Couponing Lesson 2 - Finding Coupons

OK! So now you have your system all set up. Hopefully. If not, you’ll need to get a system in place so that you can find the coupons that we are about to collect! There are lots of places to find coupons—here are the sources that are most common:

Newspaper

The vast majority of the coupons I collect come from the Sunday paper and the sale mailers that come on Tuesday or Wednesday. There are three companies that put out the coupon sections in the paper—Red Plum, Smart Source, and P&G (Proctor & Gamble). General Mills also sends out some occasionally. Red Plum usually comes in the Sunday paper, Smart Source in the weekly mailers, and P&G and GM come in the Sunday. (They don’t put these out every week.)

I have a subscription to the paper only on Sunday that I ordered online for $7 and something a month. I see on their website that it’s now $11 a month, so paying $2 each Sunday for it is a cheaper deal, even if there are 5 Sundays in the month. But keep an eye out for specials—it’s a pain to have to remember to buy a Sunday paper every week.

If you have friends and family that get the Sunday paper and don’t use their coupons, ask them if you can have them. Multiples of coupons are good! It’s also not a bad idea to look through recycling bins if you come across them while taking a neighborhood walk. And everyone gets that Tuesday mailer with the grocery sale papers. And I’ll bet most people just throw out those coupon sections!

In-store

Many coupons can also be found in the grocery store. You’ve seen the little boxes that dispense coupons—these are called “blinkies” in couponing lingo. Some products have coupons on them that you can use right then—these are called “peelies” since you have to peel them off the packaging. Sometimes stores will have brochures or coupon booklets available, usually in the front of the store, in certain departments, or hidden inside coloring books or informational booklets, some of which you have to pay a minimal amount for. Just keep your eyes open when you go shopping—you’ll be surprised at what you’ll notice.

Mailers

Many manufacturers will mail out coupons to you if you are in their database. You can fill out online forms that manufacturers have on their websites, join e-mail newsletters, and even just e-mail them to have them send you coupons in the mail. If there is a particular product that you always use, it doesn’t hurt to e-mail or even call them and ask for coupons. I will post places to request coupons as they come along.

Be sure you get on Kroger’s mailing list, since they send out coupons and coupon booklets, some even for free things. If you have a Kroger card, be certain that they have your correct address on file. If you never get coupons from them, call them. That’s what I finally had to do, and they didn’t have a mailing address on my account. If you don’t have a Kroger card, GET ONE! It will be very valuable.

Product packaging

Keep a lookout when you open a product—sometimes you can find coupons inside labels or boxes or in the instruction sheet.

Internet-Printable coupons (IP’s)

There are several websites that have coupons that you can print out on your printer at home. They include smartsource.com, boxtops4education.com and others. When we start matching up coupons, I will let you know which ones to print out for which deals along with the link. There is no reason to go all over the web and print out every coupon. It’s time consuming, a waste of paper and ink, and it will take up unnecessary room in your coupon file. You will sometimes be prompted to download a coupon-printing program. It’s OK—you will have to have the program to get the coupons. You generally will have to print these from Internet Explorer or Netscape. Many coupon-printing programs don’t work with Firefox or Chrome. You can usually print only 1 or 2 from each computer that you have access to.

Some stores have stopped taking IP coupons, because I guess there is a high risk of fraud from people copying them and making fake ones. Walgreens always takes them, as does Kroger, although once I was in Kroger and the cashier told me that they don’t take any that have a value of more than $1. But I haven’t been told that since, so I’m hoping she was mistaken. The last time I was in WalMart, they wouldn’t take them, although I e-mailed corporate and got a copy of their coupon policy which states that they do. Rite-Aid is the same way, at least the one in Bartlett. But I avoid them anyway, because I always run into some kind of problem. I’ll review each store in a later lesson.

E-coupons

Here’s my blog post on using e-coupons at Kroger: http://memphismommies.blogspot.com/2008/11/e-coupons.html

So, your assignment for the next few days is to gather as many coupons as you can, ask friends and family who get the paper if you can have their coupons, and file them in your coupon system.

I hope you’re not too overwhelmed already! So let’s review:

1. Set up a coupon file system in a file box or binder, including dividers

2. Collect coupons from the newspapers, friends’ newspapers, product packaging, and go ahead and round up any you already have around the house

3. File them in your file box/binder

4. Get a Kroger card if you don’t have one, and register it at the three e-coupon sites

Next lesson: Research and Matching-up!