping. Right now its summer, so you can find a discount on winter cloths, in the next month you will really get a discount on summer cloths, although they are already going on clearance. This is because they are making way for the fall items to come in. Most sells cycle every three months, some less, the longest sale cycle I have ever seen is 6 months and that’s on Jiff peanut butter.
Does everything have a coupon?
Nope, sorry it doesn’t. I have yet to see a Jiff peanut butter coupon. However, Jiff goes on sale twice a year at my Safeway, I stock up on it when it goes on sale. Most household products and most foods have some sort of coupon. You can find coupons for almost everything you buy though.
How do I shop and coupon like they do on that show?
Well the answer is simple; I guess you go on it. Let me explain, this show is for entertainment purposes and is not meant to teach you how to coupon. All coupons have a limit per transaction on them and All stores have a limit of like coupons you can use. For example one showed someone getting 500 boxes of cat food. I have had this same coupon and it says one per transaction on it. So if the coupon rules are being followed she would have had to run 500 different transactions for that cat food. Also my store limits you to 4 like coupons per transaction, so let’s pretend that the coupon has no limit written on it. So to get 500 cat foods I would have to run, 125 transactions. So the rules are being bent for the sake of entertainment. What this show has done is two things, raise the awareness of you can save money with coupons, which is a good thing, it has also caused coupon policies to change due to the high volume of new couponers misusing coupons and abusing polices, which is a bad thing. So if you want to shop like that show, then you have to go on it. But I don’t know why anyone, donating or not would need 500 boxes of cat food either.
Another issue thanks to that show is that coupons are now for lower amounts and expire sooner. This is due to a fake, “Supply and demand” the coupons are not meant for 30 people to buy 500 of one product. So there is a supply and demand needed now for this product, so they send more to the store. And not as many are sold. This is causing some issues with how manufactures are now handling coupons.
If you coupon for your family and stockpile for your family, then why would you even want to do that? That’s a bit greedy if you ask me. I buy enough to supply for my family of four and yes I do buy things we don’t use that I do donate. On the show they are only getting maybe 4 different items and are getting 100’s of them. Which is not correct in any coupon policy I have seen.
I heard they are going to get rid of coupons:
Yep, that rumor has been around as long as coupons, you know since the first coupons came out in the late 1800’s. I seriously doubt that this will ever happen. Think about this, you have a product for sale, you send out a coupon and hundreds of thousands of people go out and buy your product. So you decide to stop issuing a coupon and only hundreds of people buy your product. Now as a business person, which one makes you more money? Manufactures send out coupons to promote their product, an incentive for you to buy their brand over brand x. They don’t send those out for you to not use them. You are getting a discount on the retail price, which is anywhere from 100% to 300% plus markup. So there is “room” for a discount. Although like I said above there is a change in the coupons thanks to that show, but coupons are here to stay.
I still really don’t understand how your couponing is different than grandmas?
Well Grandma Couponing is going to the store and buying a product because you have a coupon for it. What we are doing is waiting for the item to go on sale and then using the coupon. Let’s look at it like this:
Grandma goes to the store with her with her coupon, its $3 off Olay face wash. The normal price is $8.49, she buys her one face wash and pays $5.49. I know your thinking that’s a good deal.
Well the same week, I am going to get four papers, get four of the $3 off coupons. I am also going to hold on to that coupon, three weeks later, the Olay face wash goes on sale for $5 each. I will go to the store and buy 4 face washes and use my 4 coupons of $3 off. I will pay $8.00 for 4. (The math, 4x$5= $20, $3x4=$12, $20-$12=$8.00), I pay $2.51 more than Grandma to get 4 when she only got one.
So let’s add in my paper cost of $6.58, reminding you that I got 4 copies of every coupon not just this one. So I pay $6.58 for four papers, and $8.00 for four face washes, that comes to $14.58. That’s still only $3.64 each I paid. (14.58/4=3.64) So even if I add in my paper cost for just using four of this one coupon (these coupons I call paper payers) I still got a better deal than Granny. I use one full face wash every two months, so that’s an eight month supply of face wash for just $8.00! Granny only got a two month supply.
So I hope this helps some more! Happy savings!
Bathroom Basket 
