Coupon Basics

I started as a beginner couponer about two years ago before I was married. I began without help from coupon blogs because I didn't know they existed! Here are some basics about couponing and using them at different stores. I hope this helps you on your way to saving money!

1.) Subscribe to the newspaper in your city. Having the newspaper delivered to you house/apartment saves you money because you get a discount and you're not spending the gas to drive somewhere to get one. I'm always excited every Sunday morning to run downstairs and have that golden package already at my door! This is where I find the majority of my coupons. If you have a friend or neighbor that doesn't use his/her coupons, ask for them. You never know when you may want to stock up on an item and need more than one coupon to buy it!

2.) Find a good coupon site online. I prefer coupons.com because you can download the coupon printer once and then print off any coupons you find in the future.

3.) Invest in a hand-held calculator, a coupon organizer and a good pair of scissors. The calculator is nice to have available when figuring out the cost of items after applying coupons. You can purchase a nice 13 section folder at Target in the dollar bins to organizer your coupons. This will save you so much time when you're compiling your grocery list or when you see an item on sale at the store and are looking for a coupon to go with it.

4.) Meijer. Meijer is my favorite grocery store. Meijer's coupons double up to $1.00, which means that if you have a coupon for .25 then it will double to .50, and if you have a coupon for .55 then it will only double to $1.00 because that's as high as they double. Other coupons for more than $1.00 are rung up at face value. For example, you may have a $4.00 coupon off one Venus razor. You will simply get $4.00 off the razor at the checkout becasue it cannot double. Meijer also has coupons in the Meijer Mealbox online. These are different from the ones you would get in the newspaper. These coupons can be used alongside the ones from the paper. They also give you catalina coupons that spit out at the register. Something to note about Meijer is that when they have a sale item advertised for 3 items for $5, you DO NOT have to buy 3 of that item to get the sale price! You can purchase only one of the items for $1.66.

5.) Kroger. Kroger also doubles coupons, but you need to have a Kroger Plus Card in order to get the sale prices. Also, you can go to Kroger.com and upload coupons to your Kroger Plus Card that will be deducted from your total automatically at the checkout.

6.) CVS. This store is another great place to shop specifically for toiletry items. CVS does NOT double coupons; they are simply taken for face value. However, they do have an Extra Care Bucks program where you receive a generic coupon for money toward your next purchase. You must apply for an Extra Care Bucks card in order to get the deals from CVS. When you do so, you will receive about 50 free 4 x 6 prints that you can pick up in-store. An example of Extra Care Bucks is: Crest toothpase may be on sale for $2.99, and you will get $2.99 in Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). This means that that a coupon will print out at the end of your receipt that says $2.00 in ECBs. The next time you shop at CVS, you can use your $2.99 toward any purchase in the store! It is great to build up your ECB stash in order to purchase other items that will earn you more ECBs (this is called "rolling" meaning that you use ECBs to pay for items that get you more ECBs and to continue the cycle).

7.) Rite Aid. Rite Aid is another one of my favorites beceause they have mail-in rebates. Rite Aid does NOT double coupons either, but they do have some great deals. With the mail-in rebate system, you have to pay for the item up front, but then get the money back in a check the next month. There is a way to make money with this. For example, Herbal Essences Hair Spray is $2.99 and there is a full price $2.99 rebate. Well, you have a $2.00/1 Herbal Essences coupon to use! So you pay .99 out of pocket (oop), and then you will receive $2.99 the next month in rebates-- that means they just paid you $2.00 to buy that hairspray!

8.) Wal-Mart and Target. These two stores are very similar, and I usually shop at them when I can get things for free. Neither of these stores double their coupons; they are only taken for face value. Most of the time, I only use the larger coupons at these places ($1.00 coupons or more). These stores already have low prices, so sometimes you can get something for free with a coupon without it having to go on sale. For example, Gillette Body Wash is always $2.00 at Target. A $2.00/1 coupon will enable you to get that item for free! Wal-Mart always has Johnson & Johnson Bath Buddies for .97 and oftentimes you'll find $1/1 in the newspaper, so you actually get .03 in overage (*overage is the left over amount that you have from using a coupon). Overage is awesome because it goes toward paying for other things you need to buy. Even though it's only .03, you may buy 10 of the item and have 30 cents overage, which may cover the cost of another item!

9.) Walgreens. I hardly ever shop at Walgreens, but I found some great deals this week. I'm unfamiliar with the stipulations, but I have a general idea. Walgreens does NOT double coupons, but they do have an Easy Saver catalogue that comes out each month with coupons only good at Walgreens. These Easy Saver coupons can be used with newspaper coupons, which often leads to free stuff! For example, a Glade fragrance kit costs $7.99, but you get it for free by giving a $4 coupon from the newspaper and a $4 coupon from the Easy Saver catalogue. Walgreens also has both register rewards (which are similar to CVS Extra Care Bucks) and mail-in rebates (like Rite Aid); however, you cannot use register rewards to pay for an item with which you will receive more register rewards (this is the part I don't really understand, so I don't shop there very often).

My advice is to choose two or three stores that you want to follow closely for their deals each week or month. It is stressful to try and shop at all of these places each week, so stick with your favorites, and hit deals at the off stores when you find them on bloggs. I hope this helps you on your way into the wonderful world of coupons!