More Couponing Tricks

Want to save 50% or more off of your grocery bill? Think you don’t have the time? Think again. It really isn’t all that hard and once you get the hang of it, it will take approximately an hour to make up your grocery lists based on what’s on sale at your favorite stores that week and get the coupons that are available for those particular sale items.

First thing you need to do is get a subscription or two to the local Sunday paper that has coupons from Red Plum (RP) and Smart Source (SS). Ask friends, family, neighbors if they use all their coupons and if not, would they be willing to save them for you. Then collect them every week. Then you want to write the date at the top of the front page of the coupons and file them in an accordion type file with each week in a different slot.

Also check out coupon sites like TheCouponMom. They have the easiest using site and it’s free. They are able to tell you the sales going on at your store depending on where you live and a database that allows you to look up a particular name brand item and see if there is a coupon out there for it and where and when it was issued. They will tell you for example, if the coupon came out in RP (Red Plum) which is in the Sunday paper and the date it came out. All you have to do is look for items that are on sale you want, look up when a coupon may have been issued for that item and when it came out, go to your folder, pull out that date and cut the coupon. It’s that easy.

How I do it is, let’s say I want to see what Walgreens has on sale. I get their sale flyer in the Sunday paper, so I’ll browse through it quickly making a mental note of things I like that are on sale. I then go to TheCouponMom website. I put in my area that I live and click on the Walgreens link. A list of sale items pops up that gives you the regular price, sale price, what coupon may be available and the percentage saved. You can sort the list anyway you like. I like to sort my list with the most percentage saved listed first and then the percentage saved in descending order. I am only interested in items that are going to save me 50% or more. I check off the items I’m interested in by clicking the box. When I’m done selecting, I hit show selected items and my list pops up. I print that list, write Walgreens at the top. I go and cut out any store coupons I need out of the Walgreens flyer. I then go and cut my coupons out of the week listed for the manufacturer coupons. I will then go back to the Internet, go to the TheCouponMom main page and click on coupon database. I will enter the name brand item in the search box and look for any other coupons that might have been issued for that item. They will tell me where and when if one was issued. This gives me more coupons for the item I want allowing me to buy more of that item at that special price.

Sometimes you can get extra coupons from the Internet and send them directly to your printer as well. This allows you to get more than one of the item, allowing you to stockpile. This means you won’t run out and have to resort to paying full price for that item saving you more money. See how that works?

Now I often times will go ahead and cut the coupons out for items I know I will use and I have a smaller accordion file I take to the store with me just in case something is on sale at the store that I may have missed during my initial search on the Internet. Here’s nothing much worse than being at the store and seeing something on sale at a great price and knowing you have a coupon for it, but it’s at home.

There are other great sites out there as well as wonderful blogs that help you do the same thing. Check them out for advice and how to’s. Some are listed on the right side of this blog.

Does this sound too confusing, or just too much to do? It’s really not. It just takes practice.
Start with just one store and use this method there. I would start with a grocery store first as opposed to CVS or Walgreens, because they have things like Register Rewards and other programs that help you save by giving you money back which can be confusing to new couponer just starting out.

Once you get the hang of saving and stockpiling from one store, then try your hand at a second store and do some comparison shopping. After a while you’ll get the hang of it. It may take about three months to feel comfortable doing it and to build your stockpile before you start to see significant savings. Keep a spreadsheet or log of how much you’re saving to help you stay on track and to motivate you to not give up. Once your savings take off after about three months, you’ll be hooked and will never go back to your old way of shopping again.