learning to coupon?

[drgreene1096]

How do you learn to coupon and not pay for it? I've heard so many people talking about it, but aside from clipping and using, which really doesn't save me all that much, I have no idea. I'd like to try it out, but I don't want to buy things I don't or won't use just to save money on them!

 

[Bitsmommy]

I have been called the coupon queen. 1st. the best thing to use is a 3 inch binder with baseball card holders to hold the coupons. That way you can see them. Divide them up with dividers, edible, non edible, Cold, shelf and make different sub sections in those sections, similar to that of the grocery store aisles. Every one is different and you will need to find with works for you.

ALWAYS stack a coupon with a sale!! Publix Buy One Get Ones are the best. Use 2 coupons 1 for each item and usually you get razors, mens shampoo, body wash for free! Stack store coupons with manufacturer coupons. You can use them at the same time, with a sale if you can.

Total time it takes me about 2 hours per week, tops. It takes me a little longer in the grocery store too, but I am going with to very active boys. 4 and 9 months! Last week, I spent $101 on groceries and saved $131.00. We have 9.9% tax so, I actually spent less than $100 on groceries! That included a large Tide, 2 large things of Downey, 1 large box of Huggies, 1 large box of Pampers, 1 Large Box of Huggies Wipes, 1 Box of Pampers Wipes, 2 Rolls of Brawney Paper Towes, 1 large Cascade Gel Tabs for the Dishwasher, 4 boxes of cereal, 2 pkgs of cookies (guilty pleasure), 6 sticks of Right Guard deodorant (it was .50 and NEVER expires) and ALL of my groceries which will last at least a week and a half.

Print coupons from the internet, use Allyou Magazine and get a Sunday Paper or TWO. That is the only thing I use for coupons. Oh and, I don't pay more than $1.50 per box for name brand cereal. Hope this helps!

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

I'm not sure where you are but this is a great website to get started. Even if you're not in the South, there are some great tutorials for learning how to coupon and CVS etc. http://www.southernsavers.com/

 

[Crystal0608]

I like weusecoupons, afullcup, hip2save, and slickdeals for free couponing tips. On weusecoupons and afullcup you can go under stores to see the deals you can do. Start small. Walgreens is an easy store to figure out couponing.

 

[TLuvsD]

Try CouponMom.com It includes grocery stores and drugstores. The key is to use the coupons when the items are already on sale. Stockpile things like shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, razors, soaps, etc. Even some canned goods are easy to stockpile.

 

[derricksonb]

We have a game in our family to see who can save the largest percentage on their grocery bills each week. By combining coupons with sales (as mentioned above) I usually sve anywhere between 50-55% of my total grocery bill. The one piece of advice I can give is to also learn which stores in your area doubles coupons and up to what amount. We have several stores in the DC metro area that double ALL coupons up to $.99 where as a few of the chains will only double the first like coupon up to $.99. Occassionally a few of the stores will TRIPLE coupons. CHA-CHING!!!!!

When I lived in the midwest it seemed like most chains only doubled up to $.40.

 

[fab5friend99]

There are so many blogs out there. I've set up a few of my favorites in google reader so I can go to one place and see all the posts and I don't have to navigate to multiple blogs multiple times during the day. They will post when they find good deals and new coupons. A lot of time they will be repeats because one blogger will read another blog and post those same deals. But it just takes a second to skip to the next post. If you go out to their websites they'll have tutorials.

Blogs I like are couponingtodisney, hip2save, totallytarget, krazycouponlady.

The one thing I had to learn is that I should not shop for a week or 2 groceries at one time and hope there are coupons for what I want to buy. You need to buy what's on sale and what you have coupons for and start a stockpile. I can't beleive the deals I am getting that I would never had put together if it wasn't for a lot of very creative people out there.

And remember that most stores will allow you to stack a store coupon with a manufacturers coupon so you can score some really great deals. Target has a ton of coupons on their website.

 

[funnygarcia]

The key is to buy the things you KNOW you will use, stock up to last you until the next sale.

Some sales are cyclic in nature or during certain times of year.
Right now it would be snacks, pop, meat for the upcoming holiday weekend. Snack items, breakfast bars, cereals, lunch meat for back to school lunches. Before the winter holidays it will be turkey, ham, baking supplies... etc.
My local stores have B1G1 gold n plump chicken sale about every 3 weeks, I can plan ahead by buying multiples when on sale.. not buy when it's full price... and look for coupons while waiting for the next sale.

Think of what you consider a "good price" and try to beat it with coupons and sales. My "buy price" for cereal was $1 a box, over time I've learned to use sale promotions and double coupons to push my "buy price" to .50 or FREE!

Look for coupons everywhere!
Newspaper (Sunday, early Sunday edition on Saturday), online printables (coupons.com, redplum, smartsource, Facebook, company websites), on products (peelies), tear pads on displays, from machines in the aisles (blinkies). Magazines (All You is worth paying for a subscription), state fair, product demos... Be creative looking and asking for extras: Recycling bins, fast food restaurants, neighbors/ friends/ family

Organize your coupons. I like the binder method but I know some like to just file inserts by date. Cutting only when they need it for a sale. I started with basic envelopes bundled together and filed under broad categories like dairy, canned foods, paper products, cleaning.

Never pay full price for cleaning supplies, shampoo, razors, toothpaste, toothbrush, lotion, soap.. there is always a deal at Walgreen's, CVS, Rite Aid to pay pennies for those high priced money sucking items.

I agree with another poster, do some sleuthing to find a blogger (or Facebook page) in your area that posts how to find the best deals. Let someone else do the footwork, as you learn the process you too can contribute.

Highly recommend being on Facebook, the most awesome high value coupons can be printed when you "like" a product. $2 off pizza coupons on Facebook netted me single size pizzas for 50 cents each.

Join Vocalpoint, they send you high value coupons and samples to try new products.

Have fun!

 

[Katy Belle]

Bookmarking! I've been trying to figure out couponing too. I'm good at shopping sales, but know I can save more with coupons. Thanks for all the great tips!

 

[Kay1]

I just read "The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bill in Half." It was written by Stephanie Nelson and she explains a lot of things including the whole CVS/Walgreens thing.

I think she wrote another book and I'm going to search my library's website to see if they have it.

 

[apnep]

Stack store coupons with manufacturer coupons. You can use them at the same time, with a sale if you can.

I have signed up to get emails from my Tom Thumb and Kroger and print coupons off the internet. Are those STORE coupons or manufacturer coupons?

If I have a coupon that says $.50 off yogurt when you buy 2, can I use 2 of the same coupons and only buy 2?

Thanks.

 

[beansmom]

First, i wouldn't PAY to learn how to coupon...there is plenty of free advice online. Check out www.afullcup.com and other sites...just good 'how to coupon'.

Second...if your coupons says '*** off 2', then you must purchase TWO of each item for every coupon. If you use 2 coupons, you buy FOUR items. Otherwise, it's coupon fraud and can get your store in trouble and lead to a big old mess. Coupon fraud is why lots of stores don't take internet printed coupons.

I would be happy to answer any questions for you if you pm me....I've been couponing for over 30 years and i rarely pay more than 50% for my food.

 

[Carina]

hot coupon world is a HUGE site, that will take eons to wade through, but is full of amazing advice and tips.
It does 99% of the workk for you when it comes to cross refrencing coupons with weekly sales.

Make a nice big pot of tea and take your phone off the hook before you start wading through it all though...lol

 

[Bitsmommy]

I have signed up to get emails from my Tom Thumb and Kroger and print coupons off the internet. Are those STORE coupons or manufacturer coupons?

If I have a coupon that says $.50 off yogurt when you buy 2, can I use 2 of the same coupons and only buy 2?

Thanks.

Usually if you look at the top of the coupon by the expiration date it will say "manufacturers coupon" if it is a Publix coupon for example, it will say "Publix coupon." I can't tell you if those coupons are store or manufacturers unless I see them cause if you are printing them off the store website, they could honestly be either one. I will tell you that Kroger will allow you to upload electronic coupons to your Kroger Plus card. I have always been able to stack those with a manufacturers coupon with no problem.

If you have a $.50 off 2 coupon the ONLY way that you could buy ONLY 2 of something and use two coupons is if you have a store AND a manufacturers coupon that have the same deal on them. Otherwise, as the PP stated, to use 2 coupons, you must buy 4 items. Hope this helps!!!

 

[hambirg]

How do you learn to coupon and not pay for it? I've heard so many people talking about it, but aside from clipping and using, which really doesn't save me all that much, I have no idea. I'd like to try it out, but I don't want to buy things I don't or won't use just to save money on them!

I like Hotcouponworld.com , but I also use afullcup, couponmom, slickdeals and a few others. In all honesty. . .I used to try and match my MQ's (manufacturer coupons) with store sales, but I didn't really become a coupon commando until I signed up for the Grocery Game (not free) for a few months. It helped me get started finding the really great deals.

Also, I don't clip all my coupons. I just file the inserts under the date and kind. . .8/29 SS (smart source) etc. It takes me an hour or so to look up the deals for that week and find and clip the Qs I need. I also have a file for IPs (internet printed). Some people print all of them. I don't. I just print the ones I need for that week. . .or if a good one comes out that I know I might want later. . I print those before they are gone.

As far as getting the inserts, they come in the Sunday paper. Some places like Dollar Tree sell them for $1 (as opposed to $2 here). I do subscribe to the Sunday paper because I got a smoking deal. . .$20 for the year. But I also ask on Mondays at my local Starbucks. . .they throw them out. Sometimes I have to get them out of their garbage, but I have permission and the nice folks that close on Sunday nights put them in their own bag on the top for me. I repay them by bringing them a basket of things I get free occasionally.

Good luck! And with a little time and effort you will get it figured out. . .and never have to pay for toothpaste again. . .

 

[Bitsmommy]

yeah, I forgot, I don't pay for toothpaste either.

 

[apnep]

Usually if you look at the top of the coupon by the expiration date it will say "manufacturers coupon" ...

Aah, OK, I see it now, where it says "manufacturer's coupon." Thanks!

 

[apnep]

OK, yesterday I spent about TWO hours going through the CouponMom.com grocery lists for my stores and clipping/printing out coupons for the sales. Then after dinner, DD9 and I went out and did our shopping and were out until 10:30pm hitting all the grocery stores! She had fun though.

I tried to "stock-up" without breaking my weekly budget too much and I think I did an OK job! I added up all the receipts and with the sales/coupons got $268 worth of groceries for only $147. I saved about $121. And I got toiletries too.

I got two big packages of chicken breasts, a full brisket, ribeye steaks, cereal, yogurt, snacks, fruits, dressings...just a variety of foods. I came home with a bunch of stuff! I was really excited. I was hoping to get me some FREE razors with all my $2-5 coupons but could not figure that out. I did get some disposable ones for $1 though. Anyway, just thought I would share!

 

[drgreene1096]

Wow! Thanks for all the information. I appreciate everyone who responded. I am going to start out small, just by clipping the coupons from the Sunday paper for the things that I use and try to combine them with the store ads. After that, I'll try the stacking with manufacturer w/store thing and see how it works. I've never done the CVS/rite aid thing.

I can see where you could save alot of money! There just never seems to be alot of coupons for the things that we actually use. We don't eat a bunch of processed stuff around here.

I cook alot of fresh meat and veggies. I rarely use canned goods. The one thing I can see working for me is cereal. My dd eats cereal almost every day for breakfast. I refuse to get up early enough to cook! LOL!

Again, thanks for all the tips.

 

[beansmom]

darlin, we all start out small. You can't become a 'queen' without being a princess first. I figure any dollar I can keep in my pocket is a good dollar.

and, greene, we ALL (I HOPE!) use shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste...be patient...before long you'll be getting it free or darn near.