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(View the Printable Notes Here)
| Coupon Strategies
There are 3 basic rules for learning to reduce your grocery bill
- Learn your Store Sales Cycles (Most items will go on sale every 6-10 weeks
- Combine Sales and Coupons for Maximum Savings
- Buy enough to get you through to the next sale
Some of the strategies that I cover in this lesson include:
- The Substitution Principle
- Size and Coupon Value
- Stacking Coupons
- Double & Triple Coupons
- Unit Pricing
- Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sales
- Store Promotions
- Catalina Deals
- Rainchecks & Rebates
| Additional Information
I really recommend printing out the Printable Slides on this lesson and going over each of the strategies till you understand them. Using these effectively will help you learn when the best time is to use your coupons.
Next Lesson: Creating a Menu Plan
These tutorials are very helpful, thank you for taking the time to make them As a beginner, here is my biggest problem with couponing. How do you remember what coupons you have when you are looking through the store circulars? If you hole-punch your coupon inserts and place them in a binder, how do you remember if you have a coupon for something? Sometimes you post great deals and reference coupons from 2 or 3 months prior. How did you remember you still had that coupon?
I’m still waiting for someone to compile and post a “store sales cycle” database. I know many people have done the work already, so why should the rest of us have to do it too?? Just a thought.
Hi Heather, Wow, this is a fabulous tutorial! My foray into couponing just began the other day, but I have already visited several websites and yours is by far the most informative.
I am following everything but the part about BOGO offers when stacking is not allowed (10:17) and buying 4. I get that you will be buying 2 and using 2 manufacturer’s BOGO coupons to get 2 free (totalling 4, 2 bought and 2 free). But you would have to buy another one to get the free 1 from the store promotion, so you would be buying 3 — right? That must not be right because you said you would be only buying 1 and getting 3 for free… What am I missing here; can someone help me out? I have watched this video twice, reviewed this portion several times, and printed out the notes and I’m still not getting it. I’m no dummy either, LOL! :) Thanks!
Although I’ve been couponing seriously for less than 6 months, I’ve reduced my household expenses by a third. This includes dietary supplements, grooming, paper goods, cleaning products, and food. I’m pleased with the results so far but have much to learn.
For example, I learned about price matching and rainchecks (the proper way to use them) from just one of these lessons. Thank you for all the effort you put into sharing your knowledge with us.
I am having problems printing your notes. They look like they are in powerpoint but need to be printed with pdf. I’m working on it but would appreciate any advice.
Question I have buy one get one free coupons the store has that item (walgreens) buy one get the second 1/2 off if i buy four am i going to get 3 free?
I have a question about the All detergent that you were talking about stocking up on at 0.99 cents. I thought that the manufacturer’s coupon and the store coupon limited you to just one item. If it doesn’t say, then you can get as many as you want for that price?
my / is if you use a buy one get one free coupon can you stack a get 1$ off coupon on top of that for a single item. have a coupon that says limit one coupon per purchase of products and quanities stated. limit of 4 coupons in same trip..have a friend that tells me she’ll take a bogo and add another coupon to it for a single purchase..is she just trying to take bragging rights
I went to Walgreen’s this week and bought a few things. I bought the Huggies baby wipes that are $5.99 each. But I used the Walgreen’s coupon book and got $2 off each, then used the instant coupon baby book and got another $2 off each. So I got them for $1.99 each. Love it. I did mess up a little. I bought the 12 rolls Cottenelle tissue for $5. I forgot to use the Walgreen’s coupon book for the tissue. But luckily I looked at my receipt on the way to the car. The cashier was so nice. She did a return for the just the tissue so I could use the coupon. Sweet. It would have been great to have a Cottenelle Q but my brain was friend by then. Can anyone relate?
Can I use two manufacture coupons that are not the same, for example 75 cents off on coco puffs and a 50 cents off coco puffs together on one item?
Can anyone help me with the whole doubling coupon question I have? One of the stores in my area doubles coupons up to $1.99 every Tuesday but I’m confused as to what that means. Does it mean that if I have a $1 coupon it will make it a $1.99 value? What if I have a coupon for $4 off an item, will it double that coupon? Please help!
Wow, great offer! Here on Long Island we have only one store that will double up to and including a dollar.
This is what I take it to mean: Your store will double a coupon up to 1.99, so if you have a 1.50 coupon, it will double it and take 3.00 off. I’ve never seen a coupon for 1.99 but if you had one, it would take 3.98 off your purchase. Check with the store about the policy, our store only allows a max of 5/1.00 coupons per trip and they will only allow a max of two identicle internet coupons. Some stores have a max number of coupons you can use. Go to the web site and it should be listed, in some cases I have had to email them to get the policy. I keep a policy with me at all times cause some clerks just don’t have the right information.
Hope this helps
Generally speaking coupons can be doubled up to their face value for the amount set by the store. So if you have a 1.00 coupon it will be doubled to 2.00. But the 4.00 one will not be. The store will double up to 1.99 in your case so if you had a coupon for 1.99 off you would get 3.98 off your order.
is walmart letting you use the target $1.00 off coupons on a particular item. i see that they take competitor coupons. thank you for all the info!
I understand how Amber feels. Located in a very rural area it is hard to accomplish fests such as this. You wonder who is looking, Backwood girls sometimes feel like they have to come out fighting. I have made my first multiple coupon purchase. It wasn’t large, but it was substantial enough to draw a few looks when the register started to double my copuons. At the end of the day I was the one smiling as I put my money back in my pocket. The lady at the register was very nice & commented ( come back next week and we’ll do it again).
Thanks for the advice, I kinda felt that way about the cvs card thing. I can’t go shopping on Sundays because of our church schedule and activities, but I’ve been trying to go on Tuesday nights. Last night I tried it, and it was nice because my husband had my three boys so I could go alone, and i took my coupon binder for the first time. I have to say it was a little embarrassing, people were staring and pointing at me and more than one person made comments to me on how organized I was. I guess I have a few pride issues to overcome, but I’m pressing on because saving is worth it!
I love when people stare at me. I’ve even had people beg me to teach them. They ask questions and I love helping people so it comes naturally to help them.
I do feel bad if people have to wait behind me in line, especially if I have multiple transactions with lots of coupons. I apologize but I am the one spending(or should I say saving) my money, when someone else starts paying for my groceries then I’ll change my ways 9and probably not even then!) HaHa
Heather,
just wanted to let you know that your coupon tutorials were very helpful. I am very new to couponing and i have been to over 40 websites trying to learn, but your lessons have been the most helpful. I do have a few questions, I try to go to town once a week because I live in a very rural area and gas is $3 a gal. I am 30 miles from the nearest walmart. Is it unrealistic to expect to find the best deals by going only one day a week? Also, I got a cvs card and wanted to use it on 4 gal of milk and the limit was two. The lady at the checkout told me the way around that was to sign up for another cvs card in my husbands name. This has proved profitable on several occasions and I can print twice the amount of coupons at the coupon kiosk but is it ehtical. I wonder because of all the sites I’ve been to, no one has mentioned doing this. What do you think?
Hi Amber, I personally would suggest shopping on Sunday’s since that’s when the Drug store deals start each week. I don’t recommend signing up for 2 CVS Cards, but the main reason is because you will find most deals come around again and you really don’t have to “Beat the system” there are always more than enough products that are free and cheap once you start building your stockpile. Just take it slow and you’ll have more than enough before you know it.