5
A-Hunting We Will Go
The first thing you need to have to coupon is coupons. Makes sense, right? But where to find them? I mean, we’ve gone our whole shopping lives without coupons jumping out at us, so how is that supposed to change today? I know, I know! I feel your pain here. The good news is that coupons are literally everywhere.
Don’t believe me? Well check this out. The latest numbers show that of the roughly $470 billion in coupons printed in 2011, only $4.6 billion were ever redeemed.[1] That’s a usage rate of about 0.98 percent. What does that mean for you? It means that there are still plenty of coupons floating around just ready and waiting for you to snatch them up and put them to good use.
But where do you find them?
I can help you with that! Like so many of you, when I started out I just wasn’t looking in the right places. It’s all about knowing where to look. I’ll show you the best spots to find the most coupons. Some places you may have already known about, but others you’ve probably never thought of.
Where Are They Hiding?
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that coupons really are everywhere. So much so that we have practically trained ourselves to overlook them. We are so used to seeing different types of offers that we just pass right on by without thinking twice. Special display? Steer the cart right around it. Peelie on the packaging? Toss it out with the trash.
It’s time to break this cycle and snatch up these savings. Think of it as a game. Start hunting for coupons and you’ll be amazed at all the places they like to pop up.
Newspapers
It may seem cliché, but newspapers are and always have been the place to find coupons. In fact, this is the venue where 89.6 percent of all coupons are issued.[2] So the best place to start couponing is your own hometown newspaper.
How many should you buy? Well, that’s up to you. I wouldn’t recommend going out and buying twenty papers, but you will probably find that you do want more than one. So experiment a bit and find the number that works best for your family. That perfect amount where you can get what you need for the next twelve weeks—not the next twelve years!
I personally can’t remember the first time I bought more than one newspaper. I’m sure I started off with one or two extra, a nice manageable number and definitely not enough to make the cashier look at me like I had lost my mind. I mean, one or two extra and you might just be picking one up for your mom or a neighbor. But ten? That’s crazy town! (Remember, this is when I first started couponing. I no longer get ten papers as I’ve found that five is perfect for my family.)
However, I soon realized that if I wanted more than one bottle of ketchup, salsa, or body wash then I was going to need more than one paper. After all, more papers do mean more coupons! I remember one week in particular when the cashier asked me if I knew that all the newspapers had the same stories. She meant well, she really did, and I still chuckle thinking about the oh-so-sincere look on her face.
One thing to keep in mind here: not every paper gets every coupon. Manufacturers advertise by zip code based on shopping habits and sales projections. So the coupons in your local paper will vary from the town down the road and many times from what we have listed at Time 2 $ave.
The best way to make sure you’re getting the most newspaper coupons possible is to buy the largest paper you can. The larger the city, the more (and better) coupons you’ll find inside.
Magazines
Magazines are a great place to find coupons. And not just any coupons, but often higher value coupons than what you typically find in the Sunday paper.
For instance, All You magazine is loaded with coupons, typically boasting $70 to $120 of savings in every issue. Each issue is packed with both time- and money-saving tips, along with fashion advice for real women, parenting pointers, recipes, and more. Other good magazines for coupons include Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Day, and similar publications.
Stores
Stores are a breeding ground for coupons. They pop up all over the place. From peelies to special displays to Catalinas and even blinkies, you never know what you are going to find when you turn the corner and start waltzing down a new aisle. So be ready and keep your eyes peeled. After all, couponing can be lots of fun!
Another great place to find coupons at the store is the customer service counter. This is always my first stop as soon as I walk through the door. The store usually has a nice little stack of coupons hanging out behind the counter and all you have to do is ask. It is also the hands down best place to find store coupons and learn about special sales happening within the store itself.
In drugstores, it usually pays to stop by the cosmetics counter to ask for coupons. They often have an array of coupons for cosmetics, lotions, and other new products that they’ll be happy to hand out.
Peelies
Peelies are a type of coupon that all of us have seen and almost all of us have tossed in the trash. They are found directly on individual products and are meant for use on that product.
Here’s the thing about peelies: a peelie is meant for the person who is actually buying the product. If you don’t buy the product, then you don’t get the coupon. It’s important to use these sales in the way they were intended and be considerate of other shoppers. There is nothing more frustrating than picking up a product off the shelf and seeing that shiny rectangle where your peelie is supposed to be. Around here we call ’em “peelie stealers”! Not buying the product? Then leave the peelie.
Special Displays
Ever walk through the store and see a big cardboard display set up? You know the kind. They are often stocked with soft drinks or chips, although they can be for just about any product. Displays like these are an awesome place to find coupons. You may have to hunt for them—but that’s all part of the fun!
E-coupons
At first glance you may think that e-coupons and printables are the same thing. Not in the least. The word “e-coupon” is just the fancy couponer way of saying electronic coupon. These are the coupons some stores allow you to add directly onto your store loyalty card. No printing or clipping required! All you have to do is register with the store website, add in your loyalty card number, and scroll through the available offers. You get to choose which offers you want loaded to your card and they will be redeemed automatically at checkout.
Catalinas
Catalinas are a special kind of coupon that prints out of a machine after you have checked out. Sound familiar? Yep, that long strip of paper your cashier hands you along with your receipt. Those would be Catalinas. The interesting thing about Catalinas is that there are a couple of different ways to get them.
By Formula
Stores will often run deals where buying a certain product or a certain number of products will trigger specific Catalinas to print. This is where the formula comes into play. If you buy the right items, then you get the coupon. For example, if you buy three boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks in one transaction, the formula is set up to give you a Catalina for $2.00 off your next purchase of anything in the store.
By Shopping Habits
You may notice that you often get coupons for items you buy all the time, especially if your store has a loyalty card. So if you buy baby food, then don’t be surprised when baby food coupons come flying out of the Catalina machine before you walk out the door.
By Purchasing a Competing Product
The last type of Catalina triggers after you buy a competing product. For example, buying Keebler cookies could get you a Nabisco coupon. Nabisco figures if you like cookies, you are the perfect buyer for their brand instead of the competitor’s brand.
How do you find out what to buy? At Time 2 $ave we always make sure to tell you what to look for and what Catalinas are running in your favorite stores. You can also find out by checking the blog or website for your favorite store or with a quick trip to the customer service counter. Just make sure to check whether your Catalinas are store or manufacturer coupons because they can print out either way.
Blinkies
As you stroll down the grocery store aisle you might notice little boxes mounted on the shelves calling to you with a small red blinking light. These are blinkies. When you walk up to them there is usually a coupon sticking out. Snag the coupon and another one just like it will pop out in a few seconds.
Blinkies have a special place in my heart. Not only do they pop up in the craziest spots, but they manage to keep my children entertained as we walk through the store. They love scoping out the “tickets” and seeing who can come out of the store with the most. Plus, one of my best couponing stories is all about blinkies.
I was at the grocery store and the trip started out normally enough. I always make a point to keep my eyes peeled for new blinkies, tear pads, hang tags, or anything else that pops up. Well, this store happened to have an awesome blinkie coupon for $0.35 off brand-name veggies. Those same veggies were on BOGO sale at a different grocery store down the street, and that store doubled coupons. BOGO sale price? $0.70. Coupon value? $0.35. Price after doubled coupon? FREE cans of veggies!
Can you guess that I was excited? Even so, I always feel that it’s important to think of other shoppers. The manufacturer and/or store never intended a sale or coupon to only benefit one person. For that reason I always say “take two the Time 2 $ave way.” We want to share the love after all. With that in mind I grabbed my two coupons and headed for the checkout.
After piling all my items on the belt I realized I had left the store coupons I needed at home. Since I had formed a close relationship with the cashiers, they let me run home and bring them back. I only live about twelve minutes round-trip, so I dashed home, grabbed what I needed, and took off back to the store.
Walking back through the doors I thought to myself, Well, as long as I’m here I think I’ll get two more blinkies for the veggies. I go to the shelf all excited about getting more free veggies and the blinkie machine is gone. Poof! Empty shelf. What in the world happened? I was just here twelve minutes ago!
I looked around, thinking someone had swiped it, when I saw a lady in the same aisle. She had a screwdriver in her hand and was dismantling the blinkie machine with it! My mind raced—was she planning a fast getaway with the beloved blinkies? Surely no one would actually steal a blinkie machine?
By now I think you all know that shy isn’t a word that describes me. So what did I do? I marched myself down the aisle to ask her, kindly, what she was doing. I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect her to turn around with the sweetest smile in the world and say, “I’m the blinkie lady. I’m changing out the coupons.”
Um . . . what? There’s a blinkie lady? Really? Who knew?
Up until that moment I always thought the store put these things out, but as it happens a company called Smart Source (the same one that puts out the weekly inserts) handles the disbursement and changing out of the coupons. We chatted for a few minutes and I told her all about how I couponed and how I was able to use it to save so much money. She was more than a little surprised that the coupons she had been installing in blinkie machines in grocery stores were really that valuable. She then continued to tell me that no one really used all that many as she opened her little garbage bag and said, “Look, there are probably fifty coupons here that I just dumped out of that blinkie machine. Do you want them?”
Is it bad that I had to contain myself so I didn’t attack her right then and there? It was all I could do not to grab the bag and run! Instead, I managed to say calmly, “Why, I’d hate for you to throw them away. If you don’t have any use for them, then I would be happy to take them off your hands.” Inside my head it sounded more like, “WOOOO-HOOOOOO!!! YES!”
She handed over the coveted coupon stash and on the way home I swung by the other store to pick up ten free cans of yummy veggies. Why ten? This store’s policy is to only double ten like coupons at a time. And I knew this by asking at the customer service counter. I shared some of those coupons, stocked my pantry, and donated several cans of veggies to others. By the way, Teresa Graham? I will forever be indebted to you for being so kind to this girl who was acting like a crazy coupon lady.
(Disclaimer: I understand my story here kind of contradicts itself in regards to “take two the Time 2 $ave way” since when I returned to the store I was headed for two more coupons. I don’t do that now; way back when, the blinkie lady just dumped fifty blinkies in the garbage. Nowadays a blinkie machine is lucky to last two days before running out. Just sayin’ . . . )
Tear Pads
Tear pads are small pads of coupons usually stuck to a shelf or display. The cool thing about tear pads is they tend to pop up all over the place, not just in your favorite grocery store. Have a favorite soft drink? Then make sure you scan the shelf the next time you stop by a convenience store. It doesn’t happen every day, but you just might find a great coupon that you can’t find anywhere else.
Like blinkies, tear pads are on the honor system. When you find one you don’t yank the whole thing off the shelf. You take two, and only two, and leave the others for someone else. Restraint is a good thing. Plus, you wouldn’t want to be the one staring at the bare tear pad that someone else has just emptied with one swipe.
Printables
Whereas yesterday’s shoppers were limited to coupons that came out of the newspaper, today’s shoppers can find coupons for just about any item without looking further than their own computer. The first thing to know about printables is that each coupon comes with a print limit, which is usually two. Sometimes you will find the odd coupon that can be printed as many times as you want, but that is definitely more the exception than the rule.
Once the print limit is reached, that’s it. Keep in mind, it’s considered coupon fraud to copy coupons. Each internet printable is uniquely coded, and it can be traced back to your computer’s IP address. Playing by the rules is always the best choice.
Where do you find great printables? While there are several places, just stop by Time 2 $ave before you go scouring the internet. We link each store ad directly to any printables you might want to use. These links will take you to places like:
One more thing about printables: you need to watch the calendar. Each month most of the companies listed above put out a brand-new crop of printable offers. But these new coupons come standard with a print limit, so if there is one you know you want, make sure to print it early. If you wait too long, then it might just be gone. The early bird catches the worm with printables for popular items. This is the case more and more as couponing gains popularity and printable coupons hit their preset limits more quickly. Often we alert readers to a new coupon in the morning and by evening it’s gone!
Also, print limits are tied to your computer’s IP address. So if you have access to more than one computer then you can increase your savings.
Product Packaging
Ever check out the inside of a cereal box? Most of us don’t. But if you did you might notice that sometimes you can find coupons printed right on the cardboard. And it’s not limited to just cereal. Many products use their packaging to offer additional savings to their customers. Think of it as an enticement to buy more. Always check the box before it makes its way to the trash.
Manufacturers
Sometimes when you need an answer you’ve got to go straight to the horse’s mouth. In the case of coupons that means the manufacturer. If you have a favorite item that you can never find a coupon for, don’t be afraid to call or write to the manufacturer and ask about it. It doesn’t always work, but you can sometimes find great savings that don’t exist anywhere else.
The best way to ask for coupons is to tell the manufacturer how much you love the product they put out. (You catch more flies with honey!) Here’s an example: “Hey! My family loves Product X and I’d love to know if you have any coupons available!” Simple, truthful, and often highly effective.
A System That Works . . . for You!
So what happens once you collect your coupons? Where do you put them? Do you pile them haphazardly on top of your desk? Or stuff them in a large envelope? Maybe you neatly tuck them away in a cute little coupon tin. Or maybe you are one of the holdouts who still goes for the ever popular inside pocket of your purse. After all, this has worked so well for you in the past.
Today we are going to put those purse stuffing days far behind us as we look at a better way to clip, sort, and store coupons. I’m going to walk you through how to organize your coupons based on what has worked for me and for thousands of people who have attended the Time 2 $ave workshops.
Step 1: Sorting
Let’s take this step-by-step. For the sake of simplicity we are going to say that we buy five newspapers every week.
- Start by taking all of your newspapers for the week and pulling out the coupon inserts. The number of inserts will vary by week, so make sure you look carefully and don’t miss anything.
- Next, separate your inserts into like piles: Smart Source, Red Plum, Proctor & Gamble, and so forth.
- Now you are going to need some space. Choose one type of insert to start with—say, Smart Source—and spread it open. Lift each page out, starting a pile for page 1, a pile for page 2, and so on. Continue pulling out pages and putting them into their correct piles until you have gone through all Smart Source inserts. When you are done, each pile will contain like pages. For example, I get five newspapers, so if the Smart Source insert had eight pages, I will now have eight piles of five.
- Grab your stapler! You want to staple each coupon right on the picture if you can. This may seem strange, but by stapling before you cut your stacks, your coupons will stay firmly together. They won’t slip and slide while cutting and you won’t end up with important barcodes getting snipped off.
- Repeat this process until you have all your inserts sorted and stapled. You are ready to clip.
Now when you get to the checkout counter you just pull the number of coupons you want to use off the stapled stack. You’ve basically created your own tear pad. It’s a great trick! As I pointed out earlier, you don’t want to staple the words because they might tear a bit when you pull the staple out.
I would love to say the idea of stapling came to me in a moment of organizational genius, but we all know that didn’t happen. No, it came about more from my attempt to get out of cutting coupons altogether.
Let me explain. Okay, so you all know that I get multiple newspapers every week. Yeah, well what I’m about to tell you took me over a year to figure out. I discovered that instead of cutting each insert separately, if I joined like pages together then I could cut out all my coupons at the same time. Previously I would cut each insert on its own and end up with a huge pile of coupons that would take the better part of a day to sort through. Now I only had to cut once. Hallelujah!
Then, I had another great idea. I started hearing how several of my friends let their young daughters cut out their inserts for them—the angels started to sing for a second time! I was about to be set free from the clipping duty and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just had to convince my daughter that this would be an amazing thing for her to get to do every week.
I started out by asking if she wanted to help me, making a big deal about it the whole time. This was going to be fun! I really tried to hype it up, because she’s a lot like her momma and I know that sitting still is a serious challenge for her. So we sat down at the table and I carefully separated each set of like inserts, stacking the pages perfectly to make sure they were all lined up. Remember, I was trying to make this fun! I wanted it to be exciting for her so she would fall in love with cutting out coupons, thus relieving me from the task.
We each grabbed scissors and started cutting. I thought things were going pretty well until I noticed that expiration dates were missing, coupons were being cut out sideways—you name it. First, the problem was that her attention span only lasted through about the first three coupons. Second, it was just too difficult for her to keep all the pages lined up.
She thought she was free forever when I snatched up the stapler and quickly stapled each coupon without really thinking about it. Now I didn’t have to worry about her keeping the pages together! It wasn’t until a bit later that I realized the true genius of my new trick. I mean, now all the coupons stayed together and they fit better in my binder.
I know that my daughter will never love clipping coupons. But she is willing to help and we both enjoy having our M&M time: Morgan & Mommy!
Step 2: Clipping
When I first started couponing I spent far too much time sorting and clipping my coupons. It felt like a never-ending process. For my own sanity, I knew that there had to be a better way. And I found it. Now you get the benefit of skipping the madness and going straight to the easy breezy.
The first part to this new system is stapling. The second part comes into play during clipping. My goal is to only touch each coupon twice. To help achieve this goal I have fourteen little bins or tubs I lay out in front of me while I clip. Each tub is labeled with the same categories I have in my binder. This saves a ton of time because I literally hold the coupon over the appropriate bin when I am cutting so that it lands right there with its brothers and sisters. This way when I finish cutting I don’t have a huge pile of coupons strewn all over my family room. Instead, all of the coupons are already separated into the appropriate categories.
If I don’t feel like filing right now, I don’t. I simply stack up my tubs and put them away. Otherwise I would have the biggest mess in all creation. Plus, I don’t know about your kids, but I haven’t met a kid yet who isn’t magnetically attracted to coupons. No matter how carefully I planned where to hide my stacks, someone would always walk straight through the middle of them. Now if worse comes to worst, I just stack up my tubs and haul them to the store with me.
Are you shocked? You know you aren’t! And you know I don’t feel bad about it either. Remember, it’s all about life and what we can fit into a day. If I don’t have the time to neatly file my coupons, then I don’t have the time. I’m still going to go to the store. Couponing is not going to take over my life or take me away from time with my family. So my biggest piece of advice is not to stress about your organizational method. Whatever you choose to use, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to work for you.
Looking at Options
Now that you are a sorting and clipping couponing pro, let’s talk about organizing. I know, it’s a dirty word to me too. But we can do it! The trick is finding what works for you. It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.
I’m going to lay out three options. Each one works and each one is simple in its own way. It may be that one of these choices fits you to a T. If so, perfect. Or it may be that you want to take a little bit of this and throw in a little bit of that to come up with something uniquely you. That’s great too. Feel free to mix and match to your heart’s content. Seriously, there are no rules here other than you need a system that you can work with. Period.
The Binder Option
As the binder option is probably the most popular choice, we’ll start there. It’s straightforward and works great, especially for newbies and an untold number of ten-year-old boys who still treasure their baseball cards.
As you might have guessed, you start with a binder. Some people prefer the ones that zip shut, others like a nice heavy three-ring, but all that really matters is that it works for you.
Next, you’re going to need a couple sets of dividers and the secret ingredient: several packs of baseball card holders. Baseball card holders are clear 8.5 x 11 sheets that boast a total of sixteen pockets per sheet. Each one of these little pockets can be used to file coupons, making them easy to store, see, and locate when you need them. Now, sit down and think about coupon categories that make sense to you. Picture the layout of your grocery store and make categories for each section of your binder such as “Canned & Boxed Items,” “Breakfast,” “Personal Care,” “Cleaning Products,” “Refrigerated,” “Frozen,” and “Pets.” You get the picture. You can go for as many as you like; that’s the beauty of coming up with your own system.
Once you have your list made out, label your section dividers, put your binder together, and start filing. It’s that easy. You have all your coupons in one place ready for you to grab as you walk out the door. A word to the wise: if you choose to use a binder that does not zip shut, then always take care to hold it right side up. Not doing so has the potential to end in a confetti shower that you will not appreciate.
The Filing System
Have a great old box or basket hanging around? Then you already have the basics for creating your very own filing system. The great part is that you can use anything from a cardboard shoebox to a recipe box, a plastic tub with a lid, or even a tackle box. You can go big or small, it really doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the size works for you.
Here’s how it works. Start by buying or making dividers that fit the size of your box. Dividers are pretty easy to make out of index cards, cardstock, or even cardboard boxes. Then, just like with the binder system, label the dividers based on the categories that make sense to you. Now all that’s left is to file your clipped coupons away.
The great part of this system is that it’s super portable. With all your coupons in one place like this, you just have to grab your box and head to the store. The downside is that it can be time consuming to continually have to flip through the categories to find what you want. But if that doesn’t deter you, then give it a try. It might turn out to be the perfect fit!
Whole-Insert Filing Option
This system is quick and easy and great for those of you who avoid clipping coupons like the plague. Although I used a binder system for years, I have recently switched to this method to save time. With this system you store your inserts whole, only clipping the coupons you plan to use each week. The idea is simple, and it works well for many people. Basically, it looks something like this.
Start by getting a file box, the kind you can store hanging files in. You will need the box, a pack of hanging files, a black Sharpie, and some file folders. Once you have your supplies together, it’s time to add the coupons!
I would recommend sorting and stapling the inserts just like we have already talked about. Then, with your Sharpie, write the date it ran on the front of each insert. So an insert you found in the February 11 Sunday paper would be labeled “2/11.” All of the inserts from the same date will be slipped into a folder and placed in one of the hanging files. Repeat this process each week, moving toward the back of the box chronologically. (Look on the insert’s spine to find the date it ran. This is a great help if you’ve mixed them up and you’re not sure what’s what.)
The upside to this system is that it works well with the way we do matchups at Time 2 $ave. If a matchup says you’ll need the coupon from the 2/11 Red Plum, all you have to do is flip to the 2/11 folder and look in the Red Plum insert to see if you have the coupon. It is also fairly quick and doesn’t require you to clip every single coupon.
The downside is that unless you want to carry around a huge file box and a pair of scissors, you can’t take all your coupons to the store with you. So if you come across a deal you weren’t expecting (like a clearance deal), then you are pretty much out of luck. Also, when you file like this it is harder to get a good sense of what coupons you have in the first place. Clipping, while time consuming, gives you the chance to look at each coupon and gives you an idea of what you have to work with.
Choosing What Works
All of these systems work. We know that. But they may not work for you. And that’s okay! It’s about finding what makes your life easier. And if it’s not one of these systems, that’s fine. Just look at this as a starting point. All I ask is that you try something, because you don’t want to go back to being the girl with a pocketful of coupons hidden down in her purse. We all know how that one ends.
Go on a scavenger hunt.
Go on a scavenger hunt in your store and find three new places where coupons hide that you haven’t seen before. It’s all about keeping your eyes peeled! Look for tear pads, blinkies, peelies, and every other type of coupon we’ve talked about. This fun little exercise will help you get used to looking for coupons and will greatly expand your coupon stash.
Decide how you want to organize your coupons.
At this point, go ahead and decide how you’d like to organize your coupons. (Remember, you can change your mind later.)
In this chapter we have talked about three different organizational methods:
- Staple, clip, and file in a binder
- Staple, clip, and file in a box or basket
- Date and file whole, unclipped inserts
If you choose option 1 or 2, you’ll need to create categories to file your coupons under. Sit down and think of how your grocery store is laid out. Make a list of categories. (You can see a sample category list in appendix E.) By organizing your coupons under these categories, you’ll easily be able to pull out what you need when you’re in any given aisle of the grocery store. Also this week, make a trip to pick up coupon supplies. Pick up two Sunday papers to start with, as well as a binder (and baseball card holders to fill it with) or baskets. Another handy item to get is a pack of sticky tabs to write your categories on. Categorize your binder or baskets using your sticky tabs or dividers. Then, using the steps described in this chapter, clip and file away this week’s coupons.
If you choose option 3, simply write this Sunday’s date on the front page of each insert using a Sharpie and slip it into a file box.