Couponing 101 - Part 2: Beginners Tips to using coupons to your advantage

Using coupons to your advantage: A few beginners’ tips:

· Clip or save EVERY coupon you get. (Yes, even those coupons on products that you think you will NEVER buy!) You never know when those coupons can MAKE YOU MONEY. Yes, I said “make you money”.

For example, I once made $10 from buying a product at Wal-Green’s that I would not have normally bought. It was a $10 product. Wal-Green’s was offering $10 in RR if you bought that product. That automatically made it FREE. I had a $5 coupon and there was a $5 MIR that was available that I sent in for. Look at it like this:
$10 product – $5 coupon = $5 OOP
$10 RR back to use on a future purchase ($5 more than I paid for the product so a $5 profit).
Sent off for rebate – received $5 check. Total of $10 profit.
What do you do with products you won’t use? DONATE! Food pantries, shelters, battered women’s center, children’s home, food drives, a family in need, an elderly neighbor on a fixed income, etc!

· Get multiple copies of the Sunday paper. You can get copies at the Dollar Tree for $1 (paper boxes and other stores are $1.50 – $2.50) One coupon out of the newspaper can easily pay for the whole paper!

· Never PAY for toothpaste again! You will ALWAYS be able to get free toothpaste at CVS or Wal-Green’s. I probably have 10 toothpastes in my pantry and I got them all for FREE!

· Don’t be brand loyal. Have you always used Crest toothpaste? Well, Colgate is just as good and if you can get for FREE (or better…how about a 50 or 75 cent profit?) why wouldn’t you at least try it???
And it’s not just toothpaste. Shampoo, hairspray, body wash, detergent, deodorant, etc. You’ll save more money if you follow the deals. (Believe me, if I can get my husband to try a different deodorant, you can get your family to try different brands too!)

· Get organized! There are too many ways to organize your coupons to get into it here but research different methods and find one that’s right for you.

· Find a couple “coupon blogs” that you like and subscribe. They will help you with the deals and match up the weekly sales with coupons. Plus give you lots of great information on lots of ways to save! Find out how to subscribe to this blog here.

· Make your list and sort your coupons before you go to the store. I like to make my list on an envelope and then put the matching coupons inside.

· Sort your coupons and hand them to the cashier in this order:
1. $/$$ (ex. $5 off a $20 purchase)
2. Coupons for free items (these require the cashier to write the amount on the coupon and they appreciate all these coupons being together.)
3. The rest of your manufacturer coupons
4. Store coupons
5. RR or ECBs (if you are at Wal-Green’s or CVS)

You can even hand them to the cashier one group at a time. For example, hand your $/$$, let them scan it. Give them your FREE coupons next, let them scan. Then hand over your MQs, then your store Qs, etc. This is good when you are first starting out. It slows down the transaction for you.
I always hold my ECBs to the end because you want to make sure that your subtotal (before tax) exceeds the amount of the ECB. Think of ECBs at CVS like cash (because that’s how they are treated) only you can’t get change from it. So if your subtotal is $3.25 and you have $4 ECBs, the register will only ring it as $3.25. You will lose 75c. You have two options. Don’t use the ECBs – just pay OOP. Or, pick up a candy bar. I have a weakness for Hershey’s with Almonds when this happens. J

Learn how to “stack” coupons. Remember earlier when I said you can only use one coupon per item. Well, that applies to manufacturer coupons. If you have a MQ and a STORE coupon for the same product you can use both! This is acceptable at Wal-Green’s, CVS, Publix and Target, which are your major stores that issue store coupons.

Here’s an example:
Huggies Diapers on sale at Target for $8.99
I have a MQ for $3 off Huggies
I have a Target store coupon for $1 off Huggies
I use BOTH coupons to save $4 off Huggies, and I just got Huggies for under $5! (If you’ve priced diapers lately, you’ll think I got a steal!)

What could possibly make this diaper deal better? If it was at CVS and I had a CVS store coupon for $1 off Huggies and they were running a ECB deal:
Huggies Diapers at CVS for $9.49
Get $2 ECBs back when you buy Huggies
Use $3 MQ and $1 store Q
I would pay $5.49 OOP and get $2 ECBs back and it’s like I paid $3.49 for diapers!
Would it surprise you at all if I told you that I don’t spend more than $4.50 for a Jumbo pack of Huggies or Luvs? I pay a little more for Pampers but don’t buy them as often – we only use them at bedtime.

· Using coupons on BOGO items. If Publix has Tombstone Pizzas BOGO $5.99 that means you get two for $5.99. If you have a coupon for $1 off a Tombstone pizza of course you would use it! But what if you had TWO $1 off a Tombstone pizza coupons (see above about getting multiple papers…) Did you know you can use BOTH coupons? I know you are getting one pizza for free, BUT you can still use both coupons! So your 2 pizzas for $5.99 just became 2 pizzas for ONLY $3.99!