HELP! I’m new here, where do I start?

1. Start building your coupon library. Where do you get all of those coupons?

WEEKEND NEWSPAPER: In my area we receive our coupon inserts in the Saturday paper; however the majority of you will want to purchase the Sunday paper to receive all your coupons. ALWAYS CHECK to make sure the paper you are purchasing has the coupons inside. I’ve been burned a couple times…got home…no coupons! Ugh. That’s the worst. Usually on holiday weekends there are no coupon inserts (boo!), but sometimes they surprise you, so always check. The coupon inserts are as follows: RedPlum, Smartsource, Proctor & Gamble. Go here to view the Coupon Insert Schedule and see what coupons will be in the coming weekends inserts!

INTERNET SITES LIKE: coupons.com, smartsource.com, redplum.com, etc. I will also give you a daily update on what other printable coupons are available.

ASK FRIENDS and FAMILY: Chances are most of your friends and family are not using all of their coupons. Speak up and ask if you can save them from the trash! My mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law both give me their extra coupons and I repay them with some of the free stuff I got from using them! Seems like a fair deal to me.

BLINKIES and TEAR PADS: Blinkies are little machines that spit out coupons and tear pads have coupons attached to them. Be on the look out for these at all times!

PEELIES: These are coupons and offers attached to products. These are ONLY for the customer purchasing the item. It is NOT okay to peel off coupons from items you are not buying!

CATALINA MACHINE: This is the little machine that prints along with your receipt. Sometimes it has advertisements for upcoming Catalina deals and such, sometimes it spits out extra coupons! Always check!

CHECK RECYCLE BINS: Now some of you might turn your nose up at this idea, but if you’re anything like my husband…you live for dumpster diving! Hey, don’t knock it. You can get lots of freebies! Our local paper recycling bin contains ONLY paper and mostly newspaper, so it’s actually pretty clean! Just make sure it’s legal in your area, before you take the plunge!!

TRADE ON THE INTERNET: There are several coupon trading/clipping sites. Here are just a couple you can choose from: Manufacturers Coupons, The Coupon Clippers, Ebay (Go through Ebates or ShopAtHome to earn 1-3% cash back on Ebay purchases!).

MAGAZINES: Several magazines feature a few coupons per month…don’t let those get away!

I cannot say enough about ALL You magazine, which features 40+ coupons each month. I will make sure to give you a heads up when this subscription is offered at a great price! Check my Magazines category for the latest deal on this mag. If you don’t want to wait for a super deal, you can get a nice price on it everyday on Amazon.

STORES: Many stores, especially drug stores like Walgreens will put out their own monthly coupon booklets to be used exclusively in their stores. The great thing about these is that these are store coupons that can be stacked with a manufacturer coupon, which makes for some great deals! Another way they promote coupons is in their weekly ads, so don’t forget to check those out.

EMAIL YOUR FAVORITE COMPANIES DIRECTLY: Just ask! I try to email about 15-20 companies each month to compliment them on a quality product. In response they mail me coupons! It only takes a few minutes of your time and the majority will respond with coupons. These coupons are usually higher value than ones you find anywhere else. To avoid bombarding your inbox with junk mail, I would definitely open a separate email account through yahoo or hotmail just for this purpose. Follow my Planning Ahead Project where I will suggest a company to email every Wednesday afternoon!

MAILERS: If you sign up with different companies they will usually mail you promotional offers and coupons periodically.

INSIDE PRODUCTS: Make sure to check inside the products you buy. Also sometimes manufacturers will put coupons on the box, so don’t throw away anything without checking for coupons first!

Load Electronic Cards to your store loyalty card:

Another great way to amp up your coupon savings is by loading them directly to your store’s loyalty card (example: Kroger Plus Card). It is very convenient…never forget your coupons again!

3 easy steps to instant clip-free savings

1. Register your store card on each electronic coupon website

2. Check the coupons you wish to load

3. Swipe your card at checkout and coupons are automatically deducted

(the coupon deduction does not show up at the end of your receipt with the other coupons…it shows up immediately after the item scan)

Here are the 6 websites I load coupons from each month:

Shortcuts, Cellfire, P&G e-Saver, Kroger eCoupons, SavingStar and Upromise

Each month, I always print a list of what I’ve loaded to my shopper’s card and keep it with me so I can easily match up sales to coupons to clip-free coupons. This makes for some great deals  on the spot!

Sometimes these coupons are stackable with a paper coupon. It depends on your store, which site you loaded it from – and sometimes it just depends on the weather! It is so inconsistent that I always consider it a bonus when a digital coupon comes off in addition to a paper coupon.

2. Organize those coupons! The number one reason why so many coupons go unused is because many (with good intentions) clip them, only to forget they have them when it comes time to purchase the item. Some people like to clip every coupon and file it right away, some people like to keep their coupon inserts in tact, file them by date and clip them before they go to the store. So what do you do with all of those coupons once they’re clipped? For starters, get yourself a small accordian style coupon organizer (usually only a couple dollars at Walmart). When you find yourself with too many coupons to fit, it’s time to graduate to the coupon binder.

It is basically a zip-up case with a 3-ring binder inside. Baseball card inserts house all of my coupons. (As you can see, I need more inserts to accommodate). Some people like to add divider pages with each section labeled. I never got around to that, and I do just fine. I organize the pages by aisle at Kroger (the store I use most of my coupons). So, for example, my first page has all of my coupons for produce, bread, organic foods, peanut butter and jellies, and snack cakes (all found in the first aisle at my Kroger). The next page(s) have coupons according to the remainder of the aisles at Kroger. The last few pages have all of my cleaning, and health & beauty coupons. Then finally miscellaneous stuff (restaurant coupons, etc.). I also have several store-specific envelopes that I fill with the coupons I am going to use on that day. This is what works for me! You do what works best for you…and it might take you a few tries to get it just right. Play around with it until you find the method that helps you get the most out of your coupons.

As I stated in my video, you can purchase the baseball card inserts at Walmart (near the checkout) or Amazon. Everything else you need can be found at basically any store that sells office type supplies.

3. Get to know your local store policies (and keep a printed coupon policy with you to avoid cashier disputes). Coupon policies vary, so ask them at the service desk if you’re unsure. Some stores don’t accept internet coupons, some do. Some double coupons, some don’t.

The only store in my area that doubles coupons is Kroger. They double a coupon up to and including $0.50. So if I have a $0.50 coupon, it will actually deduct $1.00. This makes for some awesome deals! And, this means I would rather have a $0.30 coupon that doubles to $0.60, than have a $0.55 coupon that does not double.

Some stores also have policies regarding how many “like” coupons they will double. For example, if I purchased 4 cans of tuna for $1.00 each and gave them 4 tuna coupons for $0.50 (doubled to $1.00), they technically only have to double 4 of those (my store’s policy).

Some stores will allow you to combine or “stack” their store coupon with a manufacturer coupon. All manufacturer coupon bar codes start with a 5.  Some coupons have a store logo printed on them, but they are actually manufacturer coupons. Sometimes you can just cut them off to avoid problems. Some stores accept competitor coupons (Walmart does this).

PRICE-MATCHING: This term means you can take a competitor ad into another store and they will match (or beat) that price for that specific item. Each store has their own policy, so you’ll want to find out before you try it. Walmart, Kmart and Target are the stores in our area that price-match. It’s nice because many times Walgreens will have a great sale on something, but since they are a smaller store, they don’t stock much…which means they run out quickly. I just take their ad into Walmart and get it for the same price! As long as no rewards or store coupons are involved, it’s better than getting a raincheck!

Now that you have your coupons organized, it’s time to STOCKPILE.

STOCKPILING basically means getting your groceries at the very lowest prices, and then purchasing enough to last you until you can get to the next great sale. This way, you never pay full price for any groceries at all. Organize a space to store all of these items and before you go to the grocery store, check your stockpile first. Make sure you don’t purchase too much of anything with a short shelf life, and of course, always use the items that are due to expire first. The whole point is to get your weekly grocery bill down as far as possible. My personal goal is to get my bill down to about $40 a week.

Commonly Used Couponing Terms And Abbreviations

Happy Couponing!!