How to Use Coupons Effectively

There are tons of different ways to use coupons and in all honesty you will need to develop one that works best for you.

At the top are those who can leverage the most out of coupons: the true coupon aficionados. These people comb the Sunday papers and the internet grabbing as many coupons as they can. They also check the weekly sales ads and use a grocery price book to make sure that they are getting the most out of their purchases. And finally they design entire menus around coupons and sales.

To me that seems a bit extreme. Let's be honest. I work a day job, blog by night and do my best to actually live my life. I also love food and desire to cook meals that I actually want to eat, not meals that coupons and sales dictate that I should eat.

I use coupons strategically. I have a general idea of what I buy and how often I buy it. Having a price book that lists whether I purchased the item on a given day helps me to know the frequency of purchases. I clip coupons only for things I buy regularly. I'll also clip coupons for things I buy semi-regularly if they have a long shelf life. If I can time a coupon with a sale to save even more money, I do. If not, I don't get bent out of shape over it. Finally, I always shop with a list and only bring coupons with me that are for products on my list. Just one more strategy to prevent impulse buying.

Beware, coupons can cost you money! Remember that coupons are designed to coax you into buying things you might not otherwise purchase. What kinds of things? New products often have coupons associated with them in order to draw attention to them and get you to try them.

Existing products deploy coupons to get you away from their competitor's product and to pull you away from buying a generic version of the same product. And here is where the money loss comes in. Buying a name brand product with a dollar off coupon may seem like a deal at the moment, but you still may wind up paying more than you could for a store brand. Avoid this trap by always checking the prices of products even if you have coupons.

When shopping with coupons please observe a few simple rules to ensure that your checkout is as fast as possible and as easy as possible. Failure to follow these rules will result in annoying other shoppers and your cashier.

The rules:

1. Have the coupons you intend to use ready before you get to the register. Don't fumble through your purse looking for that 50 cent off coupon when you are at the register. The people behind you will hate you.

2. Make sure the coupons are in date.

3. Make sure the coupons are in good condition. Having an illegible or unreadable barcode may make your coupon invalid.

4. Don't argue with the cashier or manager if your coupon doesn't go through. This delays everyone else in the line, makes you look bad and raises the collective blood pressure of everyone in the area. A dollar off coupon isn't worth that much irritation.