How to Save Money with Coupons
Grocery Deals Help Balance a Household Budget
On a typical shopping trip, couponers can save over 50% off their total grocery bill. This article will cover the basics of couponing so anyone can start immediately.
Clipping and using coupons (otherwise known as "couponing") is a great way to save money on everyday expenses. It takes dedication, but is well worth the effort and time.
Couponing Supplies
To begin, identify a way to obtain manufacturer’s coupons and store sales flyers. The easiest way to do this is to subscribe to the local Sunday newspaper. Coupon inserts and store sales flyers (grocery and pharmacy) can be found in most local Sunday newspapers across the country. Some sales flyers will come in the mail independent of the newspaper, but all of them should come with the newspaper subscription.
Next, set up a filing system. An accordion file is a great place to organize coupons. A hard plastic organizer made specifically for coupons or similarly sized documents like checks works well. A good organization method is to clip all coupons and file them into categories that make sense. Some couponers keep entire coupon pages on hand until they need a particular coupon, but others find that the up front effort to clip all coupons for filing outweighs the hassle of having to clip them exactly when they’re needed.
How to Identify Grocery Deals
The best deals are ones where a coupon can be used to purchase an item that is also on sale. For example, using a coupon to purchase an item advertised as buy one, get one free results in tremendous savings off of the original purchase price. The buy one, get one free special reduces the item to fifty percent off, and the coupon only increases the savings.
Armed with a good supply of coupons, first compare the unexpired coupons against current sales flyers for stores in the local area. First, briefly look through the stash of coupons, then browse the sales flyers for those items. Identify which items are the best deals that week, focusing on the very best deals and ignoring regular specials that are likely to repeat in the near future when a coupon may be available for a particular item. Regular specials repeat fairly often, but excellent deals (ones where a coupon is available to use against a sale item) occur less often. After a few months of perusing sales flyers, it will become simpler to spot the excellent grocery deals amid the regular specials. Some couponers develop a price list of frequently purchased items to aid in identifying the better deals.
Getting Results
Couponing is a long tail game. At first, the results will not be very dramatic because the coupons on hand will not match many sales items; however, collecting coupons really begins to pay off after a month or so. At the one month point, a couponer should be able to take advantage of several excellent deals at multiple stores every week.
Staying Current
Most coupons are valid for anywhere from a few weeks to several months. In order to ensure the coupon file is current (i.e. not expired), it’s a good idea to set aside a few minutes once a week or so to purge expired coupons.
Begin by Setting Up a Coupon Organizer
Keeping coupons organized in a usable manner is imperative to success with couponing. The article "How To Organize Coupons" offers tips for setting up a coupon organizer with thirteen categories.
