A few years ago took a class and learned how to coupon. In this post, I will share with you How to Coupon: The Complete Beginner’s Guide.
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What would you do with an extra $200 or more a month? Think about that now because by the end of this post you will know how to coupon and you could very easily save $200 or more.
What We’ll Cover:
- How Not to Coupon
- The 3 Principles of Couponing
- Obtaining Coupons
- How to Organize Your Coupons
- Finding the Deals that Match Your Coupons
- Using Your Coupons in the Store
- Expert Couponing Secrets
1. How Not To Coupon
If you are anything like I was before I took a couponing workshop, you probably use coupons in some of the following ways:
- You buy things when you need them, and you never or rarely use coupons. Perhaps you think something like, “Who was time for couponing?” or “It’s not worth my time to coupon to save $.50.”
- You get the newspaper and sift through the coupons until you find one that you actually use. Then, you cut the coupon out, put in your wallet, and eventually, it expires because you forget to use it.
- Maybe you take the coupon, go to the store, and then use it right away
It may seem like option #3 is the best way to use coupons, but it’s not the best way to coupon because you’re not optimizing to save the most amount of money.
The best time to use a coupon is when the product you have a coupon for is on sale.
2. The 3 Principles of Couponing
Today I’ll teach you the right way to use coupons to ensure that you get the most bang for your buck.
How to Coupon Principle #1:
The most important principle of couponing is that it requires patience. To get the most bang for your buck you need to wait for the item you have a coupon for to go on sale. Once the product is on sale, then you apply the coupon to maximize your savings.
For example, if you have a $.50 off coupon for a $5.00 box of cereal, you’re not saving much if you use the coupon right away when the item is full price. However, if you have a $.50 coupon and you when that same box of cereal is on sale this week for $1.99 now you’re saving some money.
How to Coupon Principle #2:
The next important couponing principle is to stock up when items are on sale.
For example, based on the cereal example above, if you get one box of cereal for $1.49 but the next time you need it it’s back to $5 you’re not saving as much as someone who stockpiles. Ideally, to maximize your savings you buy multiple items with multiple coupons when the item is on sale.
Every product goes on sale about three to four times during the year. So, when an item is on sale every three to four months that’s when you stock up. As long as you continue to stock up from sale to sale you will never pay full price for anything ever again!
How to Coupon Principle #3:
To get the max amount of savings, couponing principle number three is to use multiple coupons when you stock up on items that are on sale. You’re probably asking yourself, but wait, how do I get multiple coupons? This may sound crazy, but you get multiple Sunday newspapers! At least, that’s what the lady teaching the workshop I went to recommended.
Full disclosure: at the workshop I went to the lady made money by selling newspapers so it’s no surprise that she wanted to sell us multiple copies. However, I did purchase five Sunday newspaper subscriptions and was able to really stock up on some sweet deals. Eventually, I ratcheted it back to two subscriptions and now I have zero. My stockpile got a little too big, I have a small family, and I’ve embraced a more minimalist lifestyle so having and buying less stuff works better for me.
If you’d like to keep learning about using coupons to maximize your savings keep reading below. If you’re interested in saving money without needing the coupons from newspapers skip down to step #5.
3. Obtaining Coupons
Here’s how to get the main source of the best coupons, multiple Sunday newspapers:
Option #1:
- Call up your newspaper and request to get only the Sunday newspaper (unless you want the other days of the week).
- Ask them if they have any discounts for new subscribers and multiple subscription orders
- Ask for additional subscriptions of newspapers.
Expert tip: if they don’t deliver all your newspapers or the Sunday ad is missing the coupons when the paper gets delivered, call your newspaper and have them correct the error.
Option #2:
Use the above guide to order one subscription and when you see a coupon you know you’ll use in the newspaper, go out and buy more from the newsstand. This could get more expensive if you’re paying the full price of buying it at the newsstand, but if you don’t do that often it could also save you from buying too many subscriptions.
Option #3:
If you don’t want to buy newspapers, ask friends and family with newspaper subscriptions if you can have their coupons if they are not going to use them.
4. How to Organize Your Coupons
Now that you have a ton of coupons, how do you organize them without spending hours cutting them out and sorting through them every week to find the ones you need? Here’s how:
- When you receive the Sunday newspaper, take the coupon packets out.
- Get a black marker and write the date you received the coupons (which is also on the spine of the coupons) and either “SS”, “RP”, or “PG” based on what the name of the coupon packet is. (As “SS” stands for “Smart Source”, “RP” stands for “Red Plub” and “PG” “Proctor and Gamble”.
- Don’t cut anything out, yet!
- Put all of your coupons from the same day in a clear binder insert inside of a binder. This allows you to see the date.
That’s it! That’s all you have to do. You don’t even need to look through the coupons. The following week you will repeat the steps above, but put the new date on those coupons, and put them in a different clear plastic insert in the same binder. You’ll keep your coupons for five months and then after that, you’ll recycle them.
Remember, helpful resources for this step include clear plastic inserts, a black marker, a binder, or a small filing box.
5. Finding the Deals that Match Your Coupons
You’re probably wondering how to heck you can coupon if you don’t even know what coupons are sitting in your beautiful couponing binder with potentially five Sunday newspapers worth of coupons for each week! Don’t worry, I won’t make you wait any longer.
(Drum roll) The best resource I’ve seen is the website called grocerysmarts.com which matches the Sunday ads with all the coupons that have come out over the past months.
Here’s How To Use the grocerysmarts.com Website:
When you first go on the site it may seem a little underwhelming. It’s not the most beautiful or professional thing I’ve ever seen, but let me tell you, it’s powerful!
- Start by going to the top of the page and selecting the state in which you live.
- Once you pick your state, you’ll be taken to a page that lists all the major grocery and pharmacy stores. If you have preferred stores and you only want to shop there, you can pick the specific store you’d like to look for deals at the top of the page. If you’re open to going to any store with the best deals you don’t have to take any more steps as they will all be listed out on the page you are on (you will keep scrolling to see different stores).
Understanding the Columns
On this page, you will see 5 columns. Here’s what they all mean and how to use them…
Column 1: This is called “stock up scale”. Basically, they are going to give each item a ranking to let you know whether or not it’s a good price and it’s worthy of stocking up on. 3 stars means it’s an average price. If you need it, buy it at this price, but don’t buy multiples. A better price will appear in the future. 4 stars means it’s a pretty good deal and worthy of stocking up on. 5 stars and the word “EXTREME” means it’s a great deal and you should absolutely stock up on this item. My personal favorite is when it says “FREE”! “Buy” as many of those as possible!!!
Column 2: This column lists the name of the product that they are talking about. They will put specific information like the size of the item that is on sale, or any notes you need to be aware of in this column. For example, they may say the sale is only good on Saturday and Sunday.
Column 3: This column lists the sale price without using any coupons. If two prices are listed in the same box it means there’s a multiple item special. For example, if you buy one item you’ll get the first price listed, but if you buy enough items to meet the special offer you’ll get the second, cheaper price listed for that item.
Column 4: This is the coupon index. This column is the reason you don’t need to look at your coupons when you get them. This column will tell you what coupon to match with the sale item AND, most importantly, it will tell you exactly where to go to find your coupon. For example, it might give you a link to go download and print a coupon OR it will say something like “SS-7/28” which means to go look for the coupon you received on 7/28 (July 28) from the “SS” or Smart Source coupon packet.
If you click on a coupon link and cannot find it it’s because they’ve reached the maximum number of coupons they’ve allocated to give away.
Column 5: This column will should you the bottom line price. Basically, this is the price you will pay if you use the coupon that they showed you in column 4.
6. Using the Coupons in the Store
Now that you have your coupons and you know what deals match with them you simply go to the store, grab the items on your list, and take them to the cashier. At the end of the transaction, you’ll hand over all your coupons. You can use one coupon for every item you have. For pharmacy stores, you generally need to sign up for their free rewards programs to get the best deals.
7. Expert Couponing Secrets
Rainchecks: If the store doesn’t have the product you have a coupon for, you can ask the cashier for a raincheck. Basically, they will give you a piece of paper that will honor the sale price when they get a shipment of that product in, even if it is no longer on sale. You can ask for a raincheck for multiples of the same item.
Couponing at Target: You may have noticed that Target is not on the list at grocerysmarts.com. To find the best deals at Target, I recommend looking at allthingstarget.com and/or thekrazycouponlady.com.
Whether you decide to go all-in and be an extreme couponer, or simply use the tips and tricks in this post to be an expert shopper and get good deals without coupons is entirely up to you. To make the best decision for you and your family, take a look at the examples below:
Examples:
Pay Full Price: Buy 5 boxes of cereal for $5.00 each over multiple months
Total Cost Over Time: $25
Use a Coupon When Item is Full-Priced: Buy 1 box of cereal for $4.50, and 4 boxes of cereal for $5.00 each over multiple months
Total Cost Over Time: $24.50
Use No Coupons, but Stock Up When Item is On Sale: Buy 5 boxes of cereal for $1.99
Total Cost Over Time: $9.95
Use Coupons When Item is On Sale and Stock Up: Buy 5 boxes of cereal for $1.49 in one trip
Total Cost Over Time: $7.45
If you enjoyed this post, please share it and help support this blog. Leave any comments in the section below, and if you’re interested in saving money, check out this post that talks about how I budgeted to save $500,000.
Happy shopping,
~MHM~
