NBR: Coupon 101 (for those who asked) (long)

Mysterious_wife

Couponing can be very time consuming and redundant.  You have to be in it for the long haul to get great savings.  Here are a few sites I use along with other info about coupons....

*E-coupons that are loadable to shopping cards, depending on where you shop can be found here, here, and here.

*Printable coupon sites can be found here, here, here, and most of the manufacturer websites. (ie. General Mills, Betty Crocker, Pilsbury)
*Most Sunday and local papers give out coupons on certain days.  One Wed. my local paper gives them out.  Just ask around or call the publisher and ask if or when they do coupons.
*If you are looking for something specific you can go to that product site and find a coupon or sign up to get them.  For example.... Rachel wanted a Kashi coupon for cereal.  She went to the Kashi site and found a printable coupon. 

Stacking coupons can give you lots of cheap to free items.  Stacking consist of using more than one type of coupon. Most stores will allow stacking.  There are some items that are not allowed to be stacked, due to manufacturer regulations. Publix and Kroger will send you coupons with their name printed on the coupon, those are considered store coupons. 

Manufacture coupons are typically the ones that are printable off the internet and in papers. E-coupons are coupons that are loaded onto a shopper card. You can use on of each for one product. For example...

Pampers owns Pull-Ups.  Pull-Ups sent me a coupon for $5.  Kroger, sent me one for $2, and I had a $2 e-coupon from shortcuts. That was a total savings of $9 for ONE item.  It happened to be on sale for $8.99.  It was free for me.  I did end up paying taxes.  

Every Sunday, I get a paper and save the sales ads.  I carefully go over the ad and compare coupons for basic need items. (shampoo, soaps, detergant, etc) I make a list and note what coupons I have and go there to get the items.  The past month I have gotten 8 bottles of shampoos for free. Mostly Pantenne, Aussie, and Herbal Essance. 

Most of our food items comes from Krogers or Publix(only if I am in the area).  They double to coupons up to $.50.  I stock up on any item I can get for under $1, if I need it or not.  Chances are I will needed it eventually or there will be a food drive to donate it too.

My brain if fried, and feel as if I am rambling.  I will end this here. 

DNK777

Mrs.EliK

Thanks for the information! 

mmk3742

I cut coupons too pretty regularly although I don't do nearly as good as MW.  I just wanted to add that the magazine All You has a ton of good coupons in it. The magazine costs 2.49 (but you can find coupons for it on the printable coupons websites) and I have already saved 8.00 using the coupons from it.

Also Publix does a penny item if you spend ten dollars on Sundays and Monday.  They are always really good items like toilet paper, juice, spaghetti sauce.  Alot of times they run out on Sunday and will have a different one on Monday.  So I sometimes will split my shopping between the two days.  (It helps that I could walk to Publix from my house.)

Pet food websites almost always have coupons and/or programs that you can join that send you coupons.  

K8-B

This is a great blog about couponing.

MsBeaglesly

Thank you for all of the great information!  I am sure it is time consuming but I will do my best.

armandos_girl

Thanks MW!  We've just started clipping coupons, this is quite helpful!

starsmaycollide

Thanks for the info! I bookmarked all those sites!

jenick

Thanks!  This is awesome.