Ok, So I've been promising a quick overall coupon lesson so I'll do my best to make this as easy to follow as possible! I'm going to break these posts up to make it easier to follow (and because Olivia will only sit still for so long before she wants my attention...so I might not get everything typed all at the same time!). I will start today with going through the different types of coupons :0)
First I'm going to start off and say that it takes time, patience and a little extra time to really get the hang of this! I was so overwhelmed that I threw a fit that even my 5 year old would have been impressed with the first time I tried putting together sales and coupons. But the longer you stick with it, the better your results will be!
First, to get started you need to understand the types of coupons available to you. I will be honest, I used to view coupons as a pain and not worth the hassle. Then we came into financial hardship and I didn't have a choice but to cut back our grocery budget. I mean honestly, did we really need to spend $800-$1000 on FOOD each month?? That seems like such a waste. Pretty soon I couldn't believe that I used to shop without ever checking on coupons or sales!! All of this time I could have been saving SO much money and been able to cut our bills in half...for a family of 4 I spend around $400 a month now, down from my previous $800-$1000!!
A few coupon myths that I'm guilty of believing in the begining:
myth:"coupons are for poor people" - truth: coupons are for SMART people! If a company or store is offering you an item for $.50, $.75, $1.00 or more off for an item you buy anyway, why not take advantage of that??
myth: "I don't have time to clip coupons" - truth: "I don't have the time to NOT clip coupons" - Lets face it, the economy is tough right now. Trying to support a family with small children on one income isn't an easy thing to do. Because I'm so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids instead of working full time, then it's my job to make every dollar that my husband brings home stretch! So when I break it down, for an extra 6 hours of my time a month (usually an hour and a half a week) I save around $400-$600...that's like getting paid $100 an hour for doing this particular job :0) I'll take that any day!
myth: "coupons are only for junky, processed foods" - truth: "There are coupons for all kinds of things!!" - I will admit, there aren't many coupons out there for fresh produce, meat, dairy, eggs etc. I try my very best to buy the freshest, most wholesome food I can for my family. And the reality is that fresh, organic food is expensive! The bulk of my coupons that I use are for household items (toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergents, cleaning suppllies etc), health and beauty items (shampoos, soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes etc), baby items (diapers, wipes, formular and other things) and popular food items at our house such as yogurts, cereals, breads, deli meats, granola bars, frozen veggies, crackers, soups and other various snack food items. Because I can use these coupons to buy all of these items for practically nothing and then stockpile them, the bulk of my grocery budget is left available for fresh produce, dairy, meats and other wholesome foods.
Coupon Types:
1. Traditional coupons clipped from the newspapers on Sundays. Generally every Sunday there are anywhere from 1-3 coupon inserts in the paper. Some weeks are better than others. During the first phase of couponing I would buy 4 papers every Sunday to get multiple coupons. Then when that item goes on sale, I have a nice stack of coupons to get several of those items at a cheaper price. People vary on how many papers to buy...I've known people to buy 6-10 papers while in "stockpile" mode (which can get up to a 90% savings!), or some people choose to work with just one paper a week (usually a savings of around 5-10%), it's totally up to you. I generally get 3 or 4 papers a week and that seems to be working for me (I'm averaging about 60% savings on my grocery bills with 4 papers a week)
Example: Last month featured a coupon for buy one "Old Spice" deodorant, get an Old Spice body wash free. I had 4 of these coupons which equaled 4 free bottles of body wash for my husband! The deodorants that I had to purchase to get the body washes were on sale for $1.99 at Dillons. I had 4 coupons for $1 off 2 Old Spice Deodorants. Add an E-Coupon onto my Dillons card to take even more money off and I was able to get 4 Old Spice Body Washes and 4 Old Spice Deodorants for around $2. Not bad!! If I had paid full price for those items, even on sale, I would have spent around $20 total. So an $18 savings was wonderful, plus I'm stocked on enough of those items for my husband to not need to purchase more until the next great sale/coupon match up happens!!
2. Printable Coupons from the Internet - I use these frequently as well! There are several sites that you can print coupons right from home on your own printer!! These coupons re-set every month and you are usually allowed to print 2 copies of each coupon until the coupons are re-set. The websites I generally use for these are http://www.dillons.com/, http://www.coupons.com/, http://www.redplum.com/ and any company website offering coupons (such as Kellogs, Kraft, Betty Crocker etc). You will have to install a "coupon printer" but this can be done in a matter of seconds!
3. Digital or "e-coupons" are coupons that can be loaded straight to your store loyalty card. For me, I load these e-coupons onto my Dillons card and they are applied while I'm checking out. One swipe of my Dillons card and any product I have purchased will automatically be deducted off of my bill. The nice thing with these is that they can be used on an item that you have a paper coupon for as well!! The sites I use to load my e-coupons are http://www.dillons.com/, http://www.cellfire.com/ and http://www.shortcuts.com/. All you do is sign up, register your loyalty cards and start loading them up with awesome savings!
4. Others - Magazines are another great place for finding coupons, though the only magazine I subscribe to specifically for coupons is "All You". Catalina coupons are the print-out coupons that the cashier generally hands you along with your receipt at the end of your check out. These can sometimes have great savings on them to apply to a future purchase of that item. Loyalty coupons are another great thing that stores are giving away now...Dillons will look over my review of the items I'm frequently purchasing using my Dillons card and will send me coupons for those items every few months. I love that I'm getting coupons for items I buy almost weekly anyway!
Manufacture VS Store Coupons
On the top of each coupon next to the expiration date it will usually say mnfc cpn or store cpn. The manufacture coupons are usually good at any stores because they come directly from the company that makes that product. Store coupons are usually only good at that particular store. A lot of stores will let you stack these and use a store coupon along with a manufacture coupon on the same item, which equals double the savings!! Every store is different though so you have to check with your individual store to find out what their specific coupon policies are. Target is one store I often am able to stack my store/company coupons to get great savings!
So that is a brief overview of the types of coupons available to you. I have SO much more information to give but the baby is up from her nap :0) So I will post more later!! When I do have a second later I will start in on the basics of organizing coupons as well as shopping with them!!
Stay Tuned....
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