Couponing 101, Bethany-style
Jul. 27th, 2009 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kimana517This is the handout I made for Ange's & my couponing class the other night. I've tweaked it so it's not Florida-specific, and added our process since that was just spoken the other night. If you're wondering why you should bother trying this - well, I've saved us hundreds of dollars this year by doing what I've written here. I was keeping track of my CVS savings until June and I saved us $400 on things we would've bought anyway. And that's just CVS and just what we would've purchased! I got another $400 worth of stuff to sell or donate! I should've kept track of how much I've saved at Publix and other stores too. But do you see now why all this interests me so much?
If you have any questions, ask!
What I Do
• Go to your blog/site of choice (see below for options). Find that week’s matchups (sales matched up with coupons) for the store you want. Open up a blank document in your word processing program. Read through the deals listed on your favorite site and copy and paste the ones you want to get onto your word processing document. Print your list. For me this step usually takes 5-15 minutes.
• Cut your coupons. There are a few different ways of storing/clipping coupons. A popular one is to cut them all out every week and then file alphabetically or by department (i.e., food, health & beauty, etc.) in a binder. The perk to this is that you can usually fit all your coupons into a binder that you can take with you into the store. Then if you see a good deal you didn’t know about (like a clearanced item), you have your coupon right there. For me that’s too much time wasted on coupons I may not use. I keep my inserts intact and just cut out coupons as I need them. I have a file box filled with folders. Inserts are filed by the date they were in the paper. Every site mentions which insert a coupon was in, if it was in an insert. I cut out the coupons I need and put them in a little envelope with my list of deals. This takes from 5-20 minutes for me, depending on how many coupons I cut.
• Go to the store. Grab a sale flyer just to make sure you get the right thing in case it’s not marked. Go around and pick out all your items. Total up the cost of your transaction. (Cell phone calculators are great for this.) Subtract all your coupons. Now you know about what you’ll pay. When you get to the checkout, be sure to give any $ off a $ purchase coupons ($5 off a $30 purchase, etc.) first – if they scan your other coupons first your total may not be high enough for the $/$$ coupon. This step can vary greatly depending on how many things you get, how long lines are, etc. For one store though it would be 60 minutes tops.
• So my grand total of time spent each week is about an hour and a half. Today I saved $70 at Publix and $50 at CVS. It’s kind of like I have a very part time job that paid me $40/hour. If it takes you longer at first, that’s normal. If it takes you longer after a while, it’s still probably normal. But be sure to play around with ways to do things to figure out what works best for you.
Tips
• Just because you/your family won’t use something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it if it’s free! Friends, shelters, missions, charities – all can use the stuff you don’t need/want. Also, some things can be sold on Craig’s List or eBay – razors, glucose monitors, cosmetics… you never know. I once made $12 on a box of Just for Men Touch of Gray!
• You don’t have to do everything at once! Do it in chunks when you have the time. So you only have 10 minutes left on your lunch break – copy and paste from the site then, email the document to yourself, and print it later. So the kids nap for 30 minutes – cut your coupons out then. Etc.
• The more coupons you have, the better. Ask your family and friends for their newspaper inserts or, if you can, walk around your neighborhood on recycling day and take the coupons out of people’s newspapers. If your newspaper has distribution centers around town, try going to one (or several) on Monday and asking if they have any extras. They may just give them to you! And of course if there’s a coupon you really want more of, you can always purchase coupons/inserts on eBay and www.thecouponclippers.com.
• If something is a good deal, STOCK UP. You may not need 10 jars of peanut butter right now, but if you get it now for 80¢ per jar, you’re saving a lot over the next few months when otherwise you’d be paying $2.50+ per jar as you need it. We have several months’ supply of all our toiletries in a cabinet in one of our tiny bathrooms. We have several foods stocked for months too.
• Into organic groceries? They rarely go on sale, but you can use your overage for other things to apply to your organic produce/meat/whatever!
• You can use TWO manufacturer coupons when something is buy one get one free. You are purchasing two items – it’s the store’s “fault” that one is free. This is a great way to get things free or super-cheap!
• In general, if you can, try to get a teenager or college student as your cashier. Generally they couldn’t care less that you have a lot of coupons and will push any of them through even if it beeps. (Beeping does not always mean a coupon is invalid – if it’s invalid, you probably shouldn’t be using it – just that they need the cashier to confirm.) I’ve only ever had trouble with women in their mid-30s and older. Women 50+ are especially bad. Sorry if you fall into that category, but it’s true in my experience!
• DON’T GIVE UP! At first it may all seem overwhelming. If you have a question, ask me and I’ll try to help.
Sites with Sale/Coupon Matchups & Freebies/Deals
• http://www.thethriftymama.com
CVS, Walgreens, sometimes Target & Walmart, and non-FL stores. Very useful FAQ section includes “Coupon Basics for Newbies”, “Stockpiling 101”, and a very good “CVS 101”. The owner is also very into natural and organic things, cloth diapering, etc., so often she posts articles/deals specifically about those things.
• http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331691
This page lists blogs/sites for regional stores. You may very well find one written by someone in your state, which will ensure that you’ll find the most accurate deals for you. http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331690 lists national chains (CVS, Target, etc.) but you will find that most bloggers do more than one store, regional or otherwise.
• http://www.afullcup.com/forums & http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php
People in these forums list everything on sale at most stores whether it’s specifically a good deal or not. They also have shopping lists/price books with the current price of all sale items. These are not as user-friendly as the above sites, but they are far more exhaustive. For example: the above sites won’t usually list cosmetics deals at CVS because the cosmetics are not always free/cheap. But this week I needed mascara so I figured there was probably a brand that was BOGO at CVS. I checked the sale ad listing at the forum on Hot Coupon World, and sure enough – Maybelline was BOGO. I checked the coupon database there for Maybelline coupons, but there weren’t any. But I was still able to incorporate the mascara into my purchase and got it for free because of overage from other coupons.
Coupon Databases
These are useful for when something you need to buy is not on sale but you still want to save money on it. You can go to these sites and check to see if there’s a coupon out for the item you want, as I did in the above example.
• http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/coupon.php
• http://www.couponmom.com/index.php?cid=4
Coupon Lingo (taken from http://www.thethriftymama.com/faq and added to a bit)
• B2G1 = Buy Two Get One Free
• Blinkie = Coupon that a little machine spits out
• BOGO (or B1G1) = Buy One Get One Free
• Cat = Catalina. Virtual money or coupons that print off with your receipt
• CRT = Cash Register Tape, aka, your receipt
• ECB = Extra Care Bucks, prints on receipts at CVS, where you can use it like cash.
• FAR = Free after rebate
• IP = Internet printable coupon (also just called “printable”)
• IVC = Instant Value Coupon at Walgreens. Found in the weekly advertisement.
• MFR = Manufacturer (usually seen as “MFR Q” – manufacturer coupon)
• MIR = Mail In Rebate
• ONYO = On Your Next Order
• OOP = Out of Pocket. The amount in cash that you spend.
• Overage = Extra money off from a coupon. Example: a box of Band-Aids is on sale for $1.50. You have a $2 Band-Aids coupon. If your store allows it (it varies from store to store even in the same chain and from cashier to cashier), that extra 50¢ will automatically be applied to another of your items in that transaction!
• Peelie = Coupon found on the package of a product.
• PG (or P&G) = Proctor and Gamble coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• Q = Coupon
• Rain Check = When a store is out of a sale item, get a rain check and you can take advantage of the sale price whenever the item comes back in stock.
• RP = Redplum. Coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• RR = Register Rewards. Walgreens’ form of a Catalina
• S or SS = Smartsource. Coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• UPC= Bar code of an item
• WAG = Walgreens
• WT = Wine Tag. Coupon found around the neck of a wine bottle. You do not have to purchase the bottle in order to get the coupon. Check your local state laws on this.
• YMMV = Your Manager (or Mileage) May Vary, meaning some managers may or may not let you do something.
If you have any questions, ask!
What I Do
• Go to your blog/site of choice (see below for options). Find that week’s matchups (sales matched up with coupons) for the store you want. Open up a blank document in your word processing program. Read through the deals listed on your favorite site and copy and paste the ones you want to get onto your word processing document. Print your list. For me this step usually takes 5-15 minutes.
• Cut your coupons. There are a few different ways of storing/clipping coupons. A popular one is to cut them all out every week and then file alphabetically or by department (i.e., food, health & beauty, etc.) in a binder. The perk to this is that you can usually fit all your coupons into a binder that you can take with you into the store. Then if you see a good deal you didn’t know about (like a clearanced item), you have your coupon right there. For me that’s too much time wasted on coupons I may not use. I keep my inserts intact and just cut out coupons as I need them. I have a file box filled with folders. Inserts are filed by the date they were in the paper. Every site mentions which insert a coupon was in, if it was in an insert. I cut out the coupons I need and put them in a little envelope with my list of deals. This takes from 5-20 minutes for me, depending on how many coupons I cut.
• Go to the store. Grab a sale flyer just to make sure you get the right thing in case it’s not marked. Go around and pick out all your items. Total up the cost of your transaction. (Cell phone calculators are great for this.) Subtract all your coupons. Now you know about what you’ll pay. When you get to the checkout, be sure to give any $ off a $ purchase coupons ($5 off a $30 purchase, etc.) first – if they scan your other coupons first your total may not be high enough for the $/$$ coupon. This step can vary greatly depending on how many things you get, how long lines are, etc. For one store though it would be 60 minutes tops.
• So my grand total of time spent each week is about an hour and a half. Today I saved $70 at Publix and $50 at CVS. It’s kind of like I have a very part time job that paid me $40/hour. If it takes you longer at first, that’s normal. If it takes you longer after a while, it’s still probably normal. But be sure to play around with ways to do things to figure out what works best for you.
Tips
• Just because you/your family won’t use something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it if it’s free! Friends, shelters, missions, charities – all can use the stuff you don’t need/want. Also, some things can be sold on Craig’s List or eBay – razors, glucose monitors, cosmetics… you never know. I once made $12 on a box of Just for Men Touch of Gray!
• You don’t have to do everything at once! Do it in chunks when you have the time. So you only have 10 minutes left on your lunch break – copy and paste from the site then, email the document to yourself, and print it later. So the kids nap for 30 minutes – cut your coupons out then. Etc.
• The more coupons you have, the better. Ask your family and friends for their newspaper inserts or, if you can, walk around your neighborhood on recycling day and take the coupons out of people’s newspapers. If your newspaper has distribution centers around town, try going to one (or several) on Monday and asking if they have any extras. They may just give them to you! And of course if there’s a coupon you really want more of, you can always purchase coupons/inserts on eBay and www.thecouponclippers.com.
• If something is a good deal, STOCK UP. You may not need 10 jars of peanut butter right now, but if you get it now for 80¢ per jar, you’re saving a lot over the next few months when otherwise you’d be paying $2.50+ per jar as you need it. We have several months’ supply of all our toiletries in a cabinet in one of our tiny bathrooms. We have several foods stocked for months too.
• Into organic groceries? They rarely go on sale, but you can use your overage for other things to apply to your organic produce/meat/whatever!
• You can use TWO manufacturer coupons when something is buy one get one free. You are purchasing two items – it’s the store’s “fault” that one is free. This is a great way to get things free or super-cheap!
• In general, if you can, try to get a teenager or college student as your cashier. Generally they couldn’t care less that you have a lot of coupons and will push any of them through even if it beeps. (Beeping does not always mean a coupon is invalid – if it’s invalid, you probably shouldn’t be using it – just that they need the cashier to confirm.) I’ve only ever had trouble with women in their mid-30s and older. Women 50+ are especially bad. Sorry if you fall into that category, but it’s true in my experience!
• DON’T GIVE UP! At first it may all seem overwhelming. If you have a question, ask me and I’ll try to help.
Sites with Sale/Coupon Matchups & Freebies/Deals
• http://www.thethriftymama.com
CVS, Walgreens, sometimes Target & Walmart, and non-FL stores. Very useful FAQ section includes “Coupon Basics for Newbies”, “Stockpiling 101”, and a very good “CVS 101”. The owner is also very into natural and organic things, cloth diapering, etc., so often she posts articles/deals specifically about those things.
• http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331691
This page lists blogs/sites for regional stores. You may very well find one written by someone in your state, which will ensure that you’ll find the most accurate deals for you. http://www.becentsable.net/Default.aspx?pageId=331690 lists national chains (CVS, Target, etc.) but you will find that most bloggers do more than one store, regional or otherwise.
• http://www.afullcup.com/forums & http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php
People in these forums list everything on sale at most stores whether it’s specifically a good deal or not. They also have shopping lists/price books with the current price of all sale items. These are not as user-friendly as the above sites, but they are far more exhaustive. For example: the above sites won’t usually list cosmetics deals at CVS because the cosmetics are not always free/cheap. But this week I needed mascara so I figured there was probably a brand that was BOGO at CVS. I checked the sale ad listing at the forum on Hot Coupon World, and sure enough – Maybelline was BOGO. I checked the coupon database there for Maybelline coupons, but there weren’t any. But I was still able to incorporate the mascara into my purchase and got it for free because of overage from other coupons.
Coupon Databases
These are useful for when something you need to buy is not on sale but you still want to save money on it. You can go to these sites and check to see if there’s a coupon out for the item you want, as I did in the above example.
• http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/coupon.php
• http://www.couponmom.com/index.php?cid=4
Coupon Lingo (taken from http://www.thethriftymama.com/faq and added to a bit)
• B2G1 = Buy Two Get One Free
• Blinkie = Coupon that a little machine spits out
• BOGO (or B1G1) = Buy One Get One Free
• Cat = Catalina. Virtual money or coupons that print off with your receipt
• CRT = Cash Register Tape, aka, your receipt
• ECB = Extra Care Bucks, prints on receipts at CVS, where you can use it like cash.
• FAR = Free after rebate
• IP = Internet printable coupon (also just called “printable”)
• IVC = Instant Value Coupon at Walgreens. Found in the weekly advertisement.
• MFR = Manufacturer (usually seen as “MFR Q” – manufacturer coupon)
• MIR = Mail In Rebate
• ONYO = On Your Next Order
• OOP = Out of Pocket. The amount in cash that you spend.
• Overage = Extra money off from a coupon. Example: a box of Band-Aids is on sale for $1.50. You have a $2 Band-Aids coupon. If your store allows it (it varies from store to store even in the same chain and from cashier to cashier), that extra 50¢ will automatically be applied to another of your items in that transaction!
• Peelie = Coupon found on the package of a product.
• PG (or P&G) = Proctor and Gamble coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• Q = Coupon
• Rain Check = When a store is out of a sale item, get a rain check and you can take advantage of the sale price whenever the item comes back in stock.
• RP = Redplum. Coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• RR = Register Rewards. Walgreens’ form of a Catalina
• S or SS = Smartsource. Coupon insert that comes in your local paper.
• UPC= Bar code of an item
• WAG = Walgreens
• WT = Wine Tag. Coupon found around the neck of a wine bottle. You do not have to purchase the bottle in order to get the coupon. Check your local state laws on this.
• YMMV = Your Manager (or Mileage) May Vary, meaning some managers may or may not let you do something.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:37 pm (UTC)Doesn't couponmom have a sale/coupon database too, or is that not the same thing you're talking about. (See I have looked into this a little.)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:41 pm (UTC)I actually listed couponmom in my little blip in the post about coupon databases. Do you mean a matchup section? I would guess she does, but I never found CM very user-friendly. I don't know if it's the design of the site, or too much info, or what, but it seems very busy to me. That's why I prefer the blogs. Most of the blogs not only tell you sale + coupon, they total it up for you so you know what the end price of each item is. I could do that myself, of course, but it's so much easier to have them do it for me. Saves time.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:45 pm (UTC)So far all I've done is looking to see if there is a coupon when we need to buy something fairly expensive like dog food. It's a start! Like I said, when we get our own place I'll get serious. I just don't have the space to be organized here.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 02:49 pm (UTC)That's all I used to do. I'd be thrilled if I brought our total down $10 by using coupons. And that's still $10 - it's still great. But when you think of how much more you could be saving by stocking up when things are cheap/free? It's amazing. There are still some things we buy that never have coupons, but I try to use my overage from other things to get them cheaper.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 04:11 pm (UTC)I think that I'm really going to get into it once we move. Seeing how easy this could be has motivated me. Now I'll just have to convince Jon to let me do the grocery shopping by myself (he likes to do it, but I have much more time to devote to this). Also, I can get Ginny to watch the girls as I'm learning how to do all this.
I added this to my memories. Thanks for taking the time to type all this out!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 05:59 pm (UTC)I hope you can! It really is not difficult, and it's SO worthwhile. In the time it takes to watch a movie, you can save a ton of money. (Actually, I often watch TV while I'm copying and pasting deals and cutting coupons.) And if Jon still really wants to do the grocery shopping, you could always have him read this/other tutorials so he understands what's going on, but you could put together the list of deals you want and the coupons and such.
You're welcome! I already had a lot of it typed out from the class, so it didn't take long. =o)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 09:17 pm (UTC)I'm really looking forward to starting all this!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 09:28 pm (UTC)The coupons in this Sunday's paper were fantastic. My parents laughed at me as I gleefully cut them out at their kitchen table. I thought of you. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 02:09 am (UTC)