With the economy in trouble and many people out of work, more people are turning to coupons to save money. With a good couponing strategy it is easy to save as much as 50% or more on your grocery bill. Here are some couponing tips get you started.
1. Get organized – Develop a system to organize and categorize your coupons that works for you. I like to use accordion files that you can purchase at a office supply store to store my coupons.
2. Save and trade – Save all coupons even if you don’t need them at the time. You can use them in the future or trade them with friends.
3. Shop stores that double coupons – Some stores will double (or even triple) the face-value of a coupons. Talk to the store manager to find out if and when they double coupons.
4. Check store’s website for coupons – most major grocery store chains and even department stores post their weekly ads on their website. Always check a store’s website before you go shopping.
5. Link grocery-store loyalty card to coupon websites – sign up for PGeSaver.com and Shortcuts.com and get coupons loaded directly onto your grocery-store loyalty card. The coupons will stay on your loyalty-card until you use them or until they expire.
6. Get coupons sent to your mobile phone – Sign up at Cellfire.com to get coupons sent to your mobile phone.
7. Take grocery store inserts with you shopping – Get your grocery store’s insert from the newspaper or from it’s website and take it with you when you do your grocery shopping. Base your shopping around what coupons you have.
8. Look for stackable discounts – Stacking discounts is the practice of combining more than one discount when purchasing an item. Check your store’s newspaper insert to see what is on sale and compare that to any manufacturer coupons you have saved up.
9. Get the Sunday newspaper – 82% of all coupons are found in your Sunday supplements, which can carry several hundred coupons per edition. What you can save from coupons will more than make up for the cost of a Sunday newspaper or two!
10. Join or start a Coupon Exchange club – Start or join a local coupon exchange club and trade the coupons you don’t use for coupons you do use.