Saving Money with Coupons

If you don’t use coupons to save on money, then you need to start right away! You will be amazed at how much you can save in a year. I was reading this girls story the other day in her blog post and it made me realize that I need to be clipping and couponing my way to that type of goal. She spends less than 75 dollars a month on a family of 5. (I spend that much or more in a week on just my boyfriend and I, which seems ridiculous) And this isn’t just pre-packaged boxed meals — It’s organic, meat, vegetables, beauty products, toilet paper, household cleaners – you name it, everything!

I honestly, never used to bother with coupons because of some of the customer service workers denying them and embarrassing the hell out of me, like I was stealing or being a fraud to their company. But, last week I used about 9 coupons which saved me $12.00 on my grocery bill, and I was really happy about that (so was my boyfriend). It’s not that much to the major coupon-ers of the world, but to me that was an awesome start!

One of the coupon sites I use that allows you to pre-load coupons onto your grocery card is Cellfire. They usually only have exclusive coupons for their members that you won’t find on any other sites. And since Safeway is close to me, that’s the one I use.

Coupon Sites:

• Coupons.com check them weekly for new coupons. Always has something new on there!
  
• RedPlum
• Cellfire – You can add coupons right to the stores grocery savings card. Stores Cellfire currently works with: Baker’s, City Market, Dillons, Fry’s, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC, King Soopers, Kroger, Owen’s, Pay Less, QFC, Ralphs, Scott’s, Smith’s, Carrs, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pavilions, Randall’s, Safeway, Tom Thumb, Vons, ShopRite.
• Cool Savings
• Sunday Coupon Preview – Shows you all the coupons that will be released in the Sunday paper.
• Favado Savings App – This app is cool since it shows you all the sales and deals, as well as what coupons you can find to stack with these deals. I just downloaded it and haven’t gotten around to looking too much into it but I have a feeling it will be one of my top savings apps I visit!
• Grocery Coupon Network

As you can see, there’s plenty of sites that you can download your coupons from that sometimes can be stacked with the newspaper coupons for additional savings; like Target for instance!

Online Coupon Tips: 

1. I recommend only printing in black ink, which you can configure in your printer settings. This will save you money on ink costs if you’re not using a laserjet printer.
2. Make sure you have print preview setup before printing the coupon(s). Some companies put full images on their coupon sheets, and you will know before-hand whether or not you can cancel it right after the actual coupon prints. That way you save on ink and paper, which you can re-use if it’s big enough to not get jammed in your printer.
3. Once you print a coupon, hit the back button and you should be able to print it twice.
4. Do not photocopy your coupons, that is considered fraud.
5. Do not print coupons for free products you can buy at a brick&mortar store. They will not accept free printable coupons, and you would just be wasting your ink and paper.
6. Make sure to bring a print out copy of the coupon policy of the store you will be shopping at. Most cashiers are not familiar with their own policies and tend to make up their own on the spot. The only people that can do this are the managers, if they so choose. (I just had my very own experience with this the other day.)

All of this may seem like a hassle to the un-frugal, but to me its worth it to save that extra money that I could be spending elsewhere.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope I at least helped in someway, whether it be with coupons, or finding something free for you to enjoy without spending a dime!

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