Couponing Questions

Becky wrote:

Where do I get coupons?A few different places. The best place is in the Sunday newspaper. Most Sunday newspapers come with one or several coupon inserts. If you are going to get serious about couponing and saving money I’d recommend you get ahold of several copies of these inserts each week. The most obvious way to get the inserts is to buy the newspaper (subscribe or buy at gas station, dollar store, etc.). You should be able to get the Sunday newspaper for about $1 an issue (dollar store, discounted subscription, etc.) I live in a small town that doesn’t have these options though, so I have found other ways to get my inserts to help me save money. Here are a few ideas: 

• Ask friends/neighbors/older ladies at church etc. to save the coupon inserts for you (I usually collect 5 or more inserts a week this way.)
• Check the FREE box at the library for inserts (I find them here a lot.)
• Clipping Services–one of my favorite options. If I know there’s going to be a great deal on an item I want to stockpile on I’ll purchase multiple copies of a coupon. For example, a few months back there was a hot $2 off Snuggle coupon. Walmart sells the 40 sheet boxes for $1.87, so this meant FREE plus overage on Snuggle dryer sheets! I purchased 20 coupons for about $0.10 each and stocked up on free dryer sheets. The nice thing about using a clipping service is that the clipping work is done for you. I have used The Coupon Clippers and Collectable Coupons without any trouble.
• “Dumpster Dive” (but only if this is an allowed option for you!) I’ve gone through newspaper recycling boxes before and pulled out several inserts. My husband thought this was quite embarrassing and not too classy though, so I haven’t done it too much. LOL

Another way to get coupons is by printing them. Here are a few sites. Sometimes you can also find printable coupons directly on a company’s website too.

• Coupons.com
• Smart Source
• Red Plum
• Cool Savings

Most of the time you can print two of each coupon per computer. Just hit your browser’s back button and it should print a second time. If there’s a really hot printable coupon, it’s usually a good idea to go ahead and print it and then save for a sale because companies only release a certain number of printables and when they are gone, they’re gone. I was bummed to miss out on a great Oscar Meyer bacon coupon the other day because I didn’t print right away.

When you are printing coupons, feel free to use cheap paper and set your printer to black fast draft printing. As long as the bar code scans, stores don’t care if it’s in color or black and white.

How much time do I spend clipping and searching for coupons?Shoot, this is a hard one for me. I think couponing is very addicting, so I spend too much time on it. LOL.

Kelleigh wrote a really informative article called Couponing 101 Without the Junk (Food). She explains the envelope system and discusses several couponing myths (it’s cheaper to buy the generic brand, coupons are only for junk food, it’s not worth the time, etc.). Here is what she said about the time it takes:

“Myth: Figuring out the deals takes too much time. Fact: YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT!

 There are many, many “frugal” bloggers who love gathering the deals and post them on their blogs! (Oh, how I appreciate these ladies!) They will scour the grocery store ads, find the best deals, find the coupons to match up with those deals listed in the ads (called a match-up), link you up to printable coupons so you can just click and print, and even do the math for you! They come up with “scenarios” to help you get the things you need at rock bottom prices.”

So my answer about how long it takes is kind of vague. . . . It may take a bit of time at first to get organized. Now that I’ve been doing this a few months and am more confident in what I’m doing, it probably takes me 30 minutes a week to look at my store’s weekly ad, gather my coupons, and plan the week’s meals. But because it’s a bit addictive for me I spend another couple of hours a week reading couponing blogs. 

Hope that helps, Becky! Send more questions if you have them!