Lesson 1: Coupons
Since I began using coupons almost two years ago, I have been asked by others to teach them how to shop efficiently. While I love to pass on my knowledge, I’ve not only been at a loss as to how to pass on this information, but I’ve been consistently revising and reconsidering my own approach to saving. In the beginning, I wanted to take advantage of every sale, every deal, but this cost me a great deal of time. Now, my approach is not only friendly to my wallet, but also to my downtime… something that’s not easy to come by with a demanding full-time job and a long commute. So now, I’m finally ready to share a plan that should require minimum time, but should allow for quite a bit of savings potential.
The key is to start slowly… while couponing seems straightforward; there is a lot to learn that can only be taught by experience. Embrace the learning process J.
The first step is to start saving coupons.
Let me just expand on the theory of “extreme couponing” before we go into how to find these suckers. The whole idea is to not only use coupons to lower the product cost, but to save these coupons and hold onto them until that product is on sale so that you maximize your savings. Let’s say cake mix is $3.99 regular price, but you have a $1 coupon, you will wait until the mix goes on sale for $2, or until your local store has a double coupon event making the coupon worth $2, netting you a much better deal. Even better, wait until both events coincide and you just scored free cake mix.
Where do I get coupons, you ask? Well, coupons can be found all over the place! Walk down any aisle at your local grocery store and I’m sure you see displays of “blinkey” coupons, coupons on packages, or large retail displays with coupons. If ever I see a coupon in the store for an item that I frequently buy, but that item isn’t on sale, I take 2 or 3 home with me (unless it’s attached to a package, that’s just kind of wrong). These coupons will prove valuable later down the line. There are also coupons inside some packages, in random mailings, and printed out at the end of a shopping trip. Two tricks for getting coupons from manufacturers you like is to sign up for samples (check out All You Daily Samples) and to e-mail compliments to manufacturers (they often mail coupons to you in appreciation). Also, most magazines you receive will contain one or two coupons… but the magazine All You is full of coupons, definitely worth purchasing a subscription if you come across a good deal.
Online coupons are super easy too. I tend to print these when I need them, but if you see a high-value coupon for something you know you’ll use, print it asap because these do have print limits. The secret to most online coupons is they can be printed twice from each computer, but no more (hit the back arrow after printing and hit retry when prompted). Beware of fraudulent coupons, though… often .pdf coupons are not valid… most legit coupons will have print limits.
The most popular place to get your coupons is in the Sunday paper, but you don’t have to purchase a subscription to get your hands on these coupons. Sometimes you can score inserts from family or friends who don’t coupon, or you could even visit your local recycling center and pull inserts out of the newspaper recycling bin. J Personally, I DO have subscriptions to two papers, our Charlottesville paper and the Richmond Times Dispatch (I like having multiple coupons), but I scored deals on Sunday only delivery at local festivals. It saves tons of time to just purchase a subscription, not only are they delivered to your door so you don’t have to remember to buy / retrieve the inserts, but you’ll save much more than what you spend on a subscription.
The last way to get coupons is to buy them. You can buy coupons off of ebay… yes, seriously… and yes, I have done this. J There are also sites such as www.thecouponclippers.com where you can buy just the coupons for items you regularly purchase, and they come sorted and clipped.
So, as you’re collecting your coupons, you’ll also want to explore ways to store them. There are typically three methods of sorting coupons: the accordion file, the binder method, and the non-clip, file method.
The accordion file method has been popular for decades… basically you buy a small accordion file, create a tab for each section/aisle of the supermarket, and file your coupons accordingly. This method requires you to clip all of your coupons, and the file can be tough to look through while in the market.
The binder method utilizes a basic three ring binder and baseball card sleeves to display coupons. You can create your own, or you can buy a kit like the one featured here: http://madamedeals.com/coupon-binder/ . This method also requires you to clip all of your coupons, but makes it REALLY easy to find what you’re looking for in the store. This is the method I started out with, and might be a good way for most people to start out. This method allows you to find coupons on a whim whenever you pass by the clearance rack at your local grocery or drug store, letting you build up your stockpile quickly.
Last is the method that I currently use, the non-clip method. Basically what this method requires is for you to file your inserts by date. Create a new folder each Sunday and place your inserts in each file without clipping them… then you can use coupon matchups in blogs and coupon databases to find the coupons you need. You will need to keep either a binder or an accordion file for all of the loose coupons you collect, since only so many coupons come in inserts.
So that was super-long for just lesson one, but all you need to have learned is that you must start collecting coupons and figure out which method you want to use to sort them. Next we’ll go over the easiest way to match up coupons with store deals.
