Thursday, April 21, 2011

Help! I'm Drowning!

Drowning in coupons that is! Holy cow, there are tons of coupons available out there! Two weeks ago I was waving pieces of paper at my husband, "Look, more coupons!", I would exclaim. Now, I am looking at the equivalent of shoe boxes full and moaning, "More coupons, how am I going to organize these?". Coupons are out there to be had, no doubt about it. Do you need help finding them? Well, let me share my very limited expertise.

  1. Sunday Newspaper ~ I know. Obvious, right? Well a lot of people do not subscribe to a newspaper. Even so, it may well be worth your money to purchase a single paper on Sundays. Last Sunday there were 3 different coupon circulars in my local paper. Using just a few of those will more than offset the cost of the paper.
  2. Magazines ~ Most magazines geared toward women have coupons in them. If you can get a really good deal on the subscription it will pay for itself. Since I started this blog I have gotten 2 subscriptions for free. Redbook & Good Housekeeping. I have purchased 2 more subscriptions for less than $4 for 1 year. Better Homes and Gardens & Family Circle. With one other magazine I paid a discounted rate of $14.95 for a year. This was for All You. This magazine is a coupon lovers bonanza! The April edition contained $75 in coupons & May will have about $85 in coupons. That's a pretty big return on your investment! You can find these discounts on various Internet sites. Example: Tanga.com is offering a Weight Watchers magazine subscription for $3.99 today with the code weight.
  3. Online printable coupons ~ These are everywhere. Coupon based blogs have links, manufacturers web sites, manufacturers Facebook pages, web sites dedicated to coupons & other savings. This blog is not all about coupons because so many others do it so much better than I could ever hope to. I have provided some links, both at the side and bottom of this page, to help you get started.
  4. Coupon clipping services ~ Yes, you can pay to have someone else do the dirty work for you. This may be worth it to you if you have more money than time. This is a decent option if you are ordering the big money coupons. Paying 5 cents for a $1 coupon still makes you a profit. But I would want to make sure I was definitely going to use that coupon!
So, there are a few ideas to get you started. Go ahead! Get your coupon on!


Marla


Addendum: After comments came in it was noted I forgot Digital Coupons. These are coupons you can load onto your cell phone or onto a store card. Cellfire is one such site. Warning....be aware of the stores coupon policies if you are using this along with regular manufacturers coupons. Some stores, Dillons, for example, will not stack coupons. You want to make sure you are getting your best deal in that case. I will post some of the store policies later this week. Thanks for all the input! It helps to have all the comments :)

7 comments:

  1. I just posted a link for 2 free issue of Family Circle. These are totally free, no payment info is taken. It is for the June and July issues. Look under the Freebies page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haven't had a chance to read all your blogs, so maybe you have addressed this...
    Are you having any trouble with retailers like Dillons accepting coupons printed from websites? I have heard of them being refused.
    Also, where are you finding these free subscriptions?

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, I have not had a problem with the online coupons. If you do you can always print out the store policy on coupons and carry that with you to show the cashier or manager. The Redbook was a giveaway much like todays, except it was for a full year. I caught it on one of the savings sites I follow...like Deal Saving Mom. The other I got through ReCycle Bank for 115 pts. I have a balance of over 2,000 pts. They have lots of magazine deals. Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I will post their policy later this week.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you heard of cellfire.com? It's a site that you can load coupons directly to your Dillon's card or put other restaurant/store coupons on your phone (just show it to the cashier and the discount is given). It saves clipping and carrying paper coupons. If you sign up for the Dillon's weekly ad, it will also send it via email and you can upload digital coupons to your card. I had loaded some the other day and Ryan went to buy Kleenex and was surprised to see 25 cents taken off without him doing anything! I just found this site, so am guessing there are others. Might keep you from collecting too many shoeboxes!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I wish that coupons were used here... the best I can do is limit my supermarket shopping to the weekend when they offer 10% off.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, I do have cellfire and I do upload coupons digitally. But if you are doing a lot of couponing you have to be careful Dillons will not stack coupons and the digital coupons have first priority. They also will not double the digital coupons. So if I have a 50 cent manufacturer coupon for Kleenex and I have a downloaded 25 cent coupon on my card, it will take the 25 cents off and deny the coupon that would have given me $1 off after doubling. So you can see it does get a little complicated.

    ReplyDelete