Coupons 101
Have you always wanted to save money and get free items but never understood the whole concept of couponing?
If you're like most people, you've tried couponing and maybe found that it was too much work to save 10 cents on occasional items. Or maybe you came to the conclusion you can buy store brand items for cheaper than using coupons on brand name items. Perhaps you couldn't find coupons for the products you most use and decided couponing wasn't for you. Once you understand the concept, and apply the techniques, you'll be amazed at how quickly you become addicted to the coupon game.
I started couponing and freebie chasing out of the need to be thriftier, but once I caught the coupon bug I was hooked. I get a rush walking out of a store with $100 in items and paying only pocket change, there's nothing like the thrill of opening the mailbox and finding free items or coupons for free items. Being thrifty is both fun and rewarding at the same time and I consider the money I save as a 'job'. Being able to feed my family on pennies and receiving such items as paper goods, food, and personal items for virtually free really adds up and is a lucrative way to free up cash in a monthly budget.
Now I can't fib and say couponing isn't time consuming, it does take some small amounts of effort to reap the results but once you get organized and into the flow, getting free stuff will quickly become a way of life. In fact, you'll probably look back and kick yourself for all money you've paid for things you can get for Free!
Types of Coupons
There are generally two kinds of paper coupons, manufacturer coupons and store coupons. Many stores will allow you to use both a manufacture coupon in conjunction with a valid store coupon. This is where the big savings come in as the key to saving money with coupons is to combine the coupon with a store coupon, or Catalina sale to double your savings.
Manufacturer Coupons are easily found in the Sunday newspaper, on product packaging, on tear pads next to the product, or mailed from the manufacturer. Manufacturer coupons can also be printed on the Internet from both websites and email and can be used at any store that sells the product in the coupon.
Store Coupons -These type of in store coupons can only be used at the particular store offering the savings, in this case it's Walgreens.
Catalina Coupons -Another type of coupon is a Catalina. These types of coupons come out of the register with your receipt when you make a particular purchase. Catalina coupons can be for $$ off your next order, or can be for money off a particular product. Catalina coupons are in store coupons and can only be used at that particular store.
An avid couponer's dream is finding a deal to use all 3 types of coupons at once on a particular product. These opportunities come up quite often which is a great opportunity to end up with the product for Free. This is a great time to stockpile. Stockpiling can become quite addictive!
Help! How can I organize all these coupons?
I've found several different ways to organize my coupons and all work effectively depending on individuals needs. The most common method is the Zippered 3 ring Binder. This consists of using 9 slot baseball card holds in conjunction with dividers. Coupons can be easily folded and slid into the slots and arranged by category to create a neat way of seeing what coupons you have at a glance. This method is an effective way to keep organized and quickly find what you're looking for. The only downside to this method is the binders tend to get quite heavy and bulky to carry around.
Another method I found is to use small photo albums. I like this method because you can have a separate album for each category. There's really not a need to tote around coupons for frozen goods, meats, or fast food restaurants when visiting a store like Walgreens or CVS. I found it effective to use 3 albums. One album for 'drugstores', one for 'fast food and retail,' and the other for 'groceries'. The downside to this method is the coupons aren't in separate slots as in the binder method and photo albums tend to be a little less organized.
Another easy organizing way to keep your coupons is the file box or accordion coupon holder. This method allows for coupons to be separated into categories only. For the novice couponer, this method is definitely the most frustrating as it takes a lot of fumbling around trying to locate a particular coupon while standing in a store.
Choose a method or coupon organization that's right for you. Most people start out with a accordion style, then move up to the album or binder method as their coupon collection grows. If you're really a coupon beginner, or novice, but still find yourself struggling to remembering to bring the coupons to the store with you to try out this couponing adventure, you just might be starting out with this and a wad of carefully clipped coupons hanging out of your front pocket:
Whatever method you chose, enjoy your savings, and free stuff and beware, couponing is addictive! Now head on over to our rebate page to learn how make your pennies go even further!
Rebates and Rainchecks - Are They Really Worth it?
The answer is an astounding YES. Rebates and rain checks go hand in hand with coupons and can help you reap huge savings on a product, or if you play your hand right you can get a lot of stuff FREE when you wait for the right moment and combine all your options.
Let's talk about rebates first. Rebates are a way for the manufacturer to temporarily lower the price of a product, without actually lowering the price on the shelf. Rebates can be a great money saving tool, and often the amount of savings can be large to the consumer. A couponer quickly learns that by combining coupons and rebates, many times the result is a free product, or even being paid to take the product!
Just like coupons, there are two different types of rebates, manufacturer rebates and store rebates. Both types require the consumer to purchase the product at full price, and then receive an amount of cash back at a later date. Manufacturer rebates on a product require the consumer to fill out a form, and send the form along with proof of purchase, usually a register receipt and bar code from the product. The form is mailed to the manufacturer who in turn sends the consumer a check in the mail about the 4-12 weeks later.
A store rebate works along the same lines as a manufacturer rebates. Many popular supermarket and drugstore chains offer a variety of rebates on specific items and most rebate sales last a month long. These days it's fairly easy to redeem store rebates and many store chains now offer electronic recording and submitting of rebates. Walgreens for example, just requires the consumer to log into the Walgreens site and enter the receipt number for the eligible product. At the end of the promotion period, the consumer will receive cash back and in most cases the store will add an extra 10% if the consumer agrees to have their payments sent to a gift card.
Example 1
Suppose your favorite mascara is normally $7.99 at Walgreens and you happen to get your grubby hands on a few coupons for $3.00 off which are sitting in your coupon binder just waiting for the right week to plop them down. Then Walgreens happens to offer a $7.99 rebate (making them free), that would be the week to whip out your coupons and get PAID $3 to take the mascara home with you.
Now let's talk about Rainchecks. Rainchecks are your friend. Soon you'll find yourself scouring the store shelves for things you don't need in hopes to score a raincheck, or 2. If a store offers a sale, or other discount on a product and happen to run out, then they must issue you a raincheck for the product. Basically a raincheck is a promise to give you that product, at today's sale price, at some time in the future when it is restocked. Most companies will give you a raincheck for 5 of the product - but, you can keep going back during the sale and get as many rainchecks as you wish. Once you hop on the raincheck bandwagon, you'll find your binder bursting with rainchecks neatly folded behind the coupons.
Rainchecks can be 2 fold, you can use them in addition to your coupons to jack up your savings, or you can simply use them to get the staples that you buy every week at a continued discounted price. When you eventually end up with a handful of rainchecks for items you purchase regularly the savings can be astronomical. Suppose your family love Hunts Spaghetti sauce, it's the only sauce you would normally buy. One week your store puts the sauce on sale for a remarkably discounted price. If you hit up a few stores in the chain, or wait till the last day of the sale, your bound to see the shelves empty of the Hunts sauce sooner or later.. that's when you hit up the store for a raincheck. They will issue you a piece of paper good for up to 5 Hunts Sauce at any future date for the price of todays sale. If you get yourself several of the rain checks, you can be sure to keep yourself well stocked up in that particular sauce for weeks, or months to come at the discounted price. Now add in your coupons, which you can use in addition to the raincheck, and woola, your now able to feed your family your favorite sauce for a long time and never pay the 'normal' price. If you do this for all your staples, you will see your grocery bill go down down down and in conjunction with your coupons you'll end up with a lot of stuff free, or nearly free!
Remember - Rain checks and Rebates are your friend and go hand in hand with coupons.
Happy Saving!
Dawn Rice shares daily Freebies, Contests and Coupons at [http://www.Thriftydayz.com]
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