Many companies mail out FREE product coupons around your birthday. Sign up for newsletters of companies that you like.
They send out emails with free samples which usually include coupons and also printable coupons. Request as many free samples as you can as well! Start here and then work your way through your cupboards and see what foods you love! I did this when I first started eating gluten-free. When I updated this post, I did want to respond to a lot of the comments where my readers shared concerns about difficulty in getting free coupons by mail.
Some of my great audience did respond that surveys or coupons helped them to get an inexpensive printer within a couple weeks, and the printer has more than paid for itself!
What a great suggestion! Plus, since you always have your coupon collection on you when shopping, you can add to your shopping list on the fly if you spot an unadvertised sale. Cheaper, smaller books generally have 80 to pockets. For shorter trips, expandable file folders are a more lightweight coupon organization choice.
The main downside of smaller coupon binders is that you have to leave more coupons at home, so you have less couponing flexibility when shopping. For the best of both worlds, simply carry a larger coupon binder in a backpack while you shop.
Finally, for the cheapest solution, consider going DIY. For starters, you can always save printable coupons as PDF files on your computer and print them when you need to. Just remember to check for expiration dates to avoid wasting ink on expired coupons. However, if you want to save money by avoiding printing altogether, SnipSnap is a better choice. The SnipSnap app acts as a digital coupon organizer on your smartphone.
It also saves you the pain of tracking expiration dates. The only downside is that for massive hauls, finding and scanning dozens of coupons from your phone can take slightly longer than handing over a stack of paper coupons.
For your first shopping trip as an extreme couponer, pursue only one deal. Keep it simple and get comfortable at the register. But there are a few things you have to do to prepare, which become even more critical as you increase the number of deals you grab in a trip. Check them periodically for changes. Often, cashiers are unaware of policy changes, so they might let you use your coupons today, but a different cashier may reject them tomorrow. Some look the other way on expired coupons.
It also pays to make friends with a store manager and some staff members, who may be more willing to work with a customer they know to stay within store policy.
But part of setting these limits requires gaining experience as an extreme couponer. For example, many extreme couponers never pay for toothpaste, razors, deodorant, body wash, or shampoo because coupons can knock the cost down to nothing. Ultimately, you still need to make a budget and shop for things you need at the right prices. Now for the most crucial money-saver: coupon stacking. The goal of coupon stacking is to use as many coupons and perks as possible to save as much as you can.
Extreme couponers typically start coupon stacking by using manufacturer coupons on products that are already on sale. By doing so, you can score even heavier discounts on products that are already cheaper than usual. To go one step further, try stacking store coupons with manufacturer coupons. Store coupons are discounts retailers offer to incentivize customers to shop at their locations.
Sometimes, you can even use coupon stacking to score free products, especially if you find a BOGO deal. You can use store loyalty programs and rebate apps to stack additional savings.
For the final form of coupon stacking, shop with discount gift cards. Websites like Raise help people sell their unwanted gift cards at a slight discount. For example, Raise has Kroger gift cards for up to 3.
Raise also has gift cards for stores like Hannaford, Meijers, and Winn-Dixie, although gift card availability depends on supply and demand. I have mixed feeling about using a lot of coupons.
They certainly can save you money and I use them myself. However, I think there are a lot of pitfalls. The companies that issue these coupons are not in the charity business. They issue coupons because they know that in the aggregate, they will gain more in profits in the long run than they they lose on the coupons. It's easy to get hooked on products of all sorts and the manufacturers and retailers know that when that happens, your recurring business might be worth 10x or even x the cost of the coupon.
Buyer beware! You are correct--businesses need to make a profit. If you have a lot of discipline though, then you can use coupons to your own advantage i.
Now that we have a huge basement, I've been thinking about building a stockpile. The following two tabs change content below. Bio Latest Posts. Amanda L. Over the last 10 years, her money work helping people with how to save money and how to manage money has been featured in Kiplinger, Washington Post, U.
Read more here. Latest posts by Amanda L Grossman see all. Click here to cancel reply. We buy multiple units so that we have enough to use until the next time it goes on sale again. In this buying pattern — of buying low, waiting, and buying low again — you never have to pay full price for common household essentials. Manufacturer Coupon — Issued by the product brand. These coupons are paid for and issued by the product brand. Store Coupon — Issued by a store or retailer. CVS or Walgreens.
They will have the store name printed at the top of the coupon. The most important rule to remember is that you can use 1 Manufacturer coupon per item you are purchasing.
You cannot use 2 Manufacturer coupons on 1 item. However, when you have a Manufacturer Coupon AND a Store Coupon on the same item, you can use both coupons at the same time on that 1 item.
Essentially using 2 coupons on the same item. This is called Coupon Stacking. Coupon Stacking is when you are allowed to use multiple offers and coupons on the same item, creating additional ways to save even more money. Now is time to get some coupons. Inserts are little booklets filled with coupons. You can find these booklets inside Sunday edition newspapers in most regions of the country. Insert coupons are the most common source of coupons for extreme couponers and coupon hobbyists.
Insert coupons are not required, but if you are serious about diving into couponing, I recommend starting to collect inserts every Sunday. We publish this schedule every year in January on the blog at FreeStuffFinder. Here is the Sunday Coupon Insert Schedule. We refer to each insert by their acronym and the date from the Sunday when they came out. I recommend writing the date on the front page of the insert with a sharpie. If you are ever unsure which date an insert came from, you can find the date written in very tiny font along the spine edge of the insert.
You can start collecting inserts by purchasing Sunday newspapers. Please make sure to open up the paper if you can to check if there are inserts inside before you buy. And keep the receipt, in case there are no inserts and you need to return the paper. The quickest and easiest way to start couponing is by using printable coupons. As long as you have a printer, you can get started.
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