What Is Your Coupon Strategy?

[AnnaInOhio]

Most of us here on Frugal Living use coupons some more than others.

Share with us what your game plan is. How do you use your coupons and how much did you save this week? Share your marketing skills with us.

Anna

[ajrsmom]

My strategy.....clip the, put them into a box, stick them in the cabinet and forget about them.


I will pay special attention to the tips that are posted here!






Tami

[justEricka]

ok here is the big one i learned from someone else....if a coupon says ANY size..it can be on a sample size to. so i keep thoes in a seperate place in my file..then when im at the store..i check my anys against the sample sizes. i have gotten all kinds of things free. a couple weeks ago i used about 40 coupons, and got all kinds of things. shampoo, creamrinse, lotion, toothpaste, deoderent, gel, hair spray and things like that. these little sizes are perfact for a travel bag, or sending to school with ds for pe. plus i can stock up our camper with them too. i also use these for gifty baskets at xmas time. a pampering basket i guess youed call it.

plus another good way to save with coupons is to combine them...

example
i had a coupon for vo5 shampoo or creamrinse, 50cents off 2. they cost 98 cents regualry at our walmart. then they had some of the bigger ones on sale for 78cents. so i got thoes. i had 6 coupons for the 50c off. then i also had buy 2 get 1 free coupons. i had 2 of thoes. so i useed them too. i got 12 bottles of shampoo for 4.80. that works out to .40 cents a bottle. that will stock us up for about 5 or 6 months. i dont buy the expencive shampoos unless i cant find anything else thats as good a deal. but i wont pay full price for shampoo. i can always find a good deal on thoes.

ok i hope that helps some. ill come back with other ideas soon.

have a good day
ericka

[AnnaInOhio]

Erika-

That is a very good plan.

Ajrsmom-

LOL! I know what you mean, I used to do that stash and forget too.

Anna

[AnnaInOhio]

I bought several years ago this fancy coupon box it has like 135 slots in it and they are each numbered with a master list that's glue to the inside of the box.

As I cut my coupons, I put them in the box. Like shampoo is number 119, and so on. After awhile you will memorize those numbers, trust me really you will. I keep this box in my truck at all times unless I'm making my grocery list. I put the box to one side, a long legal size envelope to the right and the sales flyers in front of me. I write down Miejers Store- Scotts Toilet Paper 5.00- 1.00 cpn.=4.00 (3) meaning I have 3 coupons buy 3. Oh and I put the coupons in the envelope so I'm not in the store looking for them.

I then put that envelope in the top of the coupon box, shut the lid and it's all in one place to go the store.

Anna

[boggsZ]

anna i wish i could get that organized Im just awful at it

[mom2-4]

Wow, Anna that sounds like a really good way to organize your coupons.

I hope to learn alot from this thread and save same money with coupons.

[AnnaInOhio]

Yes, I love that box just wish I'd invested in the Deluxe Model, it had more slots.

I saw a lady in the grocery store with the deluxe model and she gave me the addy. and phone # of the place that sold them. I'm surprised they never advertise to the public?

Anna

[justEricka]

ok here is my next suggestion...

if you have the time...look over the sale bills carefully. and combine sales plus a coupon.so if they have say hunts catsup on sale for 99, and you have a coupon for 50 cents off..use it and stock up for about 6months worth. thats what i do.


plus i always try to use the coupons that are high end when the new things come out. like i got 12 free intuition shavers wehen they first came out. i had that many free coupons for it.

another way to save money is to trade coupons with people. if you have a friend who uses dawn dish liqid, and you use palmoive you can trade with them to get more for your money.

every 3 weeks or so, you will want to start goin thru your coupons and purg out the ones that are expired. plus you can have a spot in your folder for the ones you need to use now. i have thoes in an evie in the front of my holder and it says use now in big lettters. i use it ine store as much as i can since i knw that thoes will go bad soon.

and what to do with all the things you have stocked up...thats a hard one to help out with. what i did was luckily my mom had an extra deep freezer so i took all the extra frozen to her place and filled up that freezer. for my boxes and cans, i got aset of shelves for my kitchen and used it as much as i can.

you have to rember that using coupons is a time consuming job. butyou save alot of money if you do it correctly. i use about 3 hours a week on the gathering of coupons, plus the making of my list. i can spend up to 5 hours a week in the store looking and comparing. you definatly dont want to take the kids for this trip. really i know from experience. but i also save between 35 and 65% on an average shopping trip. we dont have stores that double here much. but when they do i average about 85 to 95% then.
if anyone has a specific question..ill try to help out. its easier than i make it out to be really..lol.
hth.
ericka

[justEricka]

hey anna..can i have the address? i want one of thoes boxes. lol.

thanks
ericka