Couponing Is All the Rage

“Couponing” is all the rage these days. Everyone is searching for ways to cut costs and the food budget comes under continual scrutiny. While coupons have been around for decades, the act of using them properly has recently been elevated to an art form.

You can search all over the web and find testimonials from people who claim they save hundreds of dollars on their food bill by using coupons to the fullest extent? Is that possible? How do you do it? There are some tricks involved and you have to be willing to invest a little time in the effort.

Finding Coupons

Traditionally, coupons come in the Sunday newspaper. There is one or more insert in each paper hat have that week’s coupons. These are generally accepted at most grocery stores, especially the national or big name chains. This is a good starting place as you receive quite a few in one place.

Many manufacturers offer coupons through their websites. Some will even provide coupons if you “Like” their Facebook page. Proctor and Gamble, Betty Crocker and General Mills are just a few of the companies whose sites you can visit and collect coupons from.

Stores will sometimes send you coupons, based on the purchases you have made or your being a “member” in some way. This could mean you have signed up for their discount card or you have a credit card from that store. Target and Kroger are examples of stores who do this. Other stores will print coupons along with your receipt. These are sometimes on the back of the receipt and are for discounts at area businesses or on a separate sheet and will relate to purchases you just made. For example if you bought a package of Huggies diapers, you might get a coupon to try Pampers diapers.

Many online sites offer printable coupons. Coupons.com is such a place. You simply sign up and one of the options you can use is their printable coupon service. You scroll through the list of available coupons, select the ones you want and print them. Cut them apart and take them to the store to redeem.

There is no guarantee that you will need all the coupons you find or how much you can save by using them. The trick is to use them wisely. In the next post, I’ll talk about how to make the most of your coupons.