I have been working hard the past few years at becoming a couponing expert. I am NOT there yet, but I am so proud of myself when I get free items or a good deal. Well, this video has a lady who takes couponing to an amazing extreme. (Thanks Aunt Patsy for pointing this out to me!) Wondering if I will ever be like this…
I have not posted about coupons & grocery deal shopping in a long time. I recently had someone ask me where I get all my coupons from and another person called me “the coupon queen”. I feel anything but a queen since my coupons are never organized! But I thought this would be a good opportunity to remind you of where to get coupons and how to snag the best deals.
How to snag the best deals:
-subscribe to several “deal” blogs through email or RSS feed—-They do all the work for you of matching coupons with sales for the best deals. I used to participate in The Grocery Game. It is a fantastic service, but why pay for something when you can get it for FREE? There are soooooooo many blogs out there that match up store deals with coupons for FREE. One of my recent favorites even added a feature where you can generate a shopping list right there on her site. That site is called Southern Savers and has deal matchups for the southern region of the United States. She does stores like Publix, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aide, Ingles, and many more. Some other good deal blogs are Couponing 101, Money Saving Mom, and Stretching a Buck. Some of those others I listed do deal matchups for the northern Kroger, Target, and Walmart.
Where I get coupons from:
-a newspaper—-Always pick up the largest city newspaper near you, they have the most coupons. Some of the deal blogs even get a list of what coupons will be in the Sunday paper. I look at the list to determine if I should get one or two or ten newspapers. (No, I don’t actually get 10).
-All You magazine—-This magazine is only available at Walmart or by subscription. I decided to subscribe when there was a deal on subscriptions (check Amazon). But even if you don’t subscribe, there are enough coupons inside to earn back the cost of the magazine, plus some.
-online—On the right hand side of my site there is a link for you to print coupons from Coupons.com. PLEASE PRINT THEM OFF THIS SITE! (I earn a tiny commission.) There are usually lots of Yoplait, Betty Crocker, and General Mills coupons there. And lots of companies have coupons directly on their sites. The deal blogs do a great job with their grocery lists and links to coupons that match up. That makes my job easy! Other printable sites include Redplum and Smartsource. I make my list and then print the coupons they suggest! You can also load coupons onto your Kroger card from sites like Shortcuts, Cellfire, PGesaver, and Kroger itself. No clipping required.
-dumpster—-This is not my favorite method, but in back of our Kroger is a newspaper only dumpster. I drive by often and if it is pretty full, I look through the newspapers on top and pull out the coupon sections. I got 4 coupons for fresh Tyson chicken once this way.
-product packaging—I got four coupons off two boxes I bought just this week. One was a box of Quaker Chewey Granola Bars and one was a box of Pepperidge Farm Snack Sticks (both items were part of the Kroger mega event). Check all packaging before tossing! Also, some packages come with a “use now” sticker/coupon on them. I bought 4 packages of GoGurt this week, I had coupons for all 4 packages and all 4 packages had coupons on them for me to use later! Once I noticed one package with the coupon, I searched until all the ones I chose had them.
-Food & Family magazine—This magazine is put out by Kraft. It is FREE and comes out about 4 times a year. It has great recipes and often has coupons, too.
-family & friends—My mom, sister, and I usually give one another the coupons we don’t need or use. Ask family to save coupons for you! My brother-in-law doesn’t buy newspapers, just gets all the coupons from my in-laws who don’t use them at all.
-Coupon Clippers—If you miss getting a newspaper, or want to stock up on a certain coupon, check out the Coupon Clippers by click on the ad on the right side of my site. They clip LOTS of coupons and sell them for a few pennies each.
-facebook/twitter—The deal blogs I read usually turn me on to this. But some companies offer coupons for becoming their fan on Facebook or other things like that. One deal blog let me know, I became a fan of Herbal Essenses and they gave away coupons a few weeks ago. I got mine in the mail yesterday and it has a coupon for one FREE item and $1 off another item.
-home mailers—Register your Kroger card on their website and they’ll mail you LOTS of store coupons. Or sign up with Publix to receive their little magazine and receive coupons, too.
-in store coupons—Keep your eyes open in stores. Grocery stores often have little coupon booklets in their entry section of the store. And how about those little coupon machines throughout the store that spit out coupons? I collect those even if I don’t use them right away.
-with samples—Sign up for all the free samples you can! Many samples come with high value coupons. Where to get samples? Many deal blogs posts when there are samples available. Also, check out the Mommysavers forum on samples and freebies.
Can you believe all the places to get coupons? There are so many options out there! Did you think of any I missed?
Happy Hunting!
Now that I’m back from vacation, I am trying to catch up on my coupons… So, as a reminder to you too…
Don’t forget to:
-print coupons from my coupon bar on the right, new coupons are reset
-load LOTS of coupons to your Kroger card at Cellfire, Shortcuts, and P&G
-check out all the deal blogs for more links to printable coupons, some good ones are Stretching a Buck, Money Saving Mom, and Couponing 101
So, Wednesdays around here will be talking about what grocery deals we’ve found (I shop on Tuesdays), grocery shopping tips, and coupons.
How do you get the best deals at the grocery store? Stock up on items when they are on sale. Our new philosophy in our house is, “Buy stuff when it is on sale, not when you need it.” Of course, this isn’t always possible, but try to do it often. In fact, you could probably make a list or mental note of items that are on sale every few weeks so you know. Erin, at $5 dinners suggests making a “never pay more than” list. For instance, I know that with a sale, plus a coupon I can get cereal for less than $2 a box (I even got it for $1 a box a few weeks ago!). So, I never pay more than that and if we run out of cereal, I bake banana bread or something.
Coupons also help save money and the best way to use them is to combine them with a sale. Then you get stuff dirt cheap! I had a hard time learning how to utilize sales and coupons together. I joined The Grocery Game and that really helped me. Once I learned how to do use sales plus coupons, I started trying it on my own without The Grocery Game. Its a great way to start learning how to combine coupons and sales. They even have a $1 trial. (If you sign up, please list my email address chadsjoy@hotmail.com as your referrer.)
Coupons can be found many different places. The Sunday paper is the best place. Get a Sunday paper from the largest city near you as those have the most coupons. If you miss out, check out The Coupon Clippers, they clip coupons and sell them to you for $.05 or $.10 a coupon, so you are still saving money. You can also print coupons using the coupon bar on the right side of my page. It is FREE and has many name brands. Some stores will let you use one clipped and one paper coupon together.
If you have a grocery store like Kroger near you that uses a discount card, then you have a few more options. Three sites P&G eSaver, cellfire, and shortcuts allow you to go on their websites and load coupons right onto your shopper card.
Lately, I’ve been shopping at Kroger more than Walmart. Walmart doesn’t really have “sales”, just low prices. They also are picky about coupons. Kroger has lots of sales and they even double coupons that are $.50 or less.
This week’s deals @ Kroger:
-LOTS of items 10 for $10, this is what I got for $1 each: 6 pk, bottled water,
Nabisco snak sacks, Kroger frozen veggies, salsa, and Kroger cream cheese
Other 10 for $10 items included Quaker’s Quakes Rice cakes, Kroger Pretzels,
Kroger tortilla chips, 28 oz. canned tomatoes, bleach, King’s Hawaiian Rolls
(click on my coupon bar on the right for $1 off coupon to get these FREE!),
Green Giant 7-10 oz. frozen veggies, Hamburger Helper, Kroger sandwich
bread, Oscar Meyer bologna, Rice & Pasta Roni, and pints of ice cream
-I got a FREE 16 oz. carton of sour cream. They were on the 10 for $10 list and
Kroger mailed me a coupon for $1 their brand of sour cream. If you aren’t
signed up with Kroger, go to their website here and register for their
mailing list. They mail out coupons every month or so.
-General Mills & Kellogg’s cereals are 2 for $5. (General Mills also has many
coupons on my coupon bar on the right.)
-Campbell’s Chunky & Harvest Select soups are 4 for $5.
I need feedback! Add a comment with your ideas or deals for the week!
