Trick of the Trade #3
Tricks of the Trade are for general coupon usage. Here is a reminder of the other two tricks:
Trick of the Trade #1: Buy in Bulk
Trick of the Trade #2: Maximize your coupons
Now finally onto Trick of the Trade #3 which is…Have Multiple Coupons…
I always recommend that you have one coupon booklet from each company available in your area, for EACH member of your household. These booklets are generally found in the Sunday newspapers. Which means that for me with my family of five, I have five Sunday papers delivered to my home.
This trick may be the scariest of them all! I know what you are thinking because I thought it too. FIVE newspapers is this lady crazy! Where will I put them? Will the paper boy hate me? I HATE clutter and/or the paper. Can I save enough each month to pay for the subscriptions? The list I am sure goes on and on.
You know, I have found that to save the most amount of money I had to face my fears and get all these papers. I tried doing it with less and it did not work. I could not “Buy in Bulk” and I therefore could not “Maximize my Coupons”. To keep up with your families consumption a paper per person is a must!
- Coupon booklets available in my area.
To ease your pain and suffering I can offer you some great deals on the newspaper in Utah and in Las Vegas. If you want more information please email me at theobsessiveshopper@live.com
Are some of you thinking, What about online coupons? My answer to this is online coupons are great, they are free. HOWEVER they are very unreliable. Once they have printed the allotted amount they may not be available anymore. You should only print two per HOUSEHOLD. The online coupons are NOT replicas of the coupon booklets. The coupon booklets have more coupons and are more specified to your grocery area. Online coupons require downloading printer plug-ins which can be a pain and may not be compatible with your browser.
I do use online coupons. I am not trying to scare you away from them. I am only giving you the information that I have found while using them. If you want an easy place to see what online coupons are available through the two major online companies, visit this link at for a alphabetical index of printable coupons.
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Have you ever had a problem with your local newspaper not having the proper inserts? On a few occassions I have gotten my Sunday paper with no inserts or one or more missing. I know it is not my neighbors, because I pick it up right away. Does this ever happen to you?
Do you think you could do this with multiple papers less then for each member of your family? We have 8 dc, I did a quick check of our local paper and it would cost me $260.00 every THREE MONTHS for 10 Sunday papers. $260.00 x 4 = $1,040.00 a year for the paper. Would I really save enough to make that feesible? I am in the mid west and currently shop mostly at Save-A-Lot food stores and do only some extras at Wal-Mart. I don’t know if it would be worth it for me to do this system or not? What are your thoughts?
Katie,
If you don’;t have your inserts please call the paper and ask them why the are missing. Let me just tell you this to keep in mind before you call. Red Plum and Smart Source are weekly publications and Proctor & Gamble is monthly. ALSO on holiday weekends there will not be any Red Plum or Smart Source. You have to keep an eye on the paper AFTER a holiday because they usually put two or more in. Since I know where you live this past Sunday’s paper actually had 5 different booklets.
Shautnell
Natalie,
If you have a family of 8 then you only need to get 8 papers. Yes, I beleive it is worth it. I’ve tried it with less and what happened was we were using things faster then we could replace them because we did not buy enough in the first place. Because I use so many coupons while shopping, last week alone I saved over $124! I average that amount each month, that is a $496 saving per month! If you are skeptical start with what you have and expiriment on how many papers gets you enough.
-Shauntell
PS BEFORE you get the paper make sure they actually do have coupons on Sunday! Call the paper and ask them what brands and the deliver schedule of those coupon packets.
When you have 5 coupons for the same item, can you use them all at the same time? It’s totally not worth it to me if I have to go back to the store 5 times!
Ellie,
You totally can use them at the same time. If you have 5 coupons and they say something like 50 cents of 1 of this or that. And if they are something your family uses get 5 items and use all 5 coupons! Its awesome. I never knew you could do that either. You can even buy them all at the same time.
Good luck and great question!
Shauntell
That is 8 dear children + 2 parents = 10 of us:)
I think I might try your idea of starting with fewer and work my way up if/as needed. I really look forward to learning more of your system:) thanks so much
Hmmm, my paper had only one insert this last week, not five. This has happened a lot lately. I’m getting a tad suspicious. I have had a couple weeks with no inserts and they weren’t holiday weeks either. Next time I will call and ask about it if it happens again. Very frustrating! Thanks for your help!
“Next week I will show you what I am doing with online coupons and how to organize them with your other coupons.” —-Did I miss this? I don’t see a post about it.
Hi Ladies,
This is a late post since i am new to coupons.
Go to your news rack on sunday and by all the papers you need. Don’t drop in one coin and grab 10 papers. I used to have a company that sold these single copies and lost a lot of Sundays because of this.
This is cheaper than a ful subscription.
I also scan my e-coupons and keep the original copy if i need more.
This fun
Jon,
Please do not copy or scan any coupon you either get from a paper or the internet. When coupons are copied, scanned or reproduced in any way it is considered fraud even if they are printed from the computer. I know you would not do so knowingly. You can print online coupons multiple times if the sites allow. Just press your back button or go back into the website and print more. Usually the limit is two though.
Happy Shopping-
Shauntell
Let’s not forget about double and triple coupons as well! I’m new to the site so I’m sure there is plenty to be said about that, but I know I’ve saved a ton that way.