Coupons are the best way to SAVE money! There are several ways to get coupons. You can go the traditional route and clip them from the Sunday paper, magazines, and other printed publications. You can load them to your loyalty cards (Randalls, CVS, Walgreens, etc.). You can show the cashier the coupon from your mobile phone. And if you want to save the most money - you can combine these methods to get free items. It's not difficult at all. It just takes a little time to plan your trip. Once you start saving tons of money, you'll wonder why you had not started sooner. So let's get started!
Step One: Create an organization system.
There is no point in carrying around a bunch of clipped coupons and you don't have them organized by category. This will slow you down inside the store and cause unnecessary frustration. You can make your own coupon binder by using a folder and creating tabbed sections. If you have access to a printer - visit the Krazy Coupon Lady's website and print her coupon organizer here: Coupon Organizer. Make your coupon organizer FIRST. I used a 3 ring binder, the pages from the coupon organizer, and page protectors from the Dollar Store to hold the coupons for each section. The page protectors are sold in packs of 20 and cost $1 each - I bought 3 packs. You can also buy baseball card sheets - a little more expensive. Your notebook will look similar to this when finished:
Step Two: Gather your coupons.
Most high value coupons can be found in the Sunday Paper and magazines. These are Manufacturers (MFR) coupons and they are printed by RedPlum, SmartSource, and P&G. Subscribing to the Sunday Paper is the cheapest way to get the coupons. Don't be afraid to ask your local convenience store to save the Sunday Papers that they don't sell and GIVE THEM TO YOU ON MONDAY. Having more than one MFR coupon helps you stockpile and get more savings. You can also buy more than one Sunday Paper. You will recoup the cost of the paper with the money that you save.
Magazines are a great source of coupons as well. You can subscribe to many magazines for free! Before you do, please create a separate email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail) that you can sign up with. This will be helpful when using internet coupons as well (covered in the next section). Name the account with a coupon related name like "MikiCoupons@yahoo.com". Here's a link to ValueMags where you can sign up for free subscriptions - no credit card needed! ValueMags Free Magazines
Internet Coupons are really cool and they can be printed and clipped, or added to your loyalty cards. If you add the coupons to your loyalty card - the savings are deducted when you swipe your card at the store. How awesome is that? My favorite sites are:
Coupons.com
SmartSource.com
RedPlum.com
Sign up for those three sites and they will email you when coupons are available. Now that you have the access to all the coupons you'll ever need in life - you need to learn HOW TO USE THEM EFFECTIVELY. There are professionals that have extremely helpful sites!!!! These sites will tell you what stores have sales, what coupons to use, provide the links to the coupons, and teach you how to get these items for the cheapest price or for FREE! It's not hard, trust me. Check out my top couponing sites and SUBSCRIBE to the sites:
The Krazy Coupon Lady is my favorite. She has a ton of information and links. Best of all, she breaks down the deals based on the stores that are available in your area. Check her deals out here: KKL Extreme Couponing
For The Mommas (FTM) also features deals by store. This site is great because you can click on each "deal" and it will create a shopping list that you can print (or email to yourself). Check this site out here:FTM Store Deals
Living Rich with Coupons has an awesome section called "Shop for Free". In this section, you can find out how to use your coupons to get things for free. You can also create lists. Check it out here: LRC Shop for Free
There are so many more sites that can provide DETAILED information on your favorite stores. I'll just list a few:
http://www.totallytarget.com/
http://www.thewallyworldwoman.com/
http://theqtippingmom.com/category/cvs-weekly-coupon-matchups/
http://wildforwags.com/walgreens-coupons/
http://www.survivingthestores.com/
Readers, if you have more sites, PLEASE list them as a comment below.
Step Three: Use the coupons using the best tips and tricks!
First, you need to find the sales. This information will be delivered to your inbox if you have followed the instructions above and subscribed to the sites! Second, you need to understand the coupon lingo. Click here to get a comprehensive list of lingo that will help you understand coupon terminology: Coupon Lingo. Third, you need to plan your trip by 1. making sure you have the coupons required, 2. loading the coupons to your loyalty cards, 3. going to the store that has those items ON SALE for the lowest possible price, 4. only buying what you need.
Don't buy anything you don't need (UNLESS IT'S FREE). I can't stress this enough. If you are purchasing items you don't need or won't use - YOU ARE NOT SAVING.
Make sure you bring a calculator or use the calculator on your smart phone. Make sure you have a LIST. Don't rush and don't let the people in line behind you make you feel like you have to rush. Make sure you read each coupon carefully, make sure the expiration date is valid, and the coupon matches exactly what's in your basket. Don't be afraid to ask for a store manager BEFORE YOU START SHOPPING and tell him / her that you want to use coupons - in most cases they will check you out themselves in a separate line. You can ask them about their policies for coupons or (even better) you can print the store policy yourself here: Find Your Store Policy
Save the most money buy visiting the CLEARANCE section first! This is where you will find unadvertised deals and stack your coupons the best. Stacking coupons is when you have a store coupon AND a manufacturer's coupon. For example: You can use a CVS coupon (printed or sent electronically to your loyalty card) for $1.00 off Aveeno products. You can combine that with Aveeno's Manufacturer's coupon (from the Sunday paper) for $1.00 off and get a total of $2.00 off that item. If the Aveeno product is on sale or clearance for $2.00 or less, that item now FREE after the coupons are applied.
I used this strategy to get all the items in the photo below from Target yesterday. I spent $4.96 OOP and saved $25.47 for everything you see here.
Friday FREEBIE: Free Starbucks Caramel or Halzelnut Macchiato! This can be used DAILY until 3/31/13. Print as many as you need!
Click Here for Free Macchiato
Again, I welcome your comments below. Happy saving!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment