Wednesday, April 2, 2014

How To Save Money: Coupons

Welcome to my new Wednesday series: How To Save Money!

Today for my first installment I'm going to be talking about coupons. Ah, those lovely little pieces of paper that save so much money.

pile of coupons
Source

Coupons are these magical little pieces of paper that instantly save you money at the register. I tend to think of coupons being everywhere but the main question I get from friends and family is, where do you get all your coupons?


Newspapers

Each Sunday there is at least one coupon insert in your local paper. The three types of inserts are; Proctor and Gamble, Smart Source, and Red Plum. Each week there are previews released so you are able to see the coupons that are going to be in the paper and decide whether or not the paper will be worth your hard earned money.

Printable

I frequently visit coupons.com to print coupons because there are a ton of great ones. You are able to print each coupon two times per computer. This means that if you have more then one computer in your house, you are able to print more then just two. 

Printable coupons can be extremely valuable, and often they disappear quickly so if you do have a coupon you want to print I recommend printing it right away. 

Some sites you may want to visit to find printable coupons are; coupons.com, redplum.com, and target.com. You may also want to visit thekrazycouponlady.com and visit their coupon database because they list every coupon that is available currently on every website.

Store Coupons

Individual stores release coupons that you can stack with manufacturers (MFR) coupons. I often visit the red scanner machine in CVS in order to print the coupons they provide each week. Target has a ton of coupons on their website as well. Walgreens releases a coupon booklet each month and so many other stores release coupons in their ads or on their websites. These coupons, since they are combined with mfr coupons, can be very valuable and allow you to get items for free. 

Catalinas

Catalinas are coupons that print out at the register. You will often get these from the machine next to the one that prints your receipt. These coupons are often ones that relate to your spending, which means they are something that you might have already purchased in the past and may wish to purchase in the future. 

Blinkies

Blinkies are coupons that you find in the aisles of your grocery store. These machines have a blinking light on them (hence their nickname) and hold coupons that you can pull out one at a time. Often people pull the coupons and then stack them nearby if they aren't actually interested in the coupon meaning you can find tons of them around!

I find that it's so easy to get coupons and collect them. You just have to keep your eyes open!

I will be back next week with my next installment, How To Store Your Coupons.

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