Saving Money Part 2 "Coupons"

There are several places to find coupons. The key is stay organized with your coupons. Because coupon expiration dates last for several weeks or even several years, you have to keep them organized. I have tried several methods and finally found one that works for me. Coupons are 75% of the "saving money game". Each newspaper will have several inserts. Not always, but most of the time. These"inserts" are like coupon books. One is called Smart Source, one is called Red Plum, and there are also Procter and Gamble inserts once a month.  I will go over places to get coupons, and how to organize them and what to do with them.

Where to find them:

1. Newspaper- Now, here is the catch to the newspaper coupons, you have to find the biggest newspaper closest to you if you want the most coupons. For example- I live in Concord. If I were to rely solely on the Griffin Daily News for my coupons, I would lose the saving money game every week! The smaller newspapers only offer a few coupons. The best thing to do, is find the closest place to get a big city newspaper at a reasonable price. I buy the AJC (Atlanta Journal Constitution) at a gas station in Griffin for 2.50 every Sunday. Before I go buy it, I check Southern Savers website for the list of "inserts" and see what coupons will be in this weeks paper. Click HERE for the link to check inserts in the paper. 3 or 4 times a year, there will be NO coupons in the paper, and it will save you time and money to know that before you drive all the way to get a paper! If you live in a larger city, it will even cheaper for you get your coupons. You will have a close gas station to purchase it at, or can probably save even MORE money by subscribing to your paper (only for Sunday). The AJC does not offer delivery in my area unfortunately. Not only will you want to pull out the coupon inserts, but you will want to check other places in the newspaper for coupons too. Sometimes the "Parade" magazine will have coupons in it. You will also want to pull out the flyers from your local stores. Publix, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens usually have multiple store coupons in their adds. Just make sure to scan your paper well each Sunday so you don't miss out on any savings!

2. Printable Coupons- There are hundreds of places to print coupons online. From the actual manufactures website, to coupon printing sites. It seems endless! An especially useful site to sign up with is Procter and Gamble. Not only will they mail tons of great coupons, but also free samples of your favorite products! Check coupons.com and redplum.com for great printables.

3. Magazines- All You magazine (available only at Walmart or via subscription) has tons of coupons! Also, I have seen coupons in Better Homes and Gardens, Ebony, and many more! I get subscriptions to over 12 magazines a month for free! Just watch websites and blogs for all the info on getting a free magazine subscriptions. Usually you just need to fill out a short survey.

4. Load to Card- Many stores offer coupons that you can load directly to your store card. Ingles, Kroger, CVS, and Rite-Aid to name a few. Visit the stores websites to start loading. There are also load to card websites available. Sites such as Cellfire.com allow you to load coupons to cards as well. The only negative to this option is that stores like Kroger, will not double your card coupons. They will only double paper coupons. So I have to be careful what I load to my Kroger card.  

5. Other websites- SavingStar and Ibotta are websites that offer coupons in a different way. They offer coupons that THEY redeem the money for. Not the store. When you have reached 5 or 10 dollars in savings, they will deposit your money straight to your Paypal account! The great thing about these sites is that you can stack these with manufactures coupons AND store coupons! So you have the potential to buy an item on sale for $5.00, then use a Rite-Aid $1.00 off coupon, a manufacturer $2.00 off coupon, AND a saving star coupon for $1.00 making your item FREE!! Using websites like SouthernSavers.com will help you figure out where to stack coupons at each week.

6. On your stuff! Keep an eye out for coupons in and on all your groceries! I find coupons on batteries, deodorant, diapers, dryer sheets, detergent, and loads of other places! Check the shelf in the stores for coupons too. I always keep an eye out for coupons and clip them as soon as I see them and add them to my coupon stash!

7. Coupon Services- There are several coupon services out there. They will send you multiple coupon flyers or stacks of coupons for the week. You will pay for this service, but if you play the game right, you will still save a ton of money! Ebay also sells coupons for very cheap and allow for great savings for you! thecouponclippers.com is a site that offers this service.

What to do with all these coupons?

Now, you have TONS of coupons! Just keep collecting them. You should start saving all your coupons. Find a way to organize them that you like. I keep all my inserts just as they are and don't clip them. I simply write the date on the outside of the flyer and save it in a folder with all my other inserts. All my other coupons I keep in a coupon organizer. The reason I don't cut up the ones in the newspaper flyer is because the website I coupon from (southernsavers.com) tells me exactly where to find the coupon I need for a sale item. It will tell you the date and the flyer it comes from. So it's easier for me to find them if I just keep the flyers in a folder by date. Some people chose to cut them all out and place them in a folder with clear pocket organizers. There are all sorts of ways to do this, so do what works for you. Couponing can be a very time consuming thing, so start small and see what works for you. You may want to start buying several papers each week, or multiple coupons as you get better at this. Sometimes, the best deal is to buy 5 of one item and you will get it much cheaper or free! Once you have a collection of coupons, you will be able to start cashing in on the savings each week! Look for more to come on my money saving tips!