I have a lot of my friends and family that have been telling me they want to coupon but just don't know where to start. I'll admit, couponing is very confusing at first but once you've got it, you've got it!! So I thought I would just go over a few of the basics to help you get started.
Where to get coupons:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get a sunday paper, a least one, but multiples are best!
If you are in the LaGrange, GA area, which many of you are, monday afternoon's at 1:30 there is a lady that comes to our mall and sells the Atlanta Journal Constitution from her car for $1 a paper. This not only the best deal you will find for ANY paper, this is the best paper in our area to get. The LaGrange Daily news coupons are a joke and the Columbus Enquirer often lacks the high value coupons.
HAVE A PRINTER!!!
You can find some really good coupons on the internet. Many of them are the same coupons that you will find in the papers but some of them are coupons you cannot get anywhere else. I do not print every coupon that comes around. I only print high value coupons or coupons I KNOW I will use. Because you ARE using paper and ink and it adds up after a while of just printing every coupon you think you MAY use.
A couple of money saving tips for paper and ink:
Staples has a great reward program with ink! If you bring in your used ink cartridges to recycle they will give you $2 per cartridge! I use the cheapest ink and printer I could find which is the HP Inkjet and the ink it only $15 so I make back $2 per cartridge....no its not a HUGE savings but it does add up b/c I can turn around and use the money that I make from my used cartridges to buy their paper!!Staples ALWAYS has good deals on printer paper...Like once or twice a month they will have it on sale for $5.99 and then you can get a easy rebate of $5.00 making your paper only .99!!! So you see there is a way to be smart with printing coupons...you have to be careful or it becomes not worth the savings in order to print!!
Learn more about staples rewards here:
http://www.staplesrewardscenter.com/SORC/UserManagement/Benefits/benefits_base.aspx
Websites to find coupons:
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
Also if you are looking for a certain internet coupon always check out the company's facebook page and website. A lot of the time they will have different kinds of promotions and coupons listed!!!!
How to Organize your coupons:
There is no wrong way to organize your coupons BUT some kind of organization is completely necessary. I personally have a 2.5 inch 3 ring binder and I use baseball cards to store my coupons. I have them all in alphabetical order (so covergirl makeup is under the "c" tab) and then under each tab they are in order of expiration date so that I don't let any coupons just expire without warning!
How to get the best deals couponing:
The BIGGEST tip I can give you about couponing is to know WHEN TO USE YOUR COUPON! For instance...I have a coupon that expires tomorrow for a free tub of cotonelle wipes. I will be using it today but I have had this coupon for well over a month. Why haven't I used it? Because I was waiting to see if I could get more for my buck. YES I know I am already getting a free tub, but what if it would have went on sell for buy one get one free? I could have used that coupon and gotten TWO TUBS FOR FREE!! This goes for any coupon. When you get a great coupon, don't go out and and just use it. Wait for a sale and get more bang for your buck!! This is why you need to know when your coupons expire. That way if your product never goes on sale and you still want to use the coupon, you CAN right before it expires!! Just like I am with my cottonelle wipes!!!
What is a stockpile and do I REALLY need one?
I'm sure that many of you have seen the show Extreme Couponing on TLC and saw their stockpiles. A stockpile is just a collection of the products you have gotten with couponing. So basically when you need something, instead of going to the store to get one you can go to your stockpile and pull one of whatever you need out! If you are wondering if you really NEED a stockpile to coupon, the answer is yes. To the extreme of the extreme couponers of TLC's show---NO, not unless you just want to. BUT in order to TRULY coupon, you do have to have some kind of stockpile otherwise you will not get the best deals and let me tell you why. This goes for everyone but especially is you are brand loyal. Say your favorite pasta goes on sale one week and you are gonna be able to get it for free or close to it! Well I don't know about you but I am gonna stock up with enough to last me until it goes on sale like that again. If I don't take advantage of this deal full heartedly and get as much as I need until the next big sale then I will have to come back and pay full price for it!! But if I have enough to last me then I can just use my stockpile of pasta until the sale circulates again, which by the way is 6 weeks. SO you would need about 6 weeks worth of pasta!
How to best utilize the internet to get the best deals
Well one of the BEST sites to use it http://www.southernsavers.com/ this site tells all of the best deals per store going on and it even lets you make a list for yourself that you can print. I do use this site and I am never disappointed. HOWEVER, this is a personal tip I HAVE learned for the LaGrange, GA area!EVERYWHERE I go if I ever talk to anyone about couponing their first question is, Do you use Southern Savers? So what does that tell me? That LaGrange, GA's couponers are mainly getting their deals from southernsavers.com. SO my best tip to you? Yes, use southernsavers b/c it really is a good site but don't just depend on that site. The lady that run's it is still human and she does still miss alot of deals!! So when everyone is looking at southern savers and going to get those deals that are listed, I am not only getting her deals listed but deals listed at other sites and deals I have matched on my own. Stores run out of stock quick but I have noticed that they mainly run out of the deals listed on southernsavers.com but not on the other sites that I view. I would give you links to the sites I view but honestly, I just view so many. There are tons of couponing blogs and facebook pages...you just have to LOOK!
Can I use 2 coupons for the same product?
Sort of...you can't use 2 manufacturer coupons on one product...BUT you CAN use a store coupon along with a manufacturer coupon..this is called stacking coupons and is an essential part of couponing!
Where to get coupons:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get a sunday paper, a least one, but multiples are best!
If you are in the LaGrange, GA area, which many of you are, monday afternoon's at 1:30 there is a lady that comes to our mall and sells the Atlanta Journal Constitution from her car for $1 a paper. This not only the best deal you will find for ANY paper, this is the best paper in our area to get. The LaGrange Daily news coupons are a joke and the Columbus Enquirer often lacks the high value coupons.
HAVE A PRINTER!!!
You can find some really good coupons on the internet. Many of them are the same coupons that you will find in the papers but some of them are coupons you cannot get anywhere else. I do not print every coupon that comes around. I only print high value coupons or coupons I KNOW I will use. Because you ARE using paper and ink and it adds up after a while of just printing every coupon you think you MAY use.
A couple of money saving tips for paper and ink:
Staples has a great reward program with ink! If you bring in your used ink cartridges to recycle they will give you $2 per cartridge! I use the cheapest ink and printer I could find which is the HP Inkjet and the ink it only $15 so I make back $2 per cartridge....no its not a HUGE savings but it does add up b/c I can turn around and use the money that I make from my used cartridges to buy their paper!!Staples ALWAYS has good deals on printer paper...Like once or twice a month they will have it on sale for $5.99 and then you can get a easy rebate of $5.00 making your paper only .99!!! So you see there is a way to be smart with printing coupons...you have to be careful or it becomes not worth the savings in order to print!!
Learn more about staples rewards here:
http://www.staplesrewardscenter.com/SORC/UserManagement/Benefits/benefits_base.aspx
Websites to find coupons:
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
Also if you are looking for a certain internet coupon always check out the company's facebook page and website. A lot of the time they will have different kinds of promotions and coupons listed!!!!
How to Organize your coupons:
There is no wrong way to organize your coupons BUT some kind of organization is completely necessary. I personally have a 2.5 inch 3 ring binder and I use baseball cards to store my coupons. I have them all in alphabetical order (so covergirl makeup is under the "c" tab) and then under each tab they are in order of expiration date so that I don't let any coupons just expire without warning!
How to get the best deals couponing:
The BIGGEST tip I can give you about couponing is to know WHEN TO USE YOUR COUPON! For instance...I have a coupon that expires tomorrow for a free tub of cotonelle wipes. I will be using it today but I have had this coupon for well over a month. Why haven't I used it? Because I was waiting to see if I could get more for my buck. YES I know I am already getting a free tub, but what if it would have went on sell for buy one get one free? I could have used that coupon and gotten TWO TUBS FOR FREE!! This goes for any coupon. When you get a great coupon, don't go out and and just use it. Wait for a sale and get more bang for your buck!! This is why you need to know when your coupons expire. That way if your product never goes on sale and you still want to use the coupon, you CAN right before it expires!! Just like I am with my cottonelle wipes!!!
What is a stockpile and do I REALLY need one?
I'm sure that many of you have seen the show Extreme Couponing on TLC and saw their stockpiles. A stockpile is just a collection of the products you have gotten with couponing. So basically when you need something, instead of going to the store to get one you can go to your stockpile and pull one of whatever you need out! If you are wondering if you really NEED a stockpile to coupon, the answer is yes. To the extreme of the extreme couponers of TLC's show---NO, not unless you just want to. BUT in order to TRULY coupon, you do have to have some kind of stockpile otherwise you will not get the best deals and let me tell you why. This goes for everyone but especially is you are brand loyal. Say your favorite pasta goes on sale one week and you are gonna be able to get it for free or close to it! Well I don't know about you but I am gonna stock up with enough to last me until it goes on sale like that again. If I don't take advantage of this deal full heartedly and get as much as I need until the next big sale then I will have to come back and pay full price for it!! But if I have enough to last me then I can just use my stockpile of pasta until the sale circulates again, which by the way is 6 weeks. SO you would need about 6 weeks worth of pasta!
How to best utilize the internet to get the best deals
Well one of the BEST sites to use it http://www.southernsavers.com/ this site tells all of the best deals per store going on and it even lets you make a list for yourself that you can print. I do use this site and I am never disappointed. HOWEVER, this is a personal tip I HAVE learned for the LaGrange, GA area!EVERYWHERE I go if I ever talk to anyone about couponing their first question is, Do you use Southern Savers? So what does that tell me? That LaGrange, GA's couponers are mainly getting their deals from southernsavers.com. SO my best tip to you? Yes, use southernsavers b/c it really is a good site but don't just depend on that site. The lady that run's it is still human and she does still miss alot of deals!! So when everyone is looking at southern savers and going to get those deals that are listed, I am not only getting her deals listed but deals listed at other sites and deals I have matched on my own. Stores run out of stock quick but I have noticed that they mainly run out of the deals listed on southernsavers.com but not on the other sites that I view. I would give you links to the sites I view but honestly, I just view so many. There are tons of couponing blogs and facebook pages...you just have to LOOK!
Can I use 2 coupons for the same product?
Sort of...you can't use 2 manufacturer coupons on one product...BUT you CAN use a store coupon along with a manufacturer coupon..this is called stacking coupons and is an essential part of couponing!
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