I was talking with someone while bargain hunting at Target. I had given her a coupon to use. She asked me where I get my coupons. That got me thinking that I should revisit this topic and share it with all of you again!
There are many ways to get coupons - some involve more time and effort than others. It is important to be ethical with coupon usage, so read the coupons carefully and use them as indicated.
Here we go - from easiest to most difficult.
- Coupons on your Keychain. You can use certain sites to load coupons directly to your store loyalty shopper card. Check back about every two weeks to load new coupons. These coupons can be used in conjunction with paper coupons as well. Check out the three biggies at: cellfire.com, pgesaver.com, and shortcuts.com. You can also load "coupons" from Upromise.com. Rather than saving money off of your total, the amount of the coupon goes into an account to save for college.
- Newspaper Inserts. Grab a Sunday paper and check out the coupons inside! Each week you can find coupons - except holiday weekends. This Sunday will have 5 INSERTS!!! I am buying an extra paper so I have double the coupons!
- Catalinas, Hangtags, Peelies, Blinkies. Most stores have a Catalina machine beside the register at checkout. These machines print out coupons along with your receipt. Hangtags are coupons found hanging on products. Peelies are coupons that are stuck on product. Blinkies are coupons in little machines in the aisles of stores that have a little blinking red light on them.
- Internet Printing. Most stores accept internet coupons. In the past, there wasn't a very good system to prevent fraud. Now, coupons have a limited number of prints per IP address. These coupons are not to be photocopied as that would be coupon fraud. Call your local store to see if they accept printed coupons. All that you need to do to print is to download a small printing program onto your computer. It is super easy - the first time you go to print you will be prompted to install. Here are some sites to check out to print coupons! couponbug.com, coupons.com, redplum.com, smartsource.com
- Coupon Trading. I have a few friends and family that I trade coupons with locally. I also use online forums to trade coupons. I hate to see the free money go to waste! I use Hot Coupon World, Slick Deals, and A Full Cup. These sites are also great for learning about upcoming deals and the best ways to match coupons up with sales.
- Free Samples. Many free samples come with high value coupons! I find most of my samples through the Walmart website on the "in stores now" tab. I also find samples through other blogs I read. Check back here often and you can find many listed.
- Contacting Companies. The easiest way is to just go to company websites. Many companies offer coupons directly on their sites to be printed. Some sites will mail coupons after a simple request. One blogger (I'm sorry, I don't remember who!) said she has been emailing companies to ask if there is a current coupon campaign. Many companies were quite happy to mail her coupons! I have had success with emailing companies to either praise or complain about products. About 80% of the time, the companies have sent coupons.
