Finding Coupons

There are tons of places to find coupons. All that I use are free, but there are places available to purchase coupons. There are also different kinds of coupons.

The most commonly known coupons are the kind that you clip out of the Sunday paper inserts. The inserts vary by region and the bigger cities usually have more and better coupons. So if you live in a smaller town, it would probably be worth looking into getting a subscription to your nearest major newspaper.

There are also coupons you find directly on the products that you have to peel off; these are called “peelies”. Also, throughout the store you can find pads that you can tear coupons off of; these are called “tear-pad” coupons. There are also the little machines attached to the store shelves that blink and spit out coupons; these are generally put out by SmartSource and are called “blinkies”.

Another source for coupons is the Internet. These coupons are known as printable coupons because you print them out yourself and cut them out. There are many different websites available for printable coupons. Some of my favorites include:
Coupons.com
Redplum.com
Smartsource.com
Afullcup.com
Wow-Coupons.com

A third source for coupons is to purchase them online. There are a few ways to do this as well, such as:

The Coupon Master
CentsOff
Coupons & Things by Dede
The Coupon Clippers
The Coupon Carry-Out
Ebay.com

Another great way to find some great coupons is to have coupon swap meets. This is basically where you get your couponing friends together and trade coupons that you don’t need or want.

So far, all of the coupons that I have mentioned have been manufacturer coupons, which means when you use those coupons, the store you use them at will be reimbursed for the value of the coupon by the company that manufactured the products the coupons where for.

Store Coupons

There is one more type of coupon. These are called store coupons. Store coupons are coupons printed specifically for a particular store. For example, if you have a coupon that, where it usually says manufacturer coupon, it says Target Coupon, you can only use that coupon at Target. While it may seem like a bummer that you can only use that coupon at the specific store, it is really a fantastic thing. Why? Because store coupons can be stacked with manufacturer coupons!

Stacking coupons means you can use one store coupon and one manufacturer coupon on the same item. For example, you had store coupon for $1.00 off batteries and you had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 the same type and brand of batteries. If you purchase that one specific type of batteries, then you could use both coupons on that one item. Stacking coupons is a fantastic way to save money.

The best places to find store coupons are at the store and at the store’s website. Some coupons are scattered in different places throughout the store, but most of the time they are in a display at the front of the store as you just walk through the doors. This is true for Walgreens and CVS. Websites for finding store coupons online include:
Target
CVS
Walgreens
HEB

Price Matching

Another way to make your coupons go even further is to use them with price matching. Say Kroger has milk on sale for $1.99 a gallon, but you live closer to Wal-Mart. If you take the Kroger ad to Wal-Mart, they will honor the price and match the $1.99 price for a gallon of the same brand milk. If the Kroger milk is store-brand, you must buy Wal-Mart’s store-brand milk, etc. Target and Wal-Mart are the only stores near me that price match. You can find Target’s price match policy HERE and Wal-Mart’s price match policy HERE.

You also need to know each stores coupon policies before you intend to use coupons there. Here are the following available coupon policies for each store:
Target
Wal-Mart
Randall’s

Organizing Your Coupons

There are also many different ways to organize your coupons.

Some people use the insert method which is keeping your Sunday paper coupon inserts intact and filing them in a large accordion style notebook. This is probably the easiest way to organize your coupons if you depend on couponing websites to find the best deals for you. When a couponing website finds a great deal to use coupons on, they will list which type and weeks insert to find that coupon. For example, RP 11-1-09, means you can find that coupon in the Red Plum insert for November 1, 2009. Then all you have to do is find that insert, flip through it and cut out the specific coupon.

Another way to organize your coupons is the binder method. This is where you get a zippered binder, so nothing falls out, to store your coupons in. You will also need to find the clear plastic sleeves that you store baseball cards in. Be on the look out for these for cheap at yard sales. Anyway, with the binder method, you cut out all of your coupons and place them into the baseball card holders. This method is great for seeing all of your coupons and knowing exactly what you have. Most zippered binders also have great pockets in the front for storing your calculator, scissors, pen, and scratch paper. Also, be sure to get regular plastic document sleeves to put in the back to store your price matching and coupons policies for each store, as well as the week’s store circular ads. This method is great because you can take the binder with you to the store and keep right in the child area in the front of the cart, given a child isn’t there.

Yet another method is what I call the recipe box method. This is literally using a recipe type box to store your coupons in. You will also need dividers that fit into the box to sort your coupons. This method is really only feasible for people just starting to use coupons because you will quickly outgrow the recipe size box. This is when some people move to larger plastic case to store their coupons, or some even a small toolbox. You can still use the same dividers you previously used, although you may want to cut new ones to fit the size of whatever box your have moved up to. The toolbox style is great because you can store your calculator, scissors, pen and scratch paper in the top tray; it also fits well in the child area of your shopping cart.

The final method I will touch on is the accordion method, which is the method I use. This is the easiest for me because I can fit it into my purse and carry it with me wherever I am shopping. You will need a small accordion file for this method. You simply label each section in the file and sort your coupons into each section. Although I have outgrown the one file and have now had to sort my coupons into two different files, which is still fine for me.

Some people will have to use different methods until they find the one that is right for them. No matter which method you choose, make sure you are using quality materials to sort and organize your coupons. While one case, file, or binder may be cheap, make sure you get one that is made well and won’t break or fall apart on you.

Now that you have learned about some of the different methods, here are the categories for sorting coupons that I use:

File 1 Contains: Food, Drinks, Snacks, Dessert, Candy/Gum, Breakfast, Baking, CVS, Walgreens, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Recipes

File 2 Contains: Cleaning, Make-up, Pharmacy, Home Fragrance, Pets, Paper Goods, Household, Shampoo/Lotion/Soap, Razors/Deodorant, Toothbrushes/Paste, Personal Care, and Baby

Also, regardless of your method, make sure you find which categories work best for you. For example, if you didn’t have any pets or kids then obviously you wouldn’t need those categories; unless you bought those items to donate of course.

Coupon Lingo

Overwhelmed yet? Well now it’s time to learn the language of couponing. There are quite a few abbreviations used by couponers, such as:

RP — Red Plum
SS — Smart Source
P&G — Proctor & Gamble
ECB — ExtraCare Bucks, from CVS; learn about ECB’s HERE
WAGS — Walgreens
RR — Register Rewards, from Walgreens, learn about RR’s HERE
OOP — Out of pocket cost
ARV — Actual Retail Value
Q — Coupon
MFTR — Manufacturer Coupon
YMMV — Your Mileage May Vary, meaning you may get a better deal at store A than store B
EXP — Expiration Date of the Coupon