Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mighty B Coupon 101: Finding Coupons


If you are going to start saving using coupons, you first have to have the coupons. Duh, right? I find most of my coupons in the Sunday paper. We subscribe to two local papers for around $13 a month. Both papers normally have the same coupons, so I get two sets of each. This works out well because:
  • Two sets don't take long to organize
  • A lot of stores will only double two of the same coupon
  • Rarely do I need more than two of any item
I went through a period where I would not print coupons from the internet. I had heard that it costs more to print than they are worth and stores do not take them. I did a little research and with my printer, a Kodak 7250, it costs me $0.04 for the ink and paper to print one page of coupons. If I print out and use at least one coupon worth $1.00, I can print out another 24 pages of coupons and still break even. I'm very selective about what I print and I've never had a store give me any hassle about using printed coupons. The website I print from most is coupons.com.

There are "clipping" services you can purchase coupons from and you can even buy full coupon inserts from eBay. I have not done this, but know some people who have and have had success with it. You can also find fellow couponers and swap coupons. I belong to a facebook group of local couponers and have made some great swaps. You could also go all "Extreme Couponer" and dumpster dive. I'm only slightly tempted to visit the local recycling bins and see if anyone left their coupons behind, but I would never actually climb in the bins. Pick around the top maybe.

Where do you get your coupons? Any hot spots I missed? Will you send me YOUR coupon inserts? :)

3 comments:

  1. I used to get the Kraft foods magazine, and there was coupon in there. it was free at the time, but maybe they make you pay now? Also I think Meijer has some new phone/website thing they're doing too. My Mom does some frequent shopper/coupon program with Kroger- she gets really specific coupons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I avoid coupon websites bc I my computer's viruses got viruses last year and the tech trying to fix it said that is how they got in.

    And you can totally have my coupons.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you have store cards, many of the store sites will allow you to go on line, register your card and load the coupons. This works out well for two reasons - no printing necessary and if you forget coupons at home you can still save money. I use this for Kroger and CVS.

    ReplyDelete

Sweet Buzzes