I have had several people in the last couple of week's ask me how to save money with coupons. I e-mailed this to a friend, so I thought I'd post it here for the others.
There are several web sites that I use. These all have coupons you can print:
www.coupons.comwww.smartsource.comwww.redplum.comThere are coupons on the web sites for Target, Wal-Mart, and CVS, but they tend to move them around. Sometimes ladies on the message boards that I read will post a link to them. Wal-Mart also has free samples on their website as well. Usually when they mail you a free sample, they will send coupons with it.
A message board that I go to a lot is
www.couponmom.com They post links to good coupons there that usually have higher values than the ones printed in the newspapers. Look in the All About Grocery Coupons section. Also, they post what items they bought along with what coupons they used so you can copy some of their deals. Look in the National Discount Stores section for Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart deals. The Drugstores section has Walgreens and CVS deals. Kroger is listed in the Grocery Stores section.
Good information to know about stores:
Kroger - will triple coupons up to $0.35 and double coupons up to $0.50. If you have a Kroger card (free - sign up at the service desk and get one if you don't have one), you can go to
www.pgesaver.com and register your card number. You can add e-coupons to your card that are good for a month. When you buy a product that you have an e-coupon for it automatically deducts the coupon and you can even use a newspaper or internet coupon along with it! (Makes lots of items cheap or free when they are on sale.) Also, you can use your Kroger card to get discounts on gas at Kroger.
Walgreens - They have a program called Register Rewards (referred to as RR on message boards). In their sales flyers, they will list which items give register rewards that week. Sometimes you can get items for free when you purchase the item and they give you the same price back in RR. If I go there for an item, I usually look to see what is free after RRs. I buy those first, use the RRs toward whatever I wanted in the first place, and leave with more than if I had only purchased the one item for the same amount of money. Sometimes the RR may be a dollar or two and the price of the item maybe more, but still a good deal if you have coupons. You can use coupons on items and still get the RR. The RR are just like cash. You can use them on anything, except prescriptions, stamps, etc. For example if toothpaste is $2.49 and they give you $2 back in RR, you could actually make money by using a $0.75 coupon. Also, there are coupons printed in their sales flyers. You can use Walgreens coupons and manufacturer coupons together on the same item. The manufacturer coupons and RR count as coupons with the Walgreens computer system. You cannot have more coupons than items. Walgreens coupons do not count toward that total. For example, if you are buying three items, using three coupons, and want to use a RR, you will need a filler. A filler is an item for which you do not have a coupon. Sometimes I buy gum, a Coke, etc. During the holidays they had pencils that were 10/$1 and plastic cups for the kids that were 8/$1. I used those as fillers. Sometimes they have the individual packages of tissues for $0.39, pantyhose for $0.15, etc. Things like that make good fillers. Check the endcaps at the back of the store for clearance items to see if you have any coupons for those. They also offer monthly deals. I find out about a lot of these on message boards and this website:
www.iheartwags.com They post sales flyers several weeks in advance so you can plan ahead. They have a transfer prescription promotion too that always you to get $25 for transferring a prescription from another pharmacy. You can do this once every six months. You cannot use RR to buy another of the same item for which you just received the register rewards and get more RR. You can use them to buy something different and use those to buy more of the first item. I used a $25 prescription transfer coupon and a $5 off a $30 purchase coupon to get Natalie an MP3 player for free this Christmas.
CVS - They have a program similar to the Walgreens RR program. They give Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) on different items each week. Sometimes the items are free after ECBs, and sometimes they are cheap or free after ECBs and using coupons. Richard was surprised when he saw me pay for a purchase with $16ECBs and get $23 ECBs back because of the coupons I had used.
www.iheartcvs.com posts the sales flyers several weeks ahead of time. You have to check the sales flyers or signs in the store for limits. For example, last week you could buy 1 GE EnergySmart lightbulb for $2.99 and get $2ECB making it $0.99 (free after $1 coupon). They have SoyJoy snack bars for $6 get $6 ECB. The limit on these is 6. Two weeks ago I got 5 Thermacare heatwraps for $2.49 get $2.49ECB. I have been stocking up on deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, razors, etc. when I can get them free or cheap at CVS and Walgreens instead of buying them at Wal-Mart with coupons. If I find a good deal, and don't need the item, I put it in the GodTel box at church. I have gotten several glucose meters that were on sale for $14.99 and there were coupons in the paper for up to $30 off making them free. Then they were giving ECB for purchasing it and so I made $5 - $10 on each one. I didn't need them, but I could use the ECB on items I needed and donate the meter to GodTel. There is a red price scanner at the front of the store. Scan your CVS card there and it will print out coupons for you. Usually, you can scan it twice. Sign up on their website at
www.cvs.com and they will e-mail you coupons for $5 off of $15, $10 off of $30, etc. Sometimes they send coupons for free items like handsoap, paper towels, etc. I once got a coupon for a free green bag tag that they sell for $0.99 in the store. You attach it to any reuseable bag and have them scan it when you check out. Every 4th time they scan it, you get $1 ECB.
Target - Target has coupons posted on their website and occasionally printed in the Sunday newspaper. They will take one Target coupon and one manufacturer coupon per item. (Look at the top of the coupon to see if it says Target coupon or manufacturer coupon.) Also, they will price match competitors stores such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. This Christmas I got my cousin a game that was regularly price at $24.99, price matched it with the K-Mart ad(take it to customer service desk) for $19.99, used a $10 coupon I found on the Internet, and a $5 Target coupon, making the game $4.99.
Staples - Every week they have items that are free or $1 after rebate. Some are instant rebates in the store and some are mail-in rebates. The mail-in rebates you can do by mail or on the Internet. They are usually pretty fast about sending the rebates. You can also sign-up for a Rewards Card and get $3 in Staples Rewards for every ink cartridge(any brand) that you recycle. Whatever you take in one month, you get the rewards for the next. For the last two months they have had items that were free after Staples Rewards. Last month it was Duracell batteries. You could get two packages a week, and they will send rewards this month for the total amount you paid. I stocked up on batteries for all the Christmas electronic gifts, and will use the rewards toward ink for my printer which I would have purchased anyway. At the beginning of school, they had 10-packs of pencils for a penny, spiral notebooks for a penny, notebook paper for a penny, etc. Their sales flyer is posted on their website
www.staples.com and some weeks they have a sneak peek for the following week posted as well.
At CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger, you can use two coupons on buy one, get one free items (called BOGO on message boards). I get free razors, shampoo, conditioner, vitamins, etc. this way all the time.
Another tip is that if a coupon reads good on ANY size and does not exclude the trial size (check the fine print) you can use it on the travel sizes(contact solution, Band-Aids, Neosporin, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, lint rollers, etc.)and get it free in most cases. I don't mind using the smaller sizes as long as it's free! I do this occasionally when I have coupons that are about to expire and there aren't any good sales going on for the full size items.
Hope this helps! If you have any more questions, let me know.
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