Coupon Help!

[WeasleyMum]

I'm just starting to use coupons to save grocery money, but I'm having a hard time finding any! I bought a Sunday paper last week and went through the shiny circulars, but they were all advertisements of specials, not actual clip-and-bring coupons. What am I doing wrong, and where can I find actual bar-coded coupons? I've printed a few out from on-line, but they are few and far between.

[mnnice]

There were no coupons last week. It had to do with the President's Day holiday. Try agian on Sunday.

[leavemealone]

Here's a pretty good list of the coupon schedule for the year. http://www.taylortownpreview.com/id36.htm It may not be exact, but it's usually pretty accurate. Also, the site will put a preview of the actual coupons that will be in the paper each week. Again, it's not completely accurate as companies will put different coupons in different regions, but it seems to be fairly accurate.

[leavemealone]

Also there's a site called The Coupon Clippers where you get individual coupons instead of ones you don't need.

[rebeccalynn]

hum, sorry last week was a bust. 2nd what pp said about no coupons last week b/c of the holiday. It does not always turn out that way but usually. Here are some of my coupon links to get you started....

Here is an approx. 2009 coupon schedule for the Sunday paper. It is sometimes regional (I live in the SouthEast).

Coupon schedule list 1
Coupon schedule list 2


Here is a place that posts a list of what is in those coupon inserts before Sunday - that way you know if it is going to be coupons that you use and sometimes I end up getting 2 papers for twice the coupons.

Coupon preview list 1
Coupon preview list 2


I also personally like couponmom.com. You do have to register, but they have a grocery deals by state section that I love b/c it saves me lots of time. I look at my 3 grocery stores in my area, drug store & target for specials and coupon deals. It is a check-able list so that you can eliminate the things that you are not interested in and I can see what I am interested in at each store at a glance and know what is worth my time. It also has the coupons listed for each of those items (if there is one) and what date paper it was from.

I like to use coupons but I do not want it to cost me a lot of time or money (set up or coupons/papers that I do not use).

Hope that helps!

[WeasleyMum]

Wow, thanks you guys! I didn't realize that the holiday weekend would affect anything.

[blueridgewoman]

Honestly, I buy them on ebay from sellers who are close by (and def east of the Mississippi). I look at the sale ads every week when they come out (HT Wed, Kroger Sun, Giant Fri) and then order them THAT day. They usually get here, and I've gotten tons of free stuff that way.

[Jenelle]

WeaslyMum, what are the odds of you buying a paper, thinking you are going to jump into couponing, the ONE week that there are NO coupons? Seriously, it doesn't happen that often! They are in the Sunday paper, almost all the time. Keep trying!

Also, I LOVE www.thecouponclippers.com. You can search for specific coupons, for brands that you always buy, and their inventory of coupons is constantly changing it seems... So even if today, it doesn't seem like there is much you would use, check back in a few days, or a week, and it is so worth it! Line these coupons up with a sale, stock up, and watch your spending go down. It's great!

Edited to say: Okay, well, your spending may actually go UP if you are stocking up like I do -- but over time, I am saving *so* much money!

[p1gg1e]

www.afullcup.com has great ways to find deals and have a way to match up sales with coupons. Not so much for natural foods but sometimes you get lucky...or at least free TP

[Norasmomma]

I know I bought a paper-then I realized that there were no coupons for this week because of the holiday. Too bad...I had to read the paper instead.

I'm another who likes couponmom.com, a fullcup is good also. I like hotcouponworld because tere are people who post links to the weeks ads before they come out to the general public, so you can plan accordingly. Seriously I have only spent $200 of my $400 budget this month because I couponed and used sales last month. We have been mostly living on those reserves. Whoo-hoo!

[soccermama]

I usually buy some of my coups from Ebay as well and just keep an eye out in the mail for daily/weekly coups that we can use. This is a good site, too: http://www.couponmountain.com/

[ollineeba]

Great links..