Couponers....help me out!

[Darcy Baldwin]

K - after watching the crazy coupon people on TLC lately, I'm interested in starting doing coupons again..and in a bigger way than just the every once in a while ones. Have any good sites that I can get started on to learn about a better system - or do you have your own advice?

I do know we don't have double coupons past .30 cents, and no triple past .25, so those double .75 coupons don't happen here anymore

[kscwgirl]

none of my stores double at all. I follow local bloggers that do matchups for my grocery stores here and I do my lists off that. I do a lot of printable coupons, b/c I don't have trouble with them here, your stores might not take them. Most things run in a 3 month cycle, although right now I do not have the space to stockpile that much. What are your local grocery stores, Darcy? I can find you some bloggers that do matchups for your stores.

I should say, however.. I do much more cvs/walgreens shopping than i do grocery coupons. I haven't paid for toothbrushes, deodorant, body wash or shampoo in about 3 years.

[rachaelsscraps]

Our price chopper here always doubles coupons, so that helps. But there are a couple sites with good coupons- couponbug.com and the p&g brandsaver sites.
I always end up getting free toothpaste, yogurt, and lots of other stuff almost free with double coupons and the sales at PC. (they seem to run the sales on the same items that there are coupons for the same week)

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by kscwgirl

What are your local grocery stores, Darcy? I can find you some bloggers that do matchups for your stores.

I should say, however.. I do much more cvs/walgreens shopping than i do grocery coupons. I haven't paid for toothbrushes, deodorant, body wash or shampoo in about 3 years.

We have Kroger, Tom Thumb, CVS and Walgreens

[Tracyfish]

Darcy - check out www.iheartsavingmoney.com

[kscwgirl]

Originally Posted by Darcy Baldwin

We have Kroger, Tom Thumb, CVS and Walgreens

Kroger - http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums...xas-louisiana/
http://www.livefabuless.com/search/label/Kroger
http://faithfulprovisions.com/category/kroger/
http://www.frugalcouponliving.com/category/kroger/ (she has printable lists, but may not be your region, I'm not sure)

Tom Thumb - http://dealiciousfinds.com/supercenters/tom-thumb-101/

Walgreens - http://wildforwags.com/

CVS - http://www.iheartsavingmoney.com/ind.../category/cvs/

[carriesmom]

I use hot coupon world to know what sort of deals are going on and then I have a couple blogs in my reader that tell me what the deals are at my local stores. My safeway doubles everything to a $1 so it is a big incentive to shop there.

[shupe]

Originally Posted by kscwgirl

Kroger - http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums...xas-louisiana/
http://www.livefabuless.com/search/label/Kroger
http://faithfulprovisions.com/category/kroger/
http://www.frugalcouponliving.com/category/kroger/ (she has printable lists, but may not be your region, I'm not sure)

Tom Thumb - http://dealiciousfinds.com/supercenters/tom-thumb-101/

Walgreens - http://wildforwags.com/

CVS - http://www.iheartsavingmoney.com/ind.../category/cvs/

Do you have any links for Giant Eagle? TIA!!

[pkstew2]

Ok what am I missing on TLC? I soooo need to get into coupon clipping. Darcy, have you seen this website: http://www.mydallasmommy.com/. They post ALOT of local stuff and will often give the rundown on the local chains mentioned above.

[kscwgirl]

Originally Posted by shupe

Do you have any links for Giant Eagle? TIA!!

Yep I sure do

http://www.savinginakron.com/categor...-2/giant-eagle

[Shawna]

I haven't done a whole lot of couponing lately but these are some of the coupon blogs I follow on FB (they all have websites/blogs too). Here we only have Dillon's, Homeland, Walgreen's, Target and Walmart so not a whole lot of stores to choose from.

http://www.facebook.com/TheKrazyCouponLady
http://www.facebook.com/Hip2Save
http://www.facebook.com/CouponsAndFreebiesMom
http://www.facebook.com/MomsNeedToKnow
http://www.facebook.com/LifeasMOM

[crecia27]

We only have one grocery store here, and its a local chain (HEB), they were able to price all the national chains (Kroger & Albertsons) out of the market. We do have Target and Walmart that also have groceries but there is not incentive for doubling coupons. :-(

[kscwgirl]

Originally Posted by crecia27

We only have one grocery store here, and its a local chain (HEB), they were able to price all the national chains (Kroger & Albertsons) out of the market. We do have Target and Walmart that also have groceries but there is not incentive for doubling coupons. :-(

Target, though, you can use a manuf coupon and a store coupon on the same item.. i shop some groceries at target if there's a matchup for them.

[Jengerbread88]

Fair warning. This is going to be a VERY long response.

Currently, I am not actively couponing the way I used to, since I live with my parents and have few expenses. I WAS actively couponing and got many things for free. I'll give you what worked for me, and what didn't.

1. Many couponers will tell you that you need to get 10 papers a week. No. Get what you'll use. I found that 2 papers per week was enough for me. I clipped what I would use. I then saved my inserts for what I didn't think I would use, and traded coupons with other coupon people I knew, or in online forums. For example, I'd find cat food coupons in the paper. I would give those to a friend of mine with cats, and she would give me dog coupons from her paper. I had a dog, but no cats, she had a cat but no dog, we were able to trade. I didn't have a baby, so baby food coupons went to a parent with a baby, but a coupon I would use that she wouldn't would go to me (it usually varied).

2. You can also dig through recycling bins, or ask people who buy papers and don't coupon to save you the insert. Sometimes you'll find more, sometimes you won't. If you find that there is a coupon that you really really want in a paper, buy an extra. I only buy 2 papers regularly, as I said, but if there was a coupon for $4.00 off a specific Gilette product and it was on sale that week in a circular, you better believe I was buying 5 or 6 papers if I could get the Gilette kit for pennies... it would give me extras of other usable coupons, too.

3. Get a system that works for you to organize your coupons. Mine was a binder. There was a front pocket that had scissors, a memo pad, pens, a calculator, and other supplies I found I needed on a regular basis. Then, I had dividers for each category (Hygiene, Restaurant, Paper goods, Frozen Food, etc etc etc). Each section had it's fair share of baseball card plastic sleeves and photo plastic sleeves. Small coupons went in the baseball one, larger coupons in the photo ones.
Each kind of coupon (for example, duracell batteries) go in a pocket TOGETHER. So I have all of my duracell coupons in one pocket, all my colgate in one pocket, etc etc etc. I put them in order of expiration date, expiring soonest in the front, farther away in the back. If there's a great sale, I may use them all at once. If not, I may use them as needed.

4. Clear out expired coupons regularly. There are some programs where you can mail expired coupons to military families, who can use these coupons for a certain amount of time at the base shops... you can google for more information about sending them coupons you didn't get to use in time.

5. Keep a notebook of your store's prices. Most will go in a cycle-- Macaroni and Cheese may be $1.08 one week, and two weeks after that be $0.79. If you track an item you regularly buy long enough, you'll be able to predict when a sale is.

6. Sign up for programs like bzzagent, vocalpoint, and shespeaks. Often, not only will you get free samples, but you'll get coupons. Occasionally, they are coupons to get an item completely free! My mom got invited to a Chex campaign on a website from the manufacturers of Chex product-- not only did she get multiple coupons for $2.00 off Chex, but she also got a free mixing bowl and a $10.00 gift card to go purchase other supplies to make Chex mix. Not only did that $10.00 help us get ingredients not on the list, but at Target, Chex went on sale to $2.00 a box... which meant her $2.00 off coupons made it FREE! She also participated in a campaign with BzzAgent, who sent her coupons for $2.00 off any 2 items from the Glade Winter Collection. Target just marked these down, meaning candles that were between $2.00 and $4.00 were now only $0.48 each after that coupon-- we were able to get 6 candles, 2 scented oil warmers with a candle in each, and 8 scented warmer refill candles for less than $6.00.

7. Stack promotions when you can. A little over a year ago, I got a buy that I am still proud of to this day. I went to Target and they had Special K bars on clearance. I had multiple $1.00 off coupons from the manufacturer. Target was running a promotion that if you bought 4 boxes you got a $5.00 target gift card. Plus, Kellogs was running a promotion that said if you bought 10 boxes in a single transaction, they would mail you a $10.00 rebate check. After rebate, gift cards I received (which I paid for my other stuff on a second transaction), and coupons, I got 12 boxes of Special K bars for under $3.00. TOTAL. Not per box. TOTAL. If your store has a catalina printer (one of those printers by the register that spits out coupons), the printed coupons would be a "store coupon." In case you didn't know, you can use both a store coupon AND a manufacturer's coupon (like what you get from the newspaper, like the P&G brandsaver or whatever) on the same item... we had a manufacturer's coupon for Kibble's and Bits, and at the store, it spit out a coupon for the same product... we applied both coupons to the purchase and saved $3.00 off, which was about half off!

Anyway, those are my fast tips. Hopefully they help a little bit!

[WalkersMommy]

I follow The Krazy Coupon Lady for all my couponing. My advice would be to definetly do all your toiletry shopping at CVS. We don't have a CVS here so I do Rite Aid, but the drug stores always have amazing deals on toiletries. I never buy toiletries anywhere else anymore.

[kscwgirl]

I would LOVE to have a rite aid. They have awesome awesome deals. I wish I had one.

[Balinda]

Some of my fave sites are already listed but others I find really helpful
are
www.southernsavers.com
www.couponing101.com
www.TotallyTarget.com
www.KingdomFirstMom.com (she does the $scenarios for the drugstores but you already know that gig and how to roll ur bucks from there it seems)

I also order coupons when I don't get many in my area since coupons vary region to region~I prefer to order the whole inserts from www.wholecouponinserts.com

[Balinda]

oh yeah~I forgot to add to get the All You magazine from Walmart (only place it's on the shelf) cuz it's loaded with coupons.

At CVS get ya one of those leaf thingys at the register~they are 99 cents I think but after 4 visits (or scans) it gives you an extra Extra Care Buck.

I don't know how you store your coupons but I use the binder method and I love it eventhough it takes me more time to cut and stuff but I have to drive a good 45 mins to where I am shopping and I want my coupons with me if I find a good deal. Back in Novemeber I spent just a little over $500 in food and tolietries (this included Thanksgiving) and the merchandise I brought into my home was valued a little over $1500.

here is my coupon binder...the pink case is where I keep all my drugstore bucks, extra loyalty cards etc.

[Milmomma]

Originally Posted by Jengerbread88

Fair warning. This is going to be a VERY long response.

4. Clear out expired coupons regularly. There are some programs where you can mail expired coupons to military families, who can use these coupons for a certain amount of time at the base shops... you can google for more information about sending them coupons you didn't get to use in time.

Anyway, those are my fast tips. Hopefully they help a little bit!

This is true. I try to coupon as much as possible, since food here is really price due to having it being shipped over. I try to remind family and friends often, without pestering that I will gladly take their expired coupons, up to 6 months past the expiration date. I feel like I'm doing well to save between 10-25% per grocery trip usually. I trade coupons with several friends too. It helps.