Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September Savings Series: Part 2

Part two of the September Savings Series is all about Online Couponing. The easiest way to begin online couponing is by going to www.coupons.com. It's easy to remember ("Where did she say I should go for online coupons? Oh yeah! Coupons.com!") and it's a website that's easy to use.

With this website, and others like it, what you are really doing is printing out manufacturers coupons that you can clip and take to the store. Just like other coupons in the newspaper they all have an expiration date, they are for the specific product/s listed and they are for well known products.

HINT: When you print online coupons you can almost always go through the process twice, gaining double the savings! What "double the savings" means is that you will end up with two coupons that you can use on two products. You can't use more than one manufacturer coupon per item. But if you think the coupon is of good value it is also of good value to stock up on the item, the savings are even greater if paired with a sale or stacked with a store coupon. NOTE: It is okay to use one store coupon and one manufacturer coupon on the same item.

How to use www.coupons.com

Step 1: Click on the link or copy and paste to your browser.

Step 2: Enter your zip code in the top left hand corner. You can try your own zip code, or the zip code 90210 (also easy to remember if you've heard of the show 90210) to sometimes find different coupons or the same coupons with a higher value.

Step 3: "Clip" the coupons you would like by simply clicking on the box on each coupon.

Step 4: Page through. You can page through the coupons without printing on each page. It's better to go through all the pages and click on each coupon that you want to print as you go, then print at the very end. Otherwise you could end up wasting alot paper (which wastes money ultimately).

Step 5: Printing. Make sure that your printer is on, loaded with paper and ready to go. (To even save on printer ink you can set your printer ahead time to print only in black ink).

Step 6: Clip your coupons. They don't have to be perfect just make sure that the bar codes and expiration date and product details are still visible. The main reason for clipping is so that no two coupons are attatched to each other. Feel free to leave all the margins that you want.

Step 7: Take them to the store and start saving! If you have any questions about how each store uses coupons ask a sales associate or manager as soon as you enter the store so there won't be any confusion while you're shopping. You can also look at each stores website and print off there coupon policies for more information.


Other websites that offer printable online coupons:
www.target.com
www.riteaid.com offers what they call "Video Values" where you watch a short video about the product, usually the length of a tv commercial and then earn the rights to print a coupon for that product.
Gerber and Beech Nut baby food websites offer a variety of coupons.
You can also search any of the products you use in your household and sign up for their monthly emails or newsletters that often contain coupons. Chili's and Pizza Hut are just two of the many restaurants that email you coupons for free appetizers or desserts when you sign up for their emails.

So instead of reading that 14th post about what your friend ate for breakfast lunch and dinner, start looking for a coupon to save them some cold hard cash at their favorite restaurants. K.

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