Online Couponing
My daughter Victoria has 10 boxes of name brand cereal in her pantry and paid less than .70 a box. She buys coupons online. Sound crazy? She saves a bundle by ordering the coupons she will use and combining them with sales. She has 10 boxes of name brand cereal in her pantry and paid less than .70 a box.
She’s teaching me how. I’m starting with dog food coupons (we have 2 Great Pryneese that eat a LOT). For years I have been shopping at Sams or BJs wholesale clubs which is a good way to save money on many items. However, some items are much less expensive at traditional supermarkets with a coupon, particularly if the supermarket doubles coupons.
How does it work? If you buy ten $1.00 off coupons for .99 for your brand of toothpaste combined with a CVS sale, you can save $20.00!
Here’s more info:
One way of saving money with coupons is to pickup your local newspaper in order to get the weekly coupons insert. But there is another way, and that is ordering them online.
One drawback to getting the newspaper is that you never know what coupons will be in it, and if they’re for the items you will use.
The newspaper is not the only way you can obtain coupons. There are a few Websites out there where you can order the coupons you want and will actually use when you go shopping. I know the concept seems strange and you’re probably thinking, “Why should I order coupons when I can get them free?” Technically, if you purchase the newspaper for the coupons they are not free.
Ordering coupons and paying a small service can still save you money in the long run. Let’s take a look at how the savings add up. For example, let’s say you spent $10.00 and ordered 25 coupons all with a face value under $1.00. If you use all the coupons, that’s an automatic discount savings of $25.00. Now you have to subtract what you spent when you ordered the coupons, which is the $10.00. The total savings is now $15.00, which is pretty good. Looking at from this perspective, you really got your money back in grocery savings that you would have normally spent anyways.
The above example is a pretty good savings, but it gets better. Because you ordered coupons all under $1.00 face value, many grocery stores will double coupons up to $1.00! Using the above example, this brings your savings up to $50.00 that’s a substantial savings!
Here are a few tips you can use when ordering coupons:
- Order only what coupons you are going to use. Some sites will allow you to order up to 50 coupons at one time with flat rate service fee. 50 coupons is a lot and you may or may not end up using them all. If you have a friend that also uses coupons, maybe you could split the coupons and costs between the two of you.
- Choose coupons with a $1.00 face value or less. Many stores double coupons and you can double your savings.
- Some sites charge a handling fee per coupon on top of other fees; do the math to see how much you will be saving before placing your order.
- Check expiration dates. The farther off the expiration date is gives you more time to use it.
- Watch for sales! You can save even more money if the product you have a coupon for goes on sale. Here’s a quick example. I had a coupon for 55 cents off dry cereal. The cereal was on sale for $1.67, the store doubled the coupon and I only paid 57 cents for a name brand box of cereal!
- Check more than one store for sales. If you live where more than one grocery store is in close proximity, you can plan your shopping list to buy specific items at different stores using your coupons.
Using these tips, a little planning and ordering your coupons wisely, you can save up anywhere from 50% - 70% on your monthly grocery bill!
Michelle is the webmaster of Coupon Emporium which provides coupons, printable coupons and coupon codes from across the web.
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- Want to Save Money? Want Free Stuff?
- Links for Coupon Users
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Yep, hubby and I have been purchasing coupons on ebay for years now. On time we pay up to $10 for a $50 coupon for the purchase of a new refrigerator. That is still $40 savings!
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July 21st, 2008 at 9:53 am
I haven’t tried this online coupon stuff. I cut coupons but sometimes I forget to bring them when I go shopping.
Definitely Maybe!
Not Just Another Blog…
July 21st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
thanks ! i was just looking into this today and wondered if it was
worth it!
July 24th, 2008 at 3:00 pm