Getting Working Coupons For Your Black Friday Or Cyber Monday Shopping

Shoppers can find great Black Friday deals by simply waiting in line outside of stores and on the web, but the best holiday deals go to those who find and clip coupons. Coupons are used by stores to draw in customers, but they're not always designed to turn a profit for the retailer. Therefore, you can sometimes find a coupon that will give you incredible savings past what a standard in-store deal could offer, and the week around Black Friday is the best time of the year to find this type of deal.

However, you're not going to find the best coupons without some research. Here are a few tips to get you started.

The best coupons are online. While many coupon clippers start by checking their local papers for Black Friday coupons, you're only going to find the very general and well-publicized deals that other shoppers will be lining up to get. Look online; you'll find much better deals, and you'll find them very quickly.

In fact, there are coupon websites set up that are specifically designed to make them easy to find. CouponCabin.com and SmartSource.com are two good places to start. To find really great deals, you'll might even have to dig deeper.

Finding the specifics. If you're after a specific item, you can start by searching online for that item with "coupon codes" after your search query, then click away. Be prepared to work hard. It sometimes takes me a few hours to find great deals on expensive items, but for big electronics it can be worth it. For instance, in 2009 I found a Nintendo Wii for $50, brand new, thanks to a coupon code hidden in the fifth page of my search results. Be tenacious. It will pay off.

Check the coupons. Just because you find a great coupon doesn't mean that you're ready to use it, particularly on Black Friday. There's a decent chance that you've found a bad coupon, so check its authenticity before you head to the store. This is easy enough online, because you can enter the coupon's code into the retailer's website, but it's a bit more risky at the store. Call ahead to verify your coupon. This has saved me a lot of embarrassment in the past--there's nothing worse than showing up with your coupon for 20-50% off only to find out that it's expired, or worse, completely fake.

I once showed up to a store with a fake coupon and was promptly accused of forging it myself. Apparently, this is standard practice among some shoppers. Verify your coupons, though, and you'll find some really unbelievable deals at pretty much any major retailer.