After my initial post on Trying My Hand at Couponing, a friend contacted me and wanted to know where I got my coupons from if I didn't get the Sunday paper. She also asked a few other great questions so I thought I'd share what I've learned.
At first I was worried that I would show up with a coupon that I printed on my computer at home and 16 year-old Bambi at Target would tell me I couldn't use it and send me on my merry way. So far that hasn't happened. In fact, the lady at WINCO and I chatted about where I found some of the coupons I redeemed because she hadn't seen them before and wanted to pick some up herself. I made sure to call WINCO ahead of time to be sure that they took printed coupons. And when I stopped by the FredMeyer for my milk and cereal one morning, I asked the nice man who runs the self-checkout lane.
For every newsletter list I subscribe to I give them my "junk" hotmail address and then to keep myself from going crazy I filter the emails into different folders. I have a Baby & Diapers folder, a Coupons & Discounts Folder, a Crafts folder, a Recipes folder, etc... This is probably a no-brainer for everyone.
I don't print every coupon or go after every freebie. That would be a waste of paper and ink and time. I only print the coupons for the deals on purchases that we normally buy or I know would save me more money than buying the generic brand outright. If I know I can get WINCO's Hy-Top brand of instant oatmeal for $1.78 a box and I find a coupon for $0.50 off a box of Quaker Instant Oatmeal but they normally cost $2.89 a box I'm not going to bother with the Quaker deal. If I can get a free sample of Britney's newest fragrance I'm probably going to skip it because I don't wear perfume. Deals are good but I have to draw the line somewhere or else I will drive myself and my husband crazy.
Find a coupon buddy! I mentioned last time that my co-worker and I are kind of doing this coupon thing together. It has been really helpful to have Sarah let me know that Albertson's has granola bars at half the price that Target does. It was also really nice to walk into the Sephora with her after work one afternoon and pick up our free tubes of Smash Box lip gloss - I didn't feel like such a dork.
I guess that's it for tips. There aren't many because I really don't have any idea what I'm doing. Even so, here are my favorite resources for coupons (so far):
MyPoints
I signed up for this 8 years ago before Matt and I got married because I was a poor, bored college student with oodles of free time and I didn't have a problem clicking links in emails to get 5 points at a time. I've also made some major purchases through the site ($300 on computer at Dell for a total of 900 points, stuff at Target which earned me 5 points per dollar spent, I even signed up for Netflix through them which earned me a few hundred points.) To date, I've redeemed about 33,000 points for things like $25 & $50 Target Gift Cards, $25 Regal Cinema Gift Card, Red Cross donations, Borders and Barnes and Noble Cards. It's been pretty sweet.
Now MyPoints allows you to print coupons from their site (powered by coupons.com, smartsource.com and cellfire) that, when redeemed, credit 10 points per coupon to your account. If you print and redeem 10 or more in a month you get a 25 point bonus. So I check MyPoints for coupons first before I hit up the other sites.
Smart Source
Every Tuesday afternoon we get the Oregon FoodDay delivered to our house. The SmartSource coupons are the ones that come inside along with all of the grocery store ads. Sometimes the FoodDay cheaps out on us and doesn't include a SmartSource coupon insert. That's when I go to their website and print them out on my own.
RedPlum
RedPlum is the company that puts the traditional coupon inserts into your Sunday paper. I don't get a Sunday paper so I opt to head straight to their website. I also get a regular email reminding me which coupons are available.
Free Coupon Alerts
Pretty basic. They find coupons, provide the link to print it and post it in a blog format but you can also sign up for a regular email telling you what coupons are available thus saving you the time of stopping by their website.
Target.com
Did anyone else know that you could go to the Target website and print store coupons? I didn't until about a month and a half ago. These are pretty great because they often coincide with a weekly sale price AND a manufacturer's coupon. For instance, I picked up some Nature Valley Granola Bars yesterday with a $1 off coupon making them $1.60/box. I also had a manufacturer's coupon but I forgot to use it. If I had I would have gotten those buggers for about $1/box. I think you can only print each coupon twice from one computer so I'm using my laptop and my desktop to get a few more of those nature valley jobbies - mmmmm...chock full o fiber - a preggo's best friend.
CellFire
I haven't really used this because the prices at Fred Meyer or Safeway haven't beat WINCO's or Target's BUT, you can load up your grocery store club cards (or whatever the heck they're calling them these days) with manufacturer's coupons so when you scan your Fred Meyer Card or Safeway card and make a purchase that fulfills the coupon's terms the coupon is applied. No fluttery floppy paper coupons to clip and tote around.
Plus(!) if you have a smart phone you can get non-grocery coupons for things like Sears Portrait Packages or Flower Deliveries just by pulling up the online deal and showing it to the person you're buying from.
Facebook
Yeah, yeah, I know. I used to be all like, "I don't want to join facebook blah blah blah." I get it, you're totally laughing at me now. But I've picked up some good deals by liking things on facebook. Sometimes if it's a one-time coupon I'll like something for the coupon and unlike it as soon as I print it so I'm not inundated with dumb facebook things. So far I've gotten a $1.50 cheesecake slice at the cheesecake factory (or will on July 29th when I stop by there to get my piece), $0.99 off a $20 oz. coke (which I totally drank all by myself because my doctor said I'm allowed to have a little caffeine and there's nothing you can do about it), $0.25 32 oz. fountain drink at AMPM (don't worry I got lemonade - I'm not filling my body and my baby with THAT much junk), A free 32 oz. fountain drink at Pilot Travel Centers (this one is for Matt in the event he and his group going to Glorieta this summer stop at one of the Pilot Gas Stations). Facebook provides me with my I'm-sick-and-tired-of-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich lunch escapes-usually for free.
Now onto THE COUPON LADY BLOGS
The coupon lady blogs are good for a few things:
1. They scour the Sunday ads for the deals and let you know when there are coupons online or in the Sunday paper inserts that correspond with store sales. They also let you know when these deals pump out register rewards at places like Walgreens, RiteAid and CVS.
2. They scour company websites for coupons and deals like the $2.99 sandwich, chips & drink deal I got a Quiznos last week.
3. They scour the rest of the coupon lady blogs for deals that they might have missed and often link back to other blogs. This is kind of nice because sometimes you'll find a good site that's worth keeping track of.
But don't let the CLB's intimidate you. Just remember, they don't know you or where you live or how much you've saved so they can't judge you.
Money Saving Mom
This is BY FAR my favorite. She posts a lot of online deals and store specific deals but more than that she writes about living debt-free, freezer cooking, has give-a-ways and does other stuff. Oh, and she loves Jesus so I usually find myself encouraged by her when she writes about her own life (they just paid cash for their home. Yes. CASH.) I also liked her on facebook so I can stay super on top of some of the limited quantity coupons (Hello, Free Cashew Chicken at Panda Express anyone?).
I also can't say enough about the topic series she posts. I learned quite a bit by reading through 31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget. She's only on day 21 of the grocery series (she doesn't do them all in a row) and I don't always agree with her but she's informative and I don't feel overwhelmed.
Similar to Money Saving Mom:
Baby Good Buys
For obvious reasons. Good deals on baby stuff are great. I haven't really bought any baby stuff yet - we're waiting until after the baby showers to spend our own money - but they'll let you know about diaper deals at Amazon.com, Diapers.com deals, Free/Cheap Games & Toys for kids, sales at internet boutiques...seriously, the list goes on and on.
As always, I'd love to hear tips and tricks as well as know if you've recently started saving money by using coupons and watching the interwebs for can't pass up deals. It makes me feel like less of a geek to know my cool friends are doing it too.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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4 comments:
Fun! There were a few I didn't know about here. I really like Mommysavers.com for generally good advice about saving money. They have a good forum too.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this.
You are my idol! And have totally inspired me!
You rock! Thanks for posting all of this! I needed a refresher, cause I REALLY need to go back to couponing!
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