Couponing...The Basics.

So there are 3 different coupon inserts that you can find in your local Sunday paper:

                SmartSource (SS)

                RedPlum (RP)

                P&G (Proctor and Gamble)

You will not necessarily get all 3 in the paper every week. Also, these inserts are regional so inserts that one city’s paper might have, another might not have. You can go to www.sundaycouponpreview.com to see what inserts will be in the paper for that week. If you live in a region like me, you usually never get the RP and the P&G. I will tell you that the P&G is a VERY good insert to have. For these, I usually purchase them from eBay. I just type in P&G as well that week’s date and choose the free shipping option. You can purchase 5 inserts for around 5 dollars.

You want to make sure that you have more than 1 insert. Let’s say Apple and Eve juice goes on sale for 1.99$ that week from a grocery store that will double any coupon up to .99cents. You have a coupon from the 1-22-12 SS that is .75cents off of any 1 Apple and Eve product. If you take that coupon to a grocery store that will DOUBLE any coupon up to .99cents (that means that they will double any value coupon up to .99cents. If you have a .50cent coupon it will double to 1.00$. If you have a .75cent coupon it will double to 1.50$. If you have 1.00$ coupon it will STAY 1.00$) then that coupon now becomes 1.50$ off making the juice .49cents a piece. Great deal right! Well if you only have one of those coupons than you’re not really maximizing your full savings potential. If you have 4 of those coupons (and I use the number 4 because most stores will only allow you to use 4 LIKE coupons in 1 transaction) then you would be getting 4 bottles of juice for .49cents a piece. I’m not saying that you need to hurry up and drink 4 bottles of juice because you just scored them for a ridiculously low price. Buying more than 1 of something helps you to create something called a STOCKPILE. A stockpile is simply a stock of things that you need that you keep on hand for weeks where those things will not be on sale. If juice is going on sale one week than the chance of it going on sale the next week or even the week after is slim. You just got juice at a rock bottom price but once you run out what do you do?! You turn to your STOCKPILE where you have about 4-8 bottles so you don’t have to pay full price. Doesn’t this sound nice?

There are also coupons called IP’s or Internet Printouts. These are coupons that you print from the internet. Places like www.SmartSource.com  as well as www.Coupons.com have a large selection of coupons to choose from. I only print the IP’s that I know I will use because just printing random coupons is going to waste your ink and that is going to waste your money. This kind of defeats the purpose. When I check the MATCH UPS for a particular week (match ups are just matching what’s on sale with coupons so you can get maximize savings) I print only the coupons that are matched up with something on sale. I go to www.livingrichwithcoupons.com for my ShopRite match ups because I LOVE LOVE LOVE ShopRite! I will be posting my match ups here on my blog every week for you guys so you have even easier access to them. Something to remember about IP’s is that they usually can only be printed TWICE. If you print from www.SmartSource.com then they usually can only be printed ONCE. This is per computer not printer. So if you only have one computer in your house then you can only print around one or two. If you have two computers in your house, lucky you, than you can print around 2 or 4.

You can also find STORE coupons. These are obviously coupons that the STORE, not the MANUFACTURER, puts out. (All of the coupons above have been MANUFACTURER coupons.) These are usually found in coupon booklets at the front of the store or in the weekly circulars. Walgreens, for example, puts out a coupon booklet every month and they are located right in the front of store by the carts and baskets. ShopRite, for example, sometimes has these things called super coupons that are located in their circular. These are the circulars that you receive in your paper, not the ones that you can find at the front of the store. Sometimes they both have the coupons in them but usually just the circular that you receive in the paper that you buy. The cool thing about store coupons is that you can COMBINE them with a manufacturer coupon. Combine coupons for maximum savings!! Let’s say you have a manufacturer coupon for .50cents off of Crest toothpaste. Normally the store sells these for 1.99$ but you have a store coupon that makes them only 1.00$. The store is going to scan your store coupon to drop the price of the toothpaste then they are going to scan your manufacturer coupon that will double to 1.00$ off making this item FREE. Pretty cool, huh?

Remember that not all coupons double. Coupons have bar codes at the bottom. If you look at the bar code all the way to your left and it starts with a 5 then it doubles. If it starts with a 9 then it doesn’t. Usually the coupons that start with a 9 have a DO NOT DOUBLE printed at the top. They may also have a DND9 (do not double 9) at the top. Sometimes (newer coupons are printing like this) you have no left hand barcode and no 5 or 9. As long as it does not say DO NOT DOUBLE or DND9 then it should double. Now I say SHOULD, not WILL. I say this because sometimes coupons have glitches. Make sure that when you are using coupons you are watching the cashier very carefully as they scan them.