Coupons Are Free Money

Tonight I went to the grocery store, list in one hand and coupons in the other. What you say, you don't clip coupons? Really? We're in a recession don't you know? You've got to make your money count for you! It's ok though, it's easy to get started and if you have a little time to spare each week (and as a full time working mom of two, I know that can be tough!) you can find coupons that work for you and save you money on your grocery bill.

The obvious place to start is your Sunday newspaper. It comes loaded with flyers and advertisements of all sorts, but tucked in there is usually a section or two, of coupons as well. Many stores actually base their advertisements in a given week on what coupons are going to be given out in the Sunday paper. This takes me to me second suggestion; arm yourself with your favorite grocery store sale flyer. That way you know what's on sale and what you have coupons for, and hopefully the two will coincide. For example, my list on this shopping trip included cereal. I noticed in my favorite store's flyer that they had Kellogg's cereal on sale, 2 boxes for $5, a pretty good deal, but if you bought 8 boxes they would deduct another $5. So that's 20 bucks, for 8 boxes, and then take off the $5 for buying 8 equals $15 bucks total, or $1.87 per box. Pretty good. But don's top there! In a search of "Kellogg's Cereal Coupons" on-line, I found and printed 2 coupons for $1.50 off 2 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, so that's another $3 off, making the total for 8 boxes now $12, or $1.50 a box, an awesome deal. That's just one example in an endless array of possibilities if you do your homework ahead of time.

The internet is the next place you can find a wide array of coupons at your disposal. I found sites like www.coupons.com and www.redplum.com are great sources for finding coupons you can print and use right away. Also you can check product manufacturers like Kraft, Poland Springs and Nabisco (to name a few) that usually have special offers and discounts available for you on their websites.

Here is another example of how coupons helped me in tonight's shopping trip. My store had Kraft BBQ sauce on sale 10 for $10 that's a dollar a bottle. While searching online I found and printed 5 coupons (one side note; most coupon sites do limit the number of coupons you can print, but when searching multiple sites, I found many had the same coupons available for printing) for $1 off a single bottle, that means the bottles were free! I bought five and stored them in my pantry.

That's the other thing to keep in mind, stock piling. You may think, "but I don't need 5 bottles of BBQ sauce." No, right now you may not, but the BBQ season is just beginning and likely you will use those bottles before we even make it to the 4^th of July. Most non-perishable items have a good shelf life in your pantry (if you're unsure just check the date on the product) and as long as it's a product you know you will actually use, it' smart to buy a large number when the item is on sale and especially if you have a coupon to go along with it. You'll be surprised just how quickly your supply deminishes.

You can also join a coupon swap to find the coupons you will need and use. I don't have any experience using these myself, but just do an internet search of "coupon swap" and you get inundated with swaps going on that look easy to join.

You could even go as far as to buy coupons. Ebay has hundreds of listings for coupons of all sorts and types. You can even buy them in lots (a large number for sale in one listing) for as little as a penny (plus shipping) and get 100 random coupons.

So, you can make coupons work for you. You can put in a lot of effort, just a little, or somewhere in between, it all depends on what you want the end result to be. Obviously, the more effort the bigger the payoff. So if you've got the time to search the flyers for deals, print out coupons online or even take part in coupon swaps, the more power to you. But remember even just a little effort can put a few extra bucks in your pocket after going through the checkout line.