I subscribe to 5 Sunday newspapers and get a total of 9 inserts per week

To add to couponing confusion is the fact that coupon inserts are vastly different across the US.  It is all based on marketing.  One thing is for sure, larger city newspapers get better coupons every week.   I noticed this upon moving from Minneapolis to Iowa.  I miss my early edition Star Tribune coupons on Saturday.

After I moved to Iowa, my brother in law, Mike, offered to go and get my papers, of course I wanted the Chicago Tribune.  Well, after several weeks and him have to out run another customer for the last copy (he was so proud of himself) I decided that I needed a subscription.

I called the Des Moines Register to start delivery.  I then told them I wanted 4 copies.  It took a few weeks, but I know for over 8 months have had on the drive way 4 copies of the Des Moines Register waiting for me each Sunday. I would love to get the Chicago Tribune, but it does not have home delivery in my area.  Be careful when ordering a subscription that you are going to get the actual paper delivered (not electronic version) and that you get the coupon inserts (best to talk to an actual person). 

I also get our local paper everyday~ The Quad City Times, because it has all of the local ads (I need to see the actual ad even though I love the internet).  I do not ever stop the paper, even when there are no inserts (only 2 weeks since I started) since it just makes life easier to not confuse the paper, or the paper delivery person (knowing that each week I have all of my inserts right outside the door is so much less stressful that I feel I would rather pay for a week without inserts).

So, I have told you so far how I get 5 inserts per week, but you are probably wondering where the other 4 come from.  I have the best in-laws (no, my sibllings in-laws).  My sister-in-law, Courtney saves her inserts for me each week.  Her Mom, Elaine, also saves her for me )and takes them to Courtney for me to pick up.  Mike's (my brother-in-law) Mom, Peggy, mails me her inserts, yes she mails them.  Want to know what is even better than that-

Peggy and "Papa" Gage (so not to be confused with my oldest nephew Gage) subscribe to the Chicago Tribune and their local paper.  I am so thankful that I can get 4 extra inserts each week, it is amazing how much extra this allows me to purchase but mostly save!

Thanks Peggy, Courtney and Elaine!!

I appreciate your inconvenience each and every week!

(I know that my Mom would also save me the inserts from her 2 newspapers (oh Yeah, The Timberjay and Tower News do not get the Smart Source or Red Plum inserts, but they cover whenever I come to town or when Mom comes to help me with my sales- now that is a small town newspaper)!

Click here to be directed to a discount newspaper subscription site.

Swag Bucks- click to join and start earning prizes!

Just a Good Idea...

More and more companies are giving Mastercard and Visa Reward Cards as payment on rebates.  I have learned a few things that will help you deal with your Rewards Cards!

• I use the full amount on one transaction (makes it so much easier to use and not have to keep track of total left)
• I attach the card once used to the receipt and file with my receipts.  If you need to return something the retailer will put it back on the card- if you throw out the card and then need to return it will be a hassle.
• For me, I have had the easiest check out at Target.  The registers here ask you if you will be paying another way and most of the time I have to when I use these $10 cards.  This means the register will not try to authorize the $10 rewards card for more than $10 which would cause you to receive a decline on the card.
• Read the directions with the card (I know I do not like reading directions either, but it will save many headaches later).  Even though several of my cards state Debit Card on the front, they are credit cards and you need to process as a credit or they will not work as well.  You will also have to activate each card, so reading directions are most important!

I now enjoy getting Rewards Cards for rebates,but when I received my first one in March it was not easy to learn what to do.  Hopefully you will also enjoy getting Rewards Cards too!

Happy Rebating!

Walgreens Coupon Limits

The crazy receipt. I purchased 3 different M&M Mars candy items and each of them had a different price, but the coupon took off the correct amount (each of them ended up being 49¢).

Quite frequently, Walgreens has coupons in their weekly ads. These are Walgreens coupons and you may also use a manufacturer coupon as well. There has always been a limit written on the coupon, but the register has allowed you the price even if you purchase over the limit. Last week, there was a coupon for 110 count Kleenex for 89¢ (regular price varies on location from $1.09 to $1.19 in my area). I was purchasing multiples of these and had $1 off coupons (when I purchased 4). I purchased 4 in many transactions last week (even 8 in 2 transactions) and always received the 89¢ price (in fact, the register had the sale price ringing up without using the coupon). When I made a purchase in Iowa City, IA on Thursday the register gave me the 89¢ price for 3 and the 4th box rang up $1.19. I did this exact same purchase on Wednesday at the store and this did not happen. So, this week I am testing the Walgreens registers in Minnesota with coupons and limits. In the past I know that each Walgreens registers can ring differently (I think it may depend on if updates were completed at the correct time), so this does not surprise me. I need to know about limits since manufacturer coupons require a purchase of 4 and the Wags limit is 3- so a deal would not be as good if I do not get the discounted price on all items.
Well, yesterday, I dropped into my favorite Wags in Minneapolis and purchased 4 of the Tuffs Kitchen Garbage bags (limit is 3) and 7 M&M Mars (limit 6). the Tuffs rang up the sale price on all 4 without giving them the coupon. I also receive the sale price on all 7 of the candies and needed the coupon.
I will be monitoring this so we can make sure to plan our deals before we checkout. I just wanted to make you aware that we always have to be on our toes and watching the prices, so our deals do work as planned!

Happy Couponing!

IP (Internet Printed Coupon)

There are many sites where you can go and print IPs (Internet Printed Coupons). You will have to download a print driver for them, so be ready for this the first time. There is a lot to learn when printing coupons. First, make sure that your store will accept IPs. Also be aware that you cannot make copies of coupons. This is why some stores do not accept IPS. People make copies and then the store does not get reimbursed from the manufacturer for the coupons.
You can print 2 of each coupon from each computer. I use to print all of them, just in case but now print only ones I think I will use (I still toss some each month, but not nearly as many as I use to). When you see a coupon, you need to print since they are pulled and added constantly. This is based on a manufacturer only wants so many in circulation. Also, there are different coupons for different areas (when you put in your zip code, this pulls up deals targeted to your area). You will see notifications of deals (on blogs and couponing websites) listing what zip code pulls up the coupon, when it is a geographical offer.
There are 2 major IPs: Bricks and Coupons.com. Now there are many (oh, more like thousands) of sites you can print the same coupon from. The software behind these coupons is sophisticated and it tracks from your computer. I noticed that ALL You (a couponing Magazine only available for news stand sale from Walmart) offered IPs now so I checked them out. They had 12 ALL You exclusive coupons. Click here to go to the ALL You coupons. The software knew I had reached my print limit on many of the other coupons so I was only able to print the ones, I had not reached my limit of 2. Check out the coupons.com IPs here. There are many other sites, including many retailers where you can print coupons, make sure you check your favorite stores websites often and see what they have to print.
IPS are a great way to add coupons to your binder. Just as anything in our hobby, understand there is a learning curve and with practice it becomes easier to understand.

Happy Couponing!

The First Task

To a "couponer" the best and the worst day is often Sunday. Sounds strange, but it is very true for me and many others out there. We look forward to Sunday so much for the new coupons, the new ads (although now some grocery store chains are putting out their ads during the week) and the new challenges. We can "start over" on Sunday. We can try to better our best deal, hope to find a new rebate or just get to shop for a "different set of items. We also dread Sunday because it means so many more coupons. There have been many weeks where I have put off cutting coupons only to find myself even more dreading Sunday because I have 2 weeks of coupons to cut. I have now developed a system that makes it very easy for me to deal with the coupons and get on to the fun part- shopping and finding the deals.

I have a basket that I place stray coupons in throughout the week. When I cut coupons I also file these coupons. The biggest time saver for me has been to staple the insert pages. You will need to get a sturdy hand held stapler and plenty of staples. I go through my 4 papers and collate the inserts so I have all like coupons in a stack and then I staple each coupon. It is easier to cut due to less shifting (I do not cut off expiration dates now) and when they are in my binder I have all same expiration date stapled together so I can easily pull out expired coupons.

When I am cutting them I place them on a poster board mat I made with each of my binder categories listed (I am essentially sorting them as I cut). I taped together 2 pieces of poster board and used a ruler to make the boxes for each category. I will pull off to the side any coupons or rebates I Will not use (just diapers and some alcohol rebates otherwise everything else I go ahead and file).

There have been times I wish that I could just have my nieces cut all of my coupons, but that is not possible (100% off the time cutting straight is a requirement). Cutting and filing allows me to see what coupons I have and this helps when I am in a hurry at a store and I can then remember what I cut and files on Sunday.

I am amazed when I think about how much I have learned to do the hard way with couponing and how much time I get to spend shopping and finding the deals now that I have saved time with just a few things!

Top 10 Things to Help you Start Couponing

I have been acknowledged in stores many times because people see me with my coupons and they say "you are a professional", "Wow, you are very organized"!! They even like to watch me check out and it is always on days where I only save 30-40% and never the time I saved 99%. You too can start saving on your groceries (food, cleaners, paper products, over the counter medications and much more). My hobby is couponing and I consider it a challenge to save money and get items free, but I also have come to realize through family and friends that my hobby (couponing) is not for everyone, but almost everyone wishes they could lower their grocery bill. I am going to give tips for the person just starting to learn about saving money through coupons. Here is my top 10 list for couponing!

#10 You need to have coupons organized so that you can use them. This is a personal preference. Don't be afraid to try a system and then change. I laugh every time I think about my system when I started- I actually made an excel spreadsheet of every coupon I had and kept the coupon inserts intact. I now use a double binder (3" rings on one side and 1.5" ring on the other) with baseball card keeper sleeves. I cut coupons each week and organize them into my categories. I do not always carry the bright orange binder in a store, but my family knows that the binder travels with me out of town (just in case).

#9 You need to get coupon inserts! Sounds simple, but after I moved back to my hometown from Minneapolis, I realized not every paper gets the best coupons. I now purchase the Chicago Tribune each week just for the coupons. I wish I could just buy the coupon inserts but that is currently not possible. There are several weeks a year (holiday weekends) where there are generally not coupons inserts, so I always check before I buy so that I am not wasting money. This is a good practice every week since people have been known to just take an extra coupon insert from other papers. I buy 4 papers each week and it costs $12. You can save money with 1 insert per week, but I have found that to be the best number for me.

#8 You need to decide what you want to achieve. This sounds simple, but do you want to save $50 each week off your $100 grocery bill (you can do this but you will need to change brands and eat for dinner what is on sale for the week). Or would you rather spend the same amount, but get 20% more food so you can give to the local food shelf? Or would you rather cut your entire household supply shopping by 50% (this can be done, but not right away and is more difficult in some areas). You have probably seen the news reports where a woman goes with the reporter and they pay $0 for over $100 in groceries. What they fail to tell you is that they bought one complete meal and 10 tubes of toothpaste and a pack of diapers (they do not have any kids). They also bought items that were on super specials (buy $25 of certain items and get $10 off your next purchase) or the store doubled or tripled coupons (this is not in my area of the country very often and never at a grocery store, so it makes the $0 a even more unlikely total.

#7 Plan, Plan and Plan some more. 30 minutes of planning what you are going to buy and pulling the coupons ahead of time, will save you money. If you look at ads and plan your weekly meals from what is on sale and what you have coupons for, you will save even more money! Now here is the first rule of couponing- you use a coupon when an item is on sale (his means you probably will not use a coupon the week it is in the insert). Manufacturers plan on you running out an using a coupon right when it is in the insert and then 3-4 weeks later they run a sale. They are hoping to catch 2 different groups of buyers- one with the coupon and the other with the sale. there is a small but growing group of customers who know that you save the most by using a coupon on a sale item. That is why I buy 4 newspapers so that I have 4 coupons and when an item is on sale, I can buy 4 so I have enough until it is on sale again.

#6 This rule is the hardest for new couponers to embrace- when you cut your coupons, cut all of them not just the brands you currently use. There are many reasons this will save you money. First off is the coupon will likely be paired with a sale in the next month making the item much less expensive if not free. Now, you are saying I will never use anything but Heinz ketchup or Cottonelle Toilet Paper (2 of many things I will not use another brand of) so why cut out Quilted Northern or Hunts Ketchup coupons. Well, in #7 I said plan, plan and plan some more and you are looking through your grocery store fliers and Hunts Ketchup is one of 10 items included in a super buy (buy 10 of the following items and get $10 coupon for your next purchase- or many other scenarios) and you have $1 0ff of Hunt's coupons making the ketchup Free (and the other items in the sale you will use) and you get $10 coupon to save money next week or on a splurge item that rarely has a coupon (we couponers need to have our splurges too). So you have 4 bottles of Free Ketchup for the Food Drive at your kids school (you saved money by not having to buy something else). I am not one that is so cheap (some call it frugal) that I would tell you in order to save money on your groceries and household supplies you can not be brand loyal, because I am on many items. I have found items I do not care about brand as much and that is what I concentrate my saving on!

#5 Start a pricing Journal (this is not always fun, but it is necessary). You can just use a spiral notebook and start by writing down the staple items you use (ground beef 93%, gallon 1% milk, chicken breasts, can green beans) and then the price you pay, date and store. This will serve as a reference when you are planning your trip. You will know if it is 50% lower than your other best price so you might want to stock up or $0.10 higher than best price. I never realized how many prices I had floating in my head and how quickly I was confusing prices. I will also admit that my pricing journal is far from complete, but when I moved in with my sister and family and started grocery shopping for a family of 4, myself and 2 dogs I needed one- this pushed my couponing skills to a new level and I needed to go back to the basics and use a pricing journal. I know it helps and it does help in planning! You will learn that Wal Mart usually doe not have the lowest prices (when they do it is considerably lower as I learned with Progresso Soup). You will also learn that buying meat in larger quantities and then separating and freezing can save you money- only if you have the extra freezer space because buying a new freezer will take many months of your savings.

#4 Learn form others who have been couponing for years. I started with a website ad learned so much. I have a few that I rely on to get tips from others and suggest you read them as well as my blog!! You may get an idea about cutting coupons from someone in Boston, or a tip on shopping Walgreens from a person in California or that your store accepts expired coupons from your neighbor who is also on the site. I recommend 2 free sites http://www.couponmom.com/ and http://www.afullcup.com/ and one paid subscription site http://www.refundcents.com/. Each site has things they exceed at and offer different perspectives. I would start at couponmom and afullcup and if you enjoy couponing (do not find it to be a horrible chore) then in a few months you can purchase a subscription to refundcents (which is not expensive). You can get lists of sale items from National chain stores that match up with coupons. This is the done for you so you do not need to do it. Understand that coupon values are very different throughout the country and some areas will get coupons you do not. The sites all have a glossary available since there are abbreviations that are used: TIA- thanks in advance, YMMV Your mileage may vary (meaning you may not have this offer or price or your store may not allow a part of it), IMHO- in my humble opinion.

#3 You may acquire coupons in many places not just the Sunday newspaper inserts. Some are mailed to you, others you can print on the Internet and you can trade with other couponers (another reason to cut and save all coupons in your inserts), you can ask family, friends and neighbors for their inserts- but if your local paper does not have the larger inserts this is not very lucrative) you can also pay a handling fee and get coupons at clipping sites and even eBay. Handling fees vary but are usually 5%-20% of the face value of the coupon. Very often I have cashiers ask me where I got my coupons since they are higher value or I have so many and I let them know that I purchase many newspapers and that I use more than our local paper.

#2 Know what the coupon policy is of the stores you shop. Some stores will double or triple your coupons (I shopped at Rainbow Foods in Minneapolis and on Wednesdays with a $25 order you could double 5 coupons, but you have to know they had this promotion so you could plan for it). You will want to sign up for and preferred customer programs. You can get electronic coupons (automatically come off your invoice when your card is scanned) or special sales. Find out if your store accepts expired coupons (I have shopped stores that accepted up to 2 month old coupons) or if they accept competitor coupons. Also you will want to know when their sale ad comes out. Many grocery stores have started sale prices on Wednesdays so the ad is not in the local Sunday paper (saves them a lot of money and I am sure there are other reasons that I do not know since I am not in the retail grocery business). Know that you can use a manufacturer and Store coupon on one item (yes this is called a double play in the "Coupon World". You can only use one manufacturer coupon per item (so make sure you understand the difference in who is "paying or reimbursing" for the coupon- it will state it clearly on the coupon.

And the #1 thing to help you start couponing: One step at a time!
I can not say enough that you can easily get overwhelmed (I even do now after much experience) so go one step at a time and do not try to do everything at once. Learn one thing and then move to the next and most importantly remember that even people who have been couponing for years have been known to miss deals, forget a coupon or figure out a better deal minutes after using their last coupon for an item. There is a learning curve and you can learn as much as you want and as you get more comfortable you can add more skills (triple plays with rebates, shopping for charities, family and friends). You can start stockpiling and then having yard sales to defray your coupon expenses and add to your income. You can make this a part of your home chores or a way of life. What you do is up to you and how much you enjoy it. My nieces love to help me and have fun while learning math skills. It can be a family event to start saving money! Have fun and do not base your success this week with if you get all of your groceries for free- that takes lots of coupons, planing and luck (that the store has the right sales and coupon policies to make it happen)!

Good Luck and check back often for tips and tricks to help you save money on your grocery and household supplies!