Couponing 101

If you're visiting this blog, you're likely looking for great deals and other ways to save money on everyday items by using coupons. This post will hopefully shed some light on how to get started couponing, how to organize, how to use coupons, the lingo, etc. So, here goes!

There are several ways to obtain coupons:

-The easiest and most often used method is simply buying newspapers with coupon inserts in them. The coupons are provided in every Sunday newspaper with the exception of major holidays (by major I mean Christmas or New Years). You can choose to buy as many papers as you like, but we always have atleast 2 and usually buy more depending on what coupons will be in them. Our philosophy is that you pay $1.50 for the paper, but generally can save $50 or more if you combine the coupons with deals. So the cost of the papers is well worth the investment.

-The next way to acquire coupons is by printing them from your computer. There are several websites you can use to find and print coupons, but here are our favorites.
       http://www.coupons.com/
       http://www.redplum.com/
       http://www.smartsource.com/
      
-Another great way to get manufacturer and store specific coupons is to go to the different store sites. Every store has a link where you can either print their coupons or have them loaded onto your shopper's card. Sometimes these are coupons that can only be used at their store, but they also have manufacturer's coupons that can be used anywhere, even if they have a store logo on them. (We'll talk about the difference between store and manufacturer coupons later. You can get some really great prices using both in the same sale!)

-The next way to obtain coupons is by buying them online. There are websites which will sell you coupons in bulk from the weekly inserts and mail them directly to your house. These people only charge you for the time and effort it takes them to cut and mail the coupons-generally 10 or 15 cents per coupon. However, if a coupon is for a *hot* item (one that a lot of people know will be really cheap or free) the prices will go up.

        http://www.mycouponhunter.com/
        http://www.thecouponclippers.com/
        http://www.e-junkie.com/
      
These are the 3 main sites we've used in the past and had success with. However, we both agree the best deals on buying coupons in bulk is from Ebay. Simply search for whatever coupon you're looking for and you'll find an entire list of people selling them, often for much cheaper than coupon clipping services.