The Deals: 2011

First let’s talk about the most important part of couponing, the coupons.

Organization

• Some people keep the inserts intact and file them by date (SS 12/4, V 12/11, P&G 1/6, etc.) This system saves a great deal of time initially, but getting ready for shopping is more of a chore. You have to cut the coupons that you need at that time.
• Others clip all of the coupons from the beginning, and file them in various ways. The most popular is the "binder method": some form of 3 ring, zipable binder with baseball card and other inserts.
• I use a small reusable shopping bag and organize my coupons by usage ie: household cleaners, hair care… and place them in envelopes. I am able to remember what coupons I have by reviewing them when I clip them. I have tried the other 2 methods and this works for me.
• Make sure that you go through your coupons and weed out your expired coupons at least once a month! This prevents the task from becoming overwhelming, and prevents embarrassment at the store if you try to use an expired coupon.

Rainchecks

Sometimes you have prepared yourself, gone to the store, and they are out of what you want. Rainchecks are the solution: they give you the sale price on the item when it is back on the shelf, even when the sale is over. You may have anywhere from 2 weeks to a year to get that price, depending on the expiration date of the raincheck. (Some stores' rainchecks never expire!) By that time, you may have newer and better coupons! I ALWAYS ask for a lot when I get a raincheck. So you know that you want 1 of the item, ask for 10. It doesn’t mean you have to purchase 10 but if a great coupon comes out later and you can get the item free or almost free then you will be glad that you got more than 1.

Price Book

• Creating a price book- A price book is a list of the best prices on the items that you shop for on a regular basis.
There are many schools of thought on price books. Some people swear by them, but I am not one of those people. They are a colossal amount of work to create and maintain. I tried to start one, and gave up very quickly. Prices change too fast for a price book to be useful to me. After a short while, you begin to know what is a good deal just by looking at the shelf tags, but if you are one of those people that just doesn’t know how much things cost this might be beneficial to you. Another thing to remember is that sale’s go in cycles, if you miss a sale it is more than likely going to come around again in 3 months or less, so no need to fret too much.

Informative Websites

There are several websites that I go to on a regular basis.

The first one is www.hotcouponworld.com. This is a great website. It has every store and most stores have the ads for future weeks, usually at least a month in advance. So it makes it nice to plan ahead and order coupons that you will need for a great sale.

Another website is www.slickdeals.net. This website is a little bit harder to navigate, but the ladies on this website find the BEST deals. They also have every store and the ads for future weeks.

For individual stores I frequent, www.iheartcvs.com , www.iheartwags.com , www.totallytarget.com and www.iheartkroger.com They have future ads on them, scenarios and coupon match-ups.

I also follow a couple blogs that have random deals as well as some store deals. www.hip2save.com , www.dealwisemommy.net , www.moneysavingmom.com and thekrazycouponlady.com

Coupon Preview

In order to check future coupons that are going to be in the Redplum, Smartsource and P & G, I go to www.taylortownpreview.com , I also use this list to organize my coupons once I have them. I leave my coupon sheets whole and file them by week. I just copy the list from taylor town and edit it to match my coupons and mark of the coupons that I have already clipped. This way I always know what I have.

Where can I buy coupons?

Various places on the internet such as:
(entire inserts for sale at dede's)

www.couponsthingsbydede.com
www.ebay.com
www.thecouponclippers.com
www.thecouponmaster.com
www.madcoupons.net

Where can I print free coupons?

Various places on the internet such as:
www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.couponmom.com
www.redplum.com
www.couponbug.com
http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/pinkhntr
https://www.mypoints.com/emp/u/welcome/completeRegistration.vm?s=q4yGRwxjgFtN8pxRRyixPzBdgwsX

If I am looking to see if a specific item has a coupon out I will do a google search and check their website. If I still can’t find anything I will go to hotcouponworld and slickdeals since they generally keep a list of all printable coupons along with a link.

Load coupons on my shopper’s card

www.shortcuts.com – you enter in your shopper’s card for various stores and load coupons right to your card. So all you do is use your shopper’s card when shopping at the specified store and the coupon amount will automatically be deducted at the checkout. The good thing about these coupons are that you can also use a paper manufacturer coupon on the same item.
www.cellfire.com – this is like shortcuts, but if there is a coupon on cellfire that is also on shortcuts, you can load them both and use them both on the same item, so it makes it nice to stack these coupons. The only draw back to these coupons is that you can only use them once.
www.smithsfoodanddrug.com – this is similar to the others.
www.upromise.com – these coupons are a little bit different, but still helpful. You load coupons on your shopper’s card but instead of taking the coupon amount off of your total it that’s the amount of the coupon and adds it to your upromise account, however you can use them in conjunction with shortcuts, cellfire and manufacturer coupons.

Newspaper’s

Since the price of newspapers went up and the dollar store doesn’t carry them for a dollar on Sunday’s anymore, I stopped buying the paper. I now pay a monthly service fee to Madcoupons.net and receive 10 of each insert every week which is $10.50 a week.

This is a projected coupon schedule for 2011. It is not always completely accurate, although it gives you a general idea of what inserts to expect each week.

January
1/2: (2) Smart Source (2) Red Plum and General Mill
1/9: Smart Source and Red Plum
1/16: Smart Source, Red Plum and Proctor & Gamble
1/23: Smart Source and Red Plum
1/30: Smart Source and Red Plum

February
2/6: Smart Source
2/13: No Inserts scheduled (Valentine’s Day)
2/20: Smart Source, General Mills and Procter & Gamble
2/27: Smart Source and Red Plum

March
3/6: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
3/13: Smart Source and Red Plum
3/20: Smart Source and Red Plum
3/27: (2) Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

April
4/3: No Inserts scheduled (Easter) Another Source Reporting (2) SmartSource
4/10: Smart Source and Red Plum
4/17: Smart Source and Red Plum
4/24: Smart Source and Red Plum

May
5/1: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
5/8: Smart Source and Red Plum
5/15: (2) Smart Source and Red Plum
5/22: Smart Source and Red Plum
5/29: No Inserts scheduled (Memorial Day)

June
6/5: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
6/12: Smart Source
6/19: Smart Source and Red Plum
6/26: Smart Source and Red Plum

July
7/3: No Inserts scheduled (Independence Day)
7/10: Smart Source and Red Plum
7/17: Smart Source
7/24: Smart Source and Red Plum
7/31: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

August
8/7: Smart Source and Red Plum
8/14: Smart Source and Red Plum
8/21: Smart Source and Red Plum
8/28: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble

September
9/4: No Inserts scheduled (Labor Day)
9/11: Smart Source and (2) Red Plum
9/18: Smart Source and Red Plum
9/25: Smart Source and Red Plum

October
10/2: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
10/9: Smart Source and Red Plum
10/16: Smart Source and Red Plum
10/23: Smart Source and Red Plum
10/30: Smart Source and Red Plum

November
11/6: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
11/13 Smart Source and Red Plum
11/20: Smart Source and Red Plum
11/27: No Inserts scheduled (Thanksgiving)

December
12/4: Smart Source, Red Plum and Procter & Gamble
12/11: Smart Source and Red Plum
12/18: No Inserts scheduled (Christmas)
12/25: Procter & Gamble

Daily Deal Websites

http://dealpulp.com/i/dsdgkafp
www.specialdeals.com
www.tanga.com
http://eversave.com/share/pjO7
www.dailysteals.com
http://www.gaggleofchicks.com/r/17267
https://www.plumdistrict.com/?ref=u436fc147df1
http://www.nomorerack.com/?cr=23925

Online Shopping

Whenever I shop online I always go through 1 of 2 websites in order to earn cash back. I usually check them both to see which site offers the higher percentage per dollar.

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=XqdS0z%2B1GaRPPQBEJnh%2F8Q%3D%3D
http://www.shopathome.com/?IAFCG=syf/YmRj8arBJfX5597U+w==

Both of these sites send out quarterly checks once your account balance is over a certain amount.

I also always check www.retailmenot.com when shopping online to find a promotional code.

A couple of other things that I do are use http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/pinkhntr for doing online searches and also for printing coupons. You earn points that you can use to purchase gift cards with. I usually purchase Amazon gift cards.

I also use https://www.mypoints.com/emp/u/welcome/completeRegistration.vm?s=q4yGRwxjgFtN8pxRRyixPzBdgwsX to print coupons and to make some purchases. You can purchase gift cards with your points.

CVS For Newbies

(thanks www.iheartcvs.com)

First, get your CVS ExtraCare card

Ask a cashier for a card/application, or sign up online. if you're excited to get started, ask for it at the store. Otherwise you'll have to wait for the card to arrive in the mail.

If you don't like the idea of giving CVSyour name, address, phone #, etc - it is possible to use a card without "registering" it. Sometimes a CVS store will set up a table with cards and applications. If you just take one of the cards and neglect to fill out the form, it can still be used.

You’ll need to have your card scanned for each of your purchases.
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next, start earning ecb (Extracarebucks)

ecb are earned through promotions, such as “Buy XX, receive $YY in ecb.” you will see these promotions in the weekly ads or shelf tags. The ecb print at the end of your receipt - clip them and keep them as carefully as you would cash.
• The required amount to receive the eb is always calculated before coupons.
• You do not have to buy all the products for that particular promotion in the same transaction or at the same store. a tally is printed on each receipt showing what you have towards each deal...
• ecb can be used to purchase nearly anything in the store. (excluding prescriptions, alcohol, Gift Cards, lottery, money orders, postage stamps, pre-paid cards and tobacco products, as printed on the ecb.) they also cannot be used to pay the tax on a transaction.
• You cannot get change back when you spend your ecb's. however, they can be entered as less than their face value, for example if your total (before tax) comes to $1.97 and you have an eb for $1.99 that you would like to use, and you don't mind losing 2 cents of its value. the cashier will adjust the value to the balance due before tax.
• ecb expire 4 weeks from the date they are printed.
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using coupons @ CVS

• CVS accepts manufacturer's coupons, including ip (internet printable) coupons. CVS also issues their own store coupons. You can get these through CVS emails and printed out at the end of your receipt (these are referred to as CRT's - cash register tape). log into your cvs account to make sure you are subscribed to their emails or subscribe here.
• Both ecb and CRT coupons are linked to your CVS card, which means you cannot use them without the same CVS card that earned them.

• Most of the emailed CVS coupons for specific items (like $1 off gatorade) can be used with any CVS card. However the $$/$$ coupons (like $3 off $15 purchase) are activated only on the cards they were issued to. If cvs did not send it to you, it will beep when scanned and the cashier will receive a message that the coupon was not issued to your card. read the CVS coupon guide for more info.
• CVS coupon policy allows for the use of one manufacturer and one CVS coupon on each item. ecb are not counted as coupons in this respect, you may use as many of these as you like.
• Also, the first thing I do when I get to CVS is scan my shopper card at the price scanner, it will print out any coupons associated with your card. It will also print quarterly ecb's that you earn for shopping at CVS. I always scan my card first because sometimes you will get a coupon for something you were planning to buy and since CVS coupons and Manufacturer coupons can be used in conjunction with each other just more money in my pocket.

Read more: i heart CVS: CVS for newbies http://www.iheartcvs.com/2008/03/cvs-for-newbies.html#ixzz1BK2KFpZn

Wags For Newbies
(thanks www.iheartwags.com)

♥ Register Rewards (RR) ♥

register rewards (RR) are coupons from the Catalina machine that print after you make a qualifying purchase. RRs are savings which can be used "like cash" on your next order. (Sometimes you may receive a Catalina for $ off a particular item or an advertisement for an rr deal.)
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♥ how can i get rr? ♥

buy the exact items advertised to receive rr. using coupons on these items should not affect whether your rr prints. unfortunately, it seems that a few stores have their registers programmed so that rr will not print if coupons are used - but if this is true, it is very rare.

If you complete more than one register rewards deal in one transaction, one reward for each different RR deal should print. but you will not receive more than one rr for the same deal.

if you purchased the right items and didn't get rr, you can return the items on the spot or call the catalina company @ 888-322-3814. have your receipt in front of you, they need some info from it, and they'll be able to see if the machine was working and if you bought the right products. It does tend to take a few minutes for the call, and then you have to wait to get the RR, which takes 6 - 8 weeks.
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♥ how can i use rr? ♥

Generally, you can use your rr like cash on your next purchase. But of course there are exceptions.

Most RRs explicitly say that they can not be used on tobacco, alcohol, tax, lottery tickets, money orders, stamps, dairy, or any gift cards or pre-paid cards. However, some stores still allow rr's to be used on some of these items, so your market may vary (ymmv).

As stated in the fine print, you cannot use more RRs and manufacturer coupons than number of items you are buying. As long as you are buying as many items as you have rr & manufacturer coupons, you should be able to use more than one rr. Store coupons do not affect how many manufacturer and rr's you can use.

You cannot "roll" rr's into the same deal 99% of the time. For example, if you use an RR from Kellogg's to purchase more Kellogg's items; you will NOT get another RR. The best way to "roll" is to use your Kelloggs RR to complete a different rr deal. You can then use the RRs from the 2nd deal, to purchase more Kelloggs.
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♥ how can i use coupons? ♥

If you are using a manufacturer's coupon and a wags coupon on the same item and hoping for overage towards your other items, give the manufacturer's coupon first. A manufacturer's coupon will be rejected by the register if it is over the cost of the item, but a wags coupon will go through.

For example:
the incorrect order...
deodorant $1.99
-$1 in-ad coupon (wags coupon)
=$.99
-$1 manufacturer's coupon - will beep and register will not accept it because it is over $.99!

But if you give the cashier the manufacturer's coupon 1st...
deodorant $1.99
-$1 manufacturer's coupon
=$.99
-$1 in-ad coupon (wags coupon) - will not beep
=-$.01 (of course you will need another item or tax on your transaction for the penny to apply to)

the registers will not accept more manufacturer coupons/rr than items. So if want to use rr, but already have a manufacturer's coupon for each item, you can add a small "filler" item for each rr. Use the cheapest items you can find (single pencils are good.)

Read more: i heart wags: wags for newbies http://www.iheartwags.com/2008/09/wags-for-newbies.html#ixzz1BK3KV7GM

The Deals

Monday, January 24, 2011

It's a New Shopping Week 1/23 - 1/29

Monday, January 17, 2011

Coupons 101