People Baby: February 2011

I am VERY new at couponing, but I've learned a lot in the 2 months we've been doing it. Here is a run-down.

Basic Concept: Collect coupons -> Read store flyers -> Match coupons with sales = Cheap or free stuff.

Where To Get Coupons:
Newspaper
Magazines
Internet
Grocery Store Isles
In-Store booklets
Store flyers

Newspapers:
Rural areas don't get all the inserts, so figure out what paper near you gets everything and then purchase that paper at a stand or by subscription when you want all the coupons for that week. We don't get any papers, we collect relative's papers that are willing to let us claim their inserts. We buy extras at a gas station when there are good inserts.

-> Inserts: P&G Saver, Smart Source, Red Plum (Red Plum is the one that isn't in all the papers)

Magazines: Parents magazine has amazon.com coupons towards diapers. Sometimes $10 off, sometimes 20%. You can stack multiple discounts together from different months and get good deals. The main magazine for coupons is All You. It has tons of coupons every month and money-saving is one of their main focus for content. It's one of the few magazines that I subscribe to because it has good information and isn't just a bunch of expensive clothing ads. Once in a while you'll find coupons in another magazine, but those are the main ones.

Internet: There are three, well make that four, basic ways to get internet coupons. The coupon lingo is "IP" (Internet Printable).

-> Product Websites: Go to a product website. Look at the buttons at the top and bottom (don't miss big glaring promotion buttons either!) for a button titled "Promotions", "Coupons", or "Offers". Click those and you'll see what they are offering you directly. Sometimes there will be one, sometimes a dozen coupons.

-> Facebook "Like": Certain product pages on Facebook will give you a coupon if you click Like. You will get tips to these pages through coupon blogs (more on those later).

-> Newsletters: Sign up for the newsletters from product/company sites and they will often send you coupons right your email. I keep a coupon email address to use JUST for my coupon news.

-> Coupon website: There is ONE main coupon website. There are a coupon other small ones, but only one HUGE one. There are a bunch of other websites that will claim to give you a ton of coupons but they really just want your email and then send you junk and they just route you through their site to the main coupon site. The ONE real coupon site is: www.coupons.com. Just go straight there and get your coupons.

-> Grocery Store Isles: When you go to stores like Albertsons and Safeway, glance down each isle for tear-pad coupons, blinking boxes with coupons, and automatic coupon dispensers. We have found they often match with a sale at a DIFFERENT store then you find them in.
---> PEELIES: These are coupons stuck to actual products. We've recently found them on Tilex, Pillsbury brownies, and Rightguard Bodywash. DO NOT steal them off of a product you're not buying. But you can definitely choose the ones with peelies to help with your deals. We got free rightguard this week by using the peelies on the bottles at check out on top of a the sale. Also, CHECK THE EXPIRATION DATES! You can usually sneak a peek without ruining the coupon. I've found they are often past date.

-> In-Store Booklets: Drugstores and grocery stores often have in-store booklets to promote items. In-store or even manufacture coupons abound in these! Example: Safeway had a book out for Football Sunday and it had a ton of coupons in it. We got free Chex mix at Walgreens, cheap pringles, mayo, etc. These will be located in the standee with the store flyer at the entrance, or you can ask at customer service if they're out up front. You'll know when you check by watching your blogs.

-> Store Flyers: Your drugstores and grocery stores put out a flyer every week profiling their sales or promoted items. These will be your key to matching up for awesome sales. There will be a bunch in the Sunday paper and there are several in the wednesday free paper. However, if you wait to get your Riteaid and Walgreens flyers on Wednesday you */99risk free items being gone because Sunday paper people got their flyer the previous Sunday. The store flyer will tell you about bundle deals, in-store coupons, etc. Walgreens, Safeway, Albertsons, and Riteaid often have in-store coupons in their flyers. You may need more than one copy of the flyer to get your stock-ups on a really good deal.

So, you've got your coupons, you've got your store flyers, now what? Look at your flyers and see what coupons match the sales. Be sure to pay attention to sizes and weights on the items and whether the amount on the coupon is for 1 item or 2 or 3. Sometimes I think I've found a free thing and it turns out it is $1 off THREE items or only works for a 10 oz. or larger item, etc. Also, watch your expiration dates. They often expire on Saturday and more than once the item has gone on the sale the Sunday after.

Organizing: Some people use a recipe box or file box. Some people bring only the coupons they are planning to use into the store. Those don't make sense to us. We do the Coupon Binder (or as Norman calls it, coupon bible). I have a zipper binder and it's filled with photo album pages that each hold three 4x6 photos. Instead of photos, each pocket has a white piece of paper in it and coupons on either side. We have white labels folded in half on the edge of each page with the content of that section and then a pocket page for each store to hold that store's flyer for the week. We also keep a small pair of scissors in the binder.

Coupon Stacking: This is when you use a store coupon AND a manufacturers coupon on the SAME item. Usually you find the store coupon in a store flyer, store booklet, or store website. Sometimes a store will have a manufacturer's coupon on their flyer, so make sure you read them carefully.

Doublers: I have used them at Albertson's. Can't give advice for anywhere else. A doubler is a coupon a store gives that doubles the amount of a manufacture's coupon. These can make for free deals. At Albertson's you can only use three in a transaction and they come in numbered sets of three and you have to have one or less of each number. You can use a 1,2,3, a 1,3, but not a 3,3. You can use Internet coupons, but only one for the same item in each transaction. So, if you buy two bottles of coffee creamer you have to buy them in two transactions in order to use two printed coupons. Internet coupons have different bar-codes on them, so it doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is.

Previews: To get the best deals and be most organized, preview RiteAid and Walgreens before Sunday so you know what coupons you want and can have everything together. The sites to find the previews on are listed in the resources at the end of the post.

RiteAid: You can run amazing deals at Riteaid. Sign up for the Wellness Card. They have their sales set up to maximize couponing. In addition to crazy sales they also do +Ups, which is store money that prints at the end of your receipt when you purchase certain items. DON'T THROW THEM AWAY. They do expire so pay attention to that and make sure you use them in your next trip (or transaction).

Often, you can find items that are on sale, have a store coupon, a manufacture's coupon, and +Ups. These can end up FREE or actually MAKE MONEY. They don't give you money to take home (at least mine doesn't), so make sure you have enough items in your transaction to soak up the extra.

RiteAid also has Video Values coupons. You go to the RiteAid website, click on Video Values, sign up for that website, then watch videos, enter a code, and print coupons that are good only at RiteAid. These are awesome because you can STACK them with manufacture's coupons.

I have been buying cheap make-up by using their +Ups when-you-buy deal. They will have it in the flyer what deals like this are on for the week. There will be a yellow box around some items and it will tell you "$3 +Up when you spend $10" or whatever amounts. They've been doing buy-1-get-one-%50 off on make-up, then get $5 +Up when you spend $20. Combine that with a coupon on each item and you'll end up with 4 or 6 items of make-up for about $8. Another recent deal was buy X of X-brand, get X +Ups, and one of the items was ice cream. The icecream was pay $3, get $2 +Up. By the end of it you bought 6 half-gallons for $17.94 and got $17 in +Ups back on your receipt. SO, that works out to $.16 for half-gallon. WHOA. Yeah, awesome!

The last thing for Riteaid is Rebates. We haven't done them yet. They have a new set every month and they are listed in a flyer you get at the front of the store. Certain items can give you a rebate when you buy them. You just register online and put in info off your receipt and you'll get one check at the end of the month (if I understand correctly) for all the rebate items you bought. You DO have to put in the effort to enter the info on the site, but that's it. Again, combine this with coupons and sales and you'll be looking at some cheap/free deals.

Walgreens: No card to sign up for. Instead of +Ups they have RegisterRewards. They print at the end of your receipt just like +Ups. If you make two purchases that qualify for RR, do them in two transactions or you won't get the 2nd RR. They also have a weird thing where you have to have the same amount of items as you do paper coupons you're handing them. So, you can stack two on one item, but you have to throw in a pack of gum or something to have the same amount of items as coupons. Also, you can't use more than one of the same store coupon in one transaction. Plan to run multiple transactions for most trips.

Safeway: E-COUPONS! Sign up for the store card, register on the site, and load all the coupons onto your card. They will automatically apply when you buy the item in your store! No paper to carry! They will stack store coupons with manufacturer ones. They have some good coupons in their flyer, usually they require a $10 purchase, but that's not hard to get.

FAQ:
When will you see results in your budget? They say it takes a good 5 months to really reap the benefits of couponing and stocking up. We've noticed a difference already, after only 2 months.

Where are the best deals? For groceries, Albertson's is best on doublers week. Otherwise, you'll find deals really cheap at Safeway also. We don't have a lot of the main coupon grocery stores where I live, so that's about it. Look for blogs written for your area and you'll quickly figure out where the hot-spots are.
For drugstore items, Walgreens and Riteaid are awesome. My favorite is Riteaid, but Norman really like Walgreens. You favorite will just depend on your local store's coupon policies and employees.

It's SO overwhelming, how do I start? I started at Riteaid. Then graduated into groceries. Start small and do some small transactions to build confidence and get a feel for the process. If possible, follow a couponing mentor the first trip or two. Read some blogs, but not so many you're completely discouraged. I suggest easing in with one or two deals at Riteaid early in the week so you can go back again for more deals if you get hooked (you will). Look at the Riteaid blog or any blog that follows Riteaid and watch for a deal that works out free or $1 or so. Pick one that uses a coupon you can print or have in your binder. Go in and get just that thing and do the transaction. Once you're successful it's easier to go from there. You might even want to do a scouting trip; just walk around the store, get a feel for where things are, what the signs for +Ups look like, etc. Carry the flyer around and get familiar. Practice matching up the coupons with the sales. No one will look at you weird, I do it all the time.
I think the big thing is just be as prepared as you can be and you'll be more confident. Look up the store policy for each store so you know what to expect in how they handle coupons. It's a good idea to print the policy for each store and keep it in your binder. Employees don't always know the policy.

Resources: (You will collect many more)

Coupon-Producing Newsletters to sign up for:
7th Generation
Friskies
Lysol
Arm & Hammer
Wendy's
Kellogg's

Websites to Register On:
RiteAid
Safeway
VideoValues
CouponMom

Coupons:
Coupons.com
RedPlum
SmartSource

Blogs:
IHeartRiteAid
IHeartWalgreens
KrazyCouponLady
AddictedToSavings
FabuLesslyFrugal
CouponDivas
HappyMoneySaver
ThriftyNWMom
Hip2Save
GoodDealMama
JessicasCoupons
PennyPincherGazette
CouponConnectionsNW
MomAndDadSaves
FreeSnatcher
TheFrugalLifeOfAMom
MyFrugalAdventures

Those blogs will give you links to tons others. There are so many good ones! Enjoy!

Desmond Update:
Desmond can now crawl just fine, but doesn't like it much and is working hard on learning to walk. He pulls up on everything and everyone. He isn't fully cruising yet, but getting close. He is also learning to drink from a cup and a sippy cup. I am feeding him baby-food twice a day up from once a day and he's starting to nurse less. I am sad about that because I'll miss having the special time together, but I told him yesterday we'll just have to start a different ritual that we do together like reading books or something. He seemed to think that was a good idea.

Des is a super happy little guy, he gives lots of smiles and loves having his favorite people around. My friend Michelle is one of his new favorite people and he thinks she is hilarious. He is also quite a daddy's boy and when Norman has a day off work Desmond wants to play with him all day and be held by him and I don't get to hold him much, lol.

Desmond's favorite things include taking long showers with daddy until the hot water runs out, watching dogs play fetch and watching Elmo's world. And sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed.

Desmond now has two teeth, the 2nd is just finishing coming through and we aren't getting a lot of sleep. The 2nd tooth came through much faster than the first so hopefully they'll get easier and easier because I haven't gotten to recover my sleep yet from the first one.

The funniest thing Desmond has started doing is that he uses his exer-saucer as a playhouse. We have it in his playpen and he plays on the floor in there. He will then take toys or baskets and crawl into the base of the saucer and play with his toys with his head up through the seat hole. He crawls in and out and changes toys and bangs them on the legs of the saucer. Last night his basket wasn't behaving and he got very mad and screamed at it and threw it out of the saucer-fort. It was so funny, I wish I'd gotten it on video.

Couponing:
Our couponing is going well. Norman has really taken to it and this last week he pretty much took over, which is okay because I'm tired from all the teething. So far we've hit Albertson's, Walmart, Walgreens, and Riteaid. Our favorite is Riteaid. We have quite the inventory building up in the back of the laundry room. It definitely is comforting to have all that stockpile. We only have to buy fresh produce and tortillas with our check on Friday! We've gotten several things for free and have been able to buy a few things that we just made do without before.

Finding Me:
I have been exercising on the treadmill and stability ball and I feel better about myself even though I don't know if I look any different. Michelle did my nails and I'm learning to do make up from her and trying to learn how to do more with my hair. I don't want to be one of those mom's that gets all frumpy and frazzled looking. I feel like I've found my niche as a mom and I want to embrace that and look like I belong here, too. If I've lost any weight it's only like a pound or two. But my thing is to just be healthy and more fit and hopefully some weight will fall off eventually, but I just want to be able to keep up with Desmond as he learns to walk and have energy to play with him AND get everything else done that I already do.

You Know You're A Parent When:
You carry baby-food to Taco Bell.
Your back seat is full of baby stuff instead of saddles and bridles.
You find yourself trying to rationalize the logistic errors of kids shows.
You can name all the characters on Sesame Street.
You catch your husband whistling the theme song to Elmo's World.
You can routinely function on 3 hours of sleep.

People Baby

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Couponing: A Newb's Guide To Couponing

Where Did February Go?

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Couponing and Teething - My Life Now?