I need coupon help!!

[Freedom~Mama]

I want to learn how to be thrifty. Just yesterday when I was at the store the lady in front of me got a bunch of groceries for like $1 because she had a ton of different coupons.

I feel like I am at a loss at where to begin. How do I find manufacturer coupons, regular store coupons, rebates, etc? How do you organize your coupons? Do you load up on stuff you don't really need if it is super cheap? I really need to be frugal because I don't have much money to spend on groceries and it is not stretching very far. One problem is that we eat a lot of fruits and veggies and nuts and I don't ever see any special deals on those. What about meats are there any special coupons for meat? I am just a total coupon newbie and it is embarrassing but I really want to learn. If anyone has any good tips please tell me!!! I would also love to hear about how to get good deals on toiletries.

Also how long on average does it take you a week to look for coupons/clip them/print them/organize them etc? TIA!!

[EricaDoula]

Every sunday I cut coupons out of the newspapers. I just buy what I need and hope I have a coupon for it. Also, some of the bigger grocery stores do triple coupon days where they will triple the value of your manufacture coupon. My cousin is so good she paid .43 for 250$ of groceries! I don't know any of good tips. But I'll be waiting to see what the others say!!

[leavemealone]

I would say to start small and start with coupons. Don't try to get $100 of groceries for $0.50 yet. That will come with time and you can add on rebates later on. I get most of my coupons from the weekly paper, but I also live in a very coupon friendly area with lots of coupons in the paper, double coupons in stores, etc. Not all areas are like that.

You can check the upcoming sales at Hot Coupon World. There are other sites, but that is my favorite. If I find a good coupon and sale matchup, I'll order more coupons. Sometimes from ebay, sometimes from The Coupon Clippers. For example, my local Kroger has V8 fusion on sale for $2.49 and I bought a bunch of extra coupons that will make it $1.49 a bottle.

I don't see a whole lot of coupons for fresh foods, but I have seen coupons for clementines and fresh chicken lately (I think it was Tyson brand). You can find coupons for nuts if you get packaged nuts like Planters. I've seen coupons for some other brand of nuts recently - maybe Diamond? I see coupons for things like Cascadian Farms organic items a bit so if you eat those cereals, etc that would be an option.

Most of my toiletries have come from CVS or Walgreens in the past. Not so much lately b/c I've been living off my stockpile for a while, but check out those two stores if you have either of the nearby. You can preview the ads before they are out in the paper at Hot Coupon World.

[gbailey]

I call the customer service of companies whose products I purchase and ask them to send me coupons. Some put you on a mailing list and send you coupons periodically. This week, I got three $1.00 off coupons for Maranatha Butter produts and $1.00 off any Muir Glen product. I also go to coupons.com and print out coupons for the products we use. To save additional money, we try to purchase products that are on sale and where we have coupons to double the savings.

Also visit your favorite products websites where you can always download and print coupons. Every 30 days I'm able to print out coupons for Stonyfield Farm products. We use their plain yogurt which is never on sale in our area so the savings helps.

[Belia]

I live in the Chicago area (where our stores don't double coupons ) and every so often I would go online and read stories about the people who buy a whole load of groceries for pennies and I would get so jealous because I JUST DIDN'T GET IT. I never found a website that made sense to me and it seemed like everyone was getting the deals in other parts of the country.

Then I read in FYT about a woman in our area who runs couponing "classes" and I went to one at a local public library about a month and a half ago. And now I get it!!! In the past month I'm gotten 2 boxes of FREE hot chocolate, 20 packages of FREE batteries, 4 boxes of FREE dishwasher soap, 2 tubes of colgate toothpaste for 12 cents each, a 3-pack of Ivory soap for 11 cents, 12 boxes of Kelloggs cereal for 24 cents each...... there's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

It's a game and its an art. It takes some time to figure it out in the beginning, but I find it fun. (I guess I'm kind of a loser. ) I wish I had more time to spend on it.

The basic idea is to change the way you buy groceries. You no longer want to make a list and buy the stuff from the list once a week. You now want to buy enough of any non-perishable item to last you a minimum of 3 months, which is about how often prices for any item cycle to their very lowest at most grocery stores. You want to stock your own mini grocery store in your home of things you have gotten for very cheap or free. Then shop from your own "store" when you need something.

The holy grail is to buy something when it's on sale.... and you have a store coupon.... and you have a manufacturer's coupon. All for one item. That's when you get free stuff.

I'm rambling... what made the difference for me was finding someone LOCAL who figured out the best deals using MY grocery stores and MY prices. I copied the deals that she did and saw how they worked, and now I'm finding some of my own.

I use http://www.supercouponing.com/ and www.jillcataldo.com which are the same person. I would highly recommend her DVD, which is simply a presentation of the class that I took to learn this stuff. Maybe your library could order it for you? It really spells out the process.

I also use www.couponmom.com, although I don't find it as user-friendly. Especially as a newbie to couponing.

I've heard good things about the Grocery Game, but you have to pay to use that service.

Ask in FYT if anyone has a local couponing expert who's made this their business!




Sorry I geeked out on y'all!!! I'm just loving this stuff!!!!

[jessaroo]

There are a lot of good blogs out there that post current sales and coupons that match the sale as well as free offers.

Here are some that I suggest:
www.thethriftymama.com
www.moneysavingmom.com
http://organicdeals.blogspot.com

Everyonce and a while fresh produce, dairy and meat deals come up on these blogs.

[luv-my-boys]

I actually get my coupons from a few online sites where you pay a "handling fee" per coupon. I know lots say they believe in paying for them but honestly if im spending 5 cents on a dollar coupon that still means I save .95 cents. Also there are rarely any coupons here locally and the stores I shop in only take manuf. coupons, so no coupons from online at all.

that being said I only use coupons for items I get. Having a bunch of hemmoriod cream and no one has hemmoroids is still wasting money no matter how great of a "deal" it was. I do try to stock pile basics and I keep a general idea of what we normally get and how much it is in stores so If I see a coupon and its a good deal I get a few and stock pile it. Im fortunate to have great storage in our basement/freezer taht allows me to do that.

[Norasmomma]

I started couponing heavily the past few years. My biggest thing is take a look at what YOUR family buys on a regular basis, then go and find those coupons. For me it's good pasta sauce, spaghetti noodles, yogurts, cheese, 7th gen laundry soap, crackers, diapers..all of these items have coupons and often.

Next match those with sales at your store. If you can get store and MFQ's it is even cheaper.

I also would go to Hot Coupon World-that has taught me soooooooo much in the past year.

I NEVER buy papers I only buy my coupons, the paper has too much junk and not enough good stuff for me. I actually save money this way.

Once you get it-it's fun, but it does take me an hour or 2 to figure my plan of attack for the week, but my house is full of food, diapers(i'm lazy, I admit it), dish soap, shampoo, my make-up, laundry soap, etc.....ALL bought for cheap with sales and coupons.

[claddaghmom]

The coupon bug bit me big time last year. I got in on kmart doubles and some fantastic walgreens baby wipe deals. I was individually stocking local crisis centers for awhile. It was amazing and made me feel really motivated to keep trying.

I bought a zbinder on Target clearance for $7.48, some tab dividers and a couple packages of baseball card holders at the dollar store. It honestly took me about 3 hours to organize, designate and fill all the card holders with my coupons. It was exhausting, but the result was amazing. I know have a portable binder with all the coupons sorted and easy to reach. I put food on one side and everything else on the other side. It also carries my wallet and a mini diaper pouch.

What you need to do is figure out a source for coupons. My condo association has several communal mailboxes. Every Saturday they get 50 papers each. I just wait until the next Saturday and harvest whatever is left in them. I leave the newspapers behind b/c they are recycled.

I also follow several blogs. I was actively following a blog but lost the link and haven't dug around for it...the lady had a special thursday segment where she gave links to 3 companies to email. Emailing comments often nets you some nice coupons.

My favorite blog is hip2save.com. And slickdeals.net has active store threads on it and a special thread dedicated to sharing printable coupons.

I often hear that couponing is not that great b/c it is all for junk. And I think to some extent that is true. I have come across a lot of free food that I would never or could never eat (free cereal, dairy products, packaged foods, candy etc) but that is easily donated. When you have an established process, cutting a few extra coupons that are going to net free items is a great way to help out others IMO. It can also earn you money.

For example, last fall Kellogg's had some serious rebates available. I was getting products for free after coupons and then submitting rebates for $5, $10, $20 back. I also got a free Dell coupon w/ each rebate from them, which I then traded for coupons I needed or sold on eBay.

Another rebate deal was the SCJohnson rebate. Actually, that's still live. Buy 3 glade, ziploc, clorox, etc items and get $5 back. Well during the holidays, the Holiday Glade candles were making me money after coupons plus I was getting a $5 giftcard for buying 5 of them at Target. So I was earning $10 per transaction. And then I just packaged the candles nicely and gave them away as Christmas gifts.

Now that I have my binder set, here is my process:

Saturday afternoon:

collect the leftover inserts
pull them apart and sort by page
stack in piles of 15 and cut the coupons w/ my paper cutter
organize into my coupon book.

It takes about 20 minutes per 40-50 inserts to do this.

Then I generally pop onto my blogs/SD once in the morning to check for deals and new coupons. I only print coupons if they are really great b/c I haven't invested in a laser printer yet.

I would say at the most I spend an hour, maybe 2hrs a week on couponing.

[ReadingMama]

I've been doing the coupon/sale thing for a few weeks now, and I am amazed at how much I've saved! I second the recommendation for www.moneysavingmom.com, and the suggestion that you search for a match up site or blog that lists local deals.

I just have a small coupon organizer. I plan my shopping trips based on store circulars and coupon match ups, and I paperclip each trip's stack of coupons together before leaving for the store. When I write my shopping list, I make a note after each item to remind me that that item has a coupon, or that I'm price matching it (I shop at Walmart) with another store's ad. I separate the groceries that I'm price matching from everything else by using one of those divider bars. That way I can show the ads to the person checking me out.

Right now I just buy the Sunday paper and print out online coupons from links on the match up blogs and at these websites:

www.redplum.com
www.smartsource.com
www.coupons.com

I'd love to know where people buy coupons! It'd be nice to get coupons for things we actually use without having to wade through a bunch for things we don't use.

It seems overwhelming at first, but you don't have to have it all figured out at once. Search for match up websites. Start collecting coupons. Try a few deals. You'll get the hang of it.

[Freedom~Mama]

Wow thanks for all the good info. and tips! I am going to take notes and try to start figuring this out. It still sounds really confusing to me, but I am sure it is the kind of thing where the more you do it the more it makes sense and the easier it gets!