Why I love COUPONS

About a year ago I didn’t understand coupons. I shopped at Aldi and bought store brands at Dillon’s and thought we were doing pretty well in terms of our grocery budget. Then my eyes were opened the how much I could be savings if I started to clip coupons. At first it might be deceiving because aren’t store brands cheaper than name brands?

Initially they are and I still buy many store brands but I have never gotten a FREE product from buying store brand without a coupon. Most weeks I walk away with at least one free item thanks to coupons.

Sure it takes time to clip, sort, and organize but it’s worth it, particularly if you have a grocery store that doubles coupons. A grocery store will often double coupons up a specified amount. If you shop at Dillon’s it is $1.00, so if you have a coupon for .50 the store will double it making it a $1.00 coupon instead of a $.50 coupon. I was always confused by some coupons that stated DO NOT DOUBLE and I recently became aware of how to tell if your coupon will double. Simply look at the number code, if the first number is a 5 the store will double it.

The best way to use coupons is in conjunction with a sale. I hardly ever use coupons without a sale, I tend to buy store brand for those purchases. By matching up coupons with loss leaders, products that a stores are losing money on, you can find some fabulous deals.

Since I tend to cook from scratch and typically do not buy the prepared foods that many coupons are for I mostly use them to purchase household products such as shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, toilet paper and razors. If these coupons are used in conjunction with sales at Walgreens or CVS you’ll never have to spend a dime again on toothpaste and shampoo again. Several blogs, including this one can help you find the best deals at Walgreens each week.

The bulk of my coupons are from the Sunday paper, we get the Wichita Eagle and for best coupons you’ll want to purchase a copy of a larger newspaper. Give it a couple of months of coupon clipping and you’re stash will allow you to be saving like a frugal sista.

You can also find coupons online at places like coupons.com, redplum.com, and from my side bar. The way these coupons work is that the company allows a certain number of them to be printed. Once that number has been reached they’ll be gone. You can print two of each coupon per computer, so if you want more than two beg your friends and family to start printing some for you. Knowing when to print a coupon is up to you, I tend to print only the coupons I know I’ll be using. I used to print several that I thought were good ones but after draining a few ink cartridges and throwing the bulk of them away I changed my strategy. A few favorites that I always print are for Cottonelle, Honey Nut Cheerios, and bagged salad. I take my chances on other items that might go on sale later. These coupons can be printed in black and white, but I tend to think they look more official if they are in color so I just change my print quality to save ink. Please remember this is a luxury and it is illegal to copy them, I know none of you do this but I would hate to see these go away because of a few who choose not to follow the rules.

On top of IP (internet printable) coupons I load coupons to my Dillon’s Plus card from places like Shortcuts, Cellfire & Proctor & Gamble. These can produce some pretty sweet deals combined with a store sale.

So go ahead, start clipping or if your already a couponer I encourage you to keep track of how much you are saving by using coupons. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Happy Savings!