Buy The Small Size To Save Money

When you are couponing you have to get away from the idea that buying the larger size will save you the most money.  It may be true that it is less per ounce (which, nowadays is not always true), but with coupons you can save more by buying the smaller sizes.

Here is an example:  If you buy one 32 ounce mouthwash for $5.00 and use a $1.00 off coupon you have spent $4.00 for 32 ounces.  If you buy two 16 ounce mouthwashes for $5.50 and use two $1.00 coupons you have spent $3.50 for 32 ounces.

I know that it goes against everything that we were taught by our mothers and the local big box stores, but when you have coupons, buying smaller is definitely better.

This is also why you should get multiple coupon inserts each week.  It allows you to use several coupons on smaller sizes in order to get the amount of product that you want.

God bless,
Pam

E-mail Required To Print Coupons

When I first began couponing I noticed that some of the manufacturers offered their coupons online, via their websites.  A few of them required my e-mail address before I could print the coupon.  I hesitated, but decided that such reputable companies would only sell my address to other food companies, so any spam I received would be fairly harmless.

Oh, silly, naive me.  My spam inbox began to fill and fill.  The legitimate companies supplied a link to unsubscribe from their e-mails, but my e-mail had also been sold to x-rated sites wanting to sell sexual enhancement products of every kind.  These nasty sites didn't supply a way to unsubscribe.

A year and a half later I still receive 4-6 x-rated e-mails in my spam inbox.  And with no way to stop them because they have many tricks to keep you from blocking them.  My advice to beginner couponers is to never give out your e-mail address in order to get a coupon, even if it is a big reputable company.  I regret that I did every day when I check my mail.

God bless,
Pam

Shopping With Competitor Coupons

Coupon policies are nebulous, ever changing things, so it is important to keep up to date on your favorite stores' policies.  One policy that has changed recently at Publix is which competitor coupons they will accept.

Publix used to accept grocery store and drug store competitor coupons, but now they only accept coupons from grocery stores.  On top of that, each Publix decides which grocery store coupons they will accept. It is important to check with the store where you shop to get a copy of their policy.  Below is the policy given to me by the Belleair Bluffs Publix.

As you can see, I can use Albertsons, Save-A-Lot, Target and Winn Dixie coupons at my Publix.  This allows me to do more coupon stacking (combining manufacturer and store coupons on same product)  than if I could only use Publix store coupons.

An example is this Winn Dixie coupon that was in the paper recently:

Publix will accept this coupon for my next grocery purchase.

Every little bit helps when it comes to keeping the grocery bill down and combining competitor coupons with your manufacturer coupons is one way to save more.

God bless,
Pam

Couponing Mishaps

A Beautiful Sight

When you start couponing progress is slow and after some critical mistakes you may be tempted to give up.  Trust me when I tell you that it will become easier, your savings will grow in amount, and it will begin to take up less of your time.  I will not tell you that you will stop making mistakes or having mishaps when out shopping with coupons.

Even though I am now saving 40-50% on my grocery and drug store bills, there are still days when I want to bang my head on the table because of a mistake I or a cashier have made.  But we are all here to learn, so here goes:

I try to shop during the slower hours, first thing in the morning at the start of the sale cycle for that store.  That means Sunday for Walgreens and (in my area) Thursday for Publix.  By shopping early the store is usually not sold out of items, plus there are fewer people for me to annoy with my coupons.  Why my shopping with coupons should bother others is beyond me as it only adds a few minutes to my checkout time.  I guess minutes count to some people, but I always though that was just surgeons and fire fighters.

Anywho...when I finish getting my items I check for a line with few to no people in line, thinking that I can get through quickly and, thus, irritate fewer people.  Now I have got to tell you that I can get to a cashier in a deserted store and, miraculously, ten people (where did they come from?) will appear behind me.

Some days the people waiting for me to check out are good natured, interested and, basically, happy to see someone saving some money.  But, every once in a while, I get a "sigher".  You know, the kind that looks at their watch, shuffles their feet and sighs deeply.  So, I just try to concentrate on what the cashier and I are trying to accomplish, which is to check me out with as few problems as possible.  It's not like I am buying a hundred of something, it's just my groceries with a few stock up items thrown in.

If you watch Extreme Couponing you have seen the EC's unblinkingly staring at the register screen.  There is a good reason for this; people and computers make mistakes and sometimes they are big ones.  You must watch the screen to ensure that your items are scanned for the sale price, bogos are registering correctly and that your coupons are being read.  Just recently I was distracted by someone in the store and didn't catch that the cashier had scanned an item twice.  That's $3 out of my pocket and nothing to show for it.  It's hard to prove that this has happened once you've left the store.

Most stores have a policy that you can only use as many coupons as you have items.  This means that if you are using two coupons (manufacturers and stores) for one item you must pick up an inexpensive filler item.  I usually need four or five filler items when shopping at Walgreens.  Conveniently, they have a display of 25 cent candy sticks by the register.  Dear daughter likes candy sticks so it is a win, win situation.

I will certainly share more tips in the future as I learn more about using coupons effectively.  With coupon policies changing so rapidly, it should keep me on my frugal toes.

God bless,
Pam