Thursday, February 11, 2010

Couponing 101

Are you new to couponing? Here is some basic information to help you get started. I will be doing coupon matchups every Sunday morning for local stores. If you want to join in starting Sunday all you need to do is buy your local metro area paper.

These are the three basic type of coupons you can use.

Manufacturer Coupons (MQ):
Buy your local Sunday paper. I usually buy two a week so I can get doubles of coupons. Holiday weekends do not have any coupon inserts in it.

Internet Printable Coupons(IP): (not all stores accept IP coupons)
Online Coupons

This is a free website to get coupons from. Tip: after you print the first coupon press the back arrow, hit refresh, and print another coupon. You can print two copies of most coupons this way. After two it tells you you have exceeded your limit. They reload new coupons on the 1st of each month.

Product websites:
Alot of products website will have coupons you can print off. Do you have a favorite brand of an item? - Try their website you may find a coupon for it.

Store Coupons (SC):
In my area these are Target store coupons & Walgreens 7 day coupons in the weekly ad

The great thing about store coupons is that they can be combined with either a MQ (manufacturer coupon) or an IP (internet printable) to save you even more. An example of this would be if Walgreens had a coupon in thier weekly flier for $.99 Twizzlers. You may have a MQ or IP for .50/1 Twizzlers. You can combine those coupons and get Twizzlers for .49 each. Even better is if you have $1.00/1 you will get Twizzlers for free and may make .01 on them. Technical term is "overage". I say "may" because not all stores will allow you to have overage. They will hand key the coupon in for .99 instead of $1.00. You can do this mulitple times in most cases. If you have 3 SC and 3 MQ you will get 3 bags of Twizzlers for $.49 or free depending on what MQ coupon you have.

To be able to get good deals you need to save the MQ's every week and match them up with store ad's. A big key to this is organization.

ORGANIZING COUPONS

There are so many different ways to organize coupons. You can use a 3 ring binder with baseball card sheets and (4x6) photo sheets and slip your coupons into them. You can use envelopes, or a recipe box with dividers. There are many options. Some examples of dividing tabs you can use are:

A basic one like FOOD, PETS, CLEANING, HEALTH & BEAUTY, BABY, PAPER GOODS, MISC.

Another option would be to further categorize into:

PREPARED/ CANNED, CEREAL/BREAKFAST, BEVERAGES/SNACKS, MEATS, DAIRY/REFRIGERATED, CLEANING, PAPER/PLASTIC, HEALTH & BEAUTY, PETS, MISC.

Some people take thier binders/boxes to the store with them. Others plan thier trip and just take the coupons they will need with them in a small envelope.

To the embarassment of my dh and kids I am one of those that brings my coupon box wih me all the time. I have gotten items for free by doing this. You never know what items you will find on clearance.

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