{"id":186617,"date":"2015-03-24T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=186617"},"modified":"2020-12-12T18:47:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T02:47:53","slug":"how-to-use-coupons-effectively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/how-to-use-coupons-effectively\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use coupons effectively"},"content":{"rendered":"
I like saving money — but it has to be easy. And spending hours clipping and organizing coupons, or planning epic shopping trips based on my coupon stash is not <\/em>easy. Most of the time — if I clip coupons at all — they end up floating around the bottom of my purse, expired. Instead, I usually choose to save in other ways.<\/p>\n Yet, there are coupons. And there are people who use coupons. And then there are the people who USE coupons \u2026 in a big way. No matter what our method, there is room for all of us to save with the coupon game and then to put those savings in our savings account<\/a> to go to work on our next goal.<\/p>\n Why use coupons?<\/strong> To save money. Simple.<\/p>\n Even if you won’t be using the items, you can still use coupons to buy more of these items if you were planning to donate. Homeless shelters, churches, and even your favorite college student, could benefit from the toiletries you purchase with coupons.<\/p>\n Why not use coupons?<\/strong> Not so simple.<\/p>\n First, is it something you need? You shouldn’t buy anything you weren’t planning to buy and use just because you have a coupon.<\/p>\n Second, if it is something you were going to buy eventually, do you need to buy it now<\/em>? Do you have space to stockpile? Do you have an organizing system to tame your stockpiled goods (or at least to keep your coupons from multiplying in the bottom or your purse or overflowing your wallet)?<\/p>\n While I still imagine couponers sitting in their living rooms as they cut coupons out of the Sunday newspaper, that is so 1990s. This is the age of digital coupons.<\/p>\n So where should you look?<\/p>\n Paper coupons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Online coupons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Deal websites:<\/strong><\/p>\n Want to get the best prices on food and other products? Check out sites like Money Saving Mom to find compiled deals from your favorite stores. This particular site also has a coupon database to find coupons as well. Deal Seeking Mom is another site.<\/p>\n Grocery-saving apps:<\/strong><\/p>\n First, you need to learn your favorite stores’ coupon policies.<\/p>\n As you can see, stacking or doubling coupons will rapidly increase your savings.<\/p>\n Second, applying coupons to an item that is already at its lowest price will save you even more. You can use free methods, such as a price book, to know whether a sales price is actually low or not. Or you can use high-tech options such as The Grocery Game<\/a> that claims to give you rock-bottom prices — even unadvertised sales. You can check this out with a free trial.<\/p>\n Stockpile your commonly purchased items if you find them at a low price for even more savings later.<\/p>\n Want to cut your grocery bill even more? If you meal-plan based on what is on sale AND what you have coupons for, you will save even more.<\/p>\n The icing on the cake? Use ebates.com if shopping online. If your store is participating, you’ll get cash back in addition to your coupon savings. Also, use discounted giftcards<\/a> to pay for your items \u2026 after using your coupons.<\/p>\n As I already mentioned, I don’t typically use coupons because I don’t have an organized system for dealing with them.<\/p>\n Do we have anything in common? If so, here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n If you use mainly online coupon codes, of course, you don’t have to file anything.<\/p>\n After writing this article, using coupons doesn’t seem very scary after all. In fact, with all the apps and sites doing some of the work for us, it should be easier than ever to use coupons and save.<\/p>\n Do you use coupons? Which sites or apps help you use coupons more effectively? What are your tips to save the most money?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I like saving money — but it has to be easy. And spending hours clipping and organizing coupons, or planning epic shopping trips based on my coupon stash is not <\/em>easy. Most of the time — if I clip coupons at all — they end up floating around the bottom of my purse, expired. Instead, I usually choose to save in other ways.<\/p>\n Yet, there are coupons. And there are people who use coupons. And then there are the people who USE coupons \u2026 in a big way. No matter what our method, there is room for all of us to save with the coupon game and then to put those savings in our savings account<\/a> to go to work on our next goal.<\/p>\n Why use coupons?<\/strong> To save money. Simple.<\/\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[476],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span>Why (and why not) use coupons<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Where to find coupons and codes<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>When (and how) to use coupons to get the best bang for your buck<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/span>How to organize your coupon stash<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Why (and why not) use coupons<\/h2>\n