Couponing 101
Where
Can I Find Coupons?
In
my opinion, finding coupons is the easy part. It's figuring out how
to maximize your savings that's the hard part! The first thing that
you are going to want to do is get a newspaper subscription. If you
live in small town, check neighboring larger cities to see if their
newspaper can be delivered to you. I recommend getting two Sunday
news subscriptions. As you'll see later on, there will be many times
where you will need two of the same coupon in order to get the best
pricing per item. Personally, for my family of three, I usually
purchase 4 newspapers per week. On occasion, if I know there is
going to be a good deal on a product and I would like to stock up, I
will purchase more than four that week. Don't worry! You're savings
will greatly outweigh the cost of these subscriptions.
Okay,
so you got your newspaper subscriptions. Next, you'll want spend some
time on Facebook or other social media sites like Twitter. If you're
like me and don't want to spam your friend's and family's feeds with
your newly-found coupon addiction, feel free to start a separate
account just for couponing. Once on the site, search for your
favorite companies. Almost every major brand has a Facebook or
Twitter account where they will host giveaways, sampling offers, and
printable coupons. This will come in handy when you need to print a
coupon that was not offered in your local Sunday paper.
I
mentioned above that many companies give away free samples of their
products. This is a great way to get coupons by mail as many of their
samples do come with a coupon or two. Another great way to receive
coupons is to directly email some of your favorite brands. When I
first began couponing, I tried to email two or three companies a day.
I would go to their website, find the “Contact Us” link and send
them a short message saying how much I loved their product. Although
I received a response from every company, I only received a coupon
from a little more than half of them. However, eighty percent of the
coupons that I did receive were for free items. These were great
little bonuses to add to my grocery list that week. I do not
recommend emailing the same company over and over. If you receive a
coupon in the mail, I would wait several months before contacting
them again. There are also several brands including Pillsbury and
Proctor & Gamble who offer extra value coupons by their website
or by their mailing list. I will talk more about this when we get
into sampling and freebies so for now, let's stick with where to find
coupons!
Another
great source of coupons is internet printables. There are two main
sites which have hundreds of coupons listed at any time.
Www.SmartSource.com and
www.coupons.com are going to be
what you see most often when printing internet coupons. Besides
having a printer, ink, and paper, there are a few things you will
need to do before you able to print coupons. You will need to make
sure that your Java is up to date and you will also need to install
the website's coupon printer program. The first time you try to print
coupons the website will tell you what you need to download and
include the proper links. I recommend allowing pop-ups from the two
sites listed above to insure everything is installed and set up
correctly. You should now be set to start printing your coupons! Keep
in mind that you are only allowed to print 2 coupons per computer.
There
are also a few extra ways to get coupons. I've heard of several
couponers “dumpster diving” for Sunday inserts. I have also heard of people volunteering to take the Sunday papers to the recycling company for hotels. Another way, is to purchase coupons from clipping services. This is a good way to get dozens of one coupon at a time. However, I have never tried either of these three methods so I am unable to give an honest opinion.
Now, you should be well on your way to building your coupon collection! It's time to organize!
