How to save more with coupons...rules/advice for newbies

[love2travel]

I will start by saying that I am a newbie around here and to couponing...I started seriously using coupons about 3 weeks ago and got addicted to it very quickly... and Yes, I did start thanks to the show.....I know this comment will get me in trouble with the veterans, but please hear me out before bashing....

I started my mat leave not long ago and with that my income dramatically changed (less coming in....a lot more going out)...when I heard about the show (EXTREME COUPONING) I figured it could not hurt me to watch it....after the first episode (that I watched) I decided I will start couponing again (I used to do it years ago but I never felt like I saved much)....and before anyone jumps at me...NO I did not expect to pay $1 for $1000.00 worth of stuff...but, what I did expect was to make a difference and not max out my cards again

Thanks to the show I start looking for information about couponing and found this site as well as a few other..and in the few weeks I learned a few thing ( from the show, from here, and from personal experience):
- Get organized:
- organize your coupons ( I prefer to do it by categories i.e. dairy, cleaning....)

- Know your deals:
- the thread with the weekly deals is a great tool and I am extremely grateful for the hard work put in it, whoever it only talks about the deals combined with the coupons...there are great deals in the flyers for items that do not have coupons (i.e. Unico Sunflower Oil at Superstore for 5.99) so check the flyers not just the list posted
- I usually print out a a copy of the weekly deals with coupons for the stores I have in my area and highlight the best deal of each item ( I know the best deals are in red...learned by observation...but sometimes that deal in not at a store I have access to i.e LD or Zehrs)
- Take a walk around your local stores and see what deals they have that are not in the flyer...Highland Farm is notorious for it...I usually find great deal that are not advertised
- just because it's on sale does not mean that is a great sale....i.e. Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner on sale for 2.99 when WM has it at 2.97 at regular price (funny thing I was planning to ask for a PM)

Make a list:
- never go shopping without a list
- know where to get it from and how many
- know the store policy... I prefer WM they have it on the web, they PM, the allow overage, and I save gas by not driving around...also because I PM it usually means the product will be there and not gone like in the stores that have the sale advertised

To avoid unnecessary attention in store while shopping:
- place all coupons in an envelope or small (very small) bag
- I never go shopping without my coupon folder...but I place it at the bottom of a bag I carry this allows me to search for a coupon without removing it from the bag and no one can see how many coupons I have (so I do not attract attention)
- keep any flyers u will use in the bag until u go to the register.
- keep my list and the copy of the weekly deals to crosscheck if I believe I came across a great deal.

at the register:
- as I tend to do my shopping once a week all in one store I will most likely have a cart full so people behind me know I will take a while
- I group my items...anything that does not have a coupon or does not need to be PMed I put first...then the once that have coupons (w/ corresponding coupons on top) and at the end any PMs or PMs w/ coupons....For the PMs I placed them by store and put the flyer on top....
-I let the cashier know that that I have coupons and PM and since they are all in the open the people behind me can get the hit.
- if I notice that the person behind me only has a few items, I may let them ahead...if they are nice and they did not make any rude comments or sounds.


I am not a timid shopper at all...I do not care what people think or say when I buy 10 jars of pickles or mayo...they have no way of knowing that those jars will only last me about 1-3 months (4 adults and 2 kids...and is summer) ...and I will not explain myself unless they offer to pay my bill...I will thank the cashier for her/his patience and help...but I do not believe for a second that they are giving me a great privilege by allowing me to shop this way, and if they do not follow the rules (refuse PM or overage) I simply pull out the printed policy and show it to them (politely) and ask for a supervisor/manager...it's my hard earned money that they get so I will not get bullied in waisting it by an unexperienced or rude employee.

when shopping for coupons...
- take only the coupons for items u use or plan to use
- check the expiry date
- consider how may of the item u will buy before the coupon expires
- yes, other need some coupons took....but if u come across the last 5-10 and u know u will be using them I would not feel guilty about it (before u bash me keep in mind that the number of coupons taken by one person may be affected by the number of people leaving in the household)
- use your coupons or give them away before they expire.
DO NOT remove any coupons from the items (peelies or attached to the item unless u are purchasing it.)


I hope this helps someone...I sure have wished to have someone tell me all this weeks ago...it would have saved me time and money...and frustration....

I mentioned in a post here that I created a spreadsheet to keep track of my saving and I received an overwhelming number of requests for a copy of it...if u are a linux user more then glad too...if u are a windows user here is how I did it...just copy paste in the appropriated column:

(A)Qty (B)Product (C)Store (D)Reg (E)Sale (F)Coupon (G)Coupon type (H)Total (I)Saving

In column (H) i used "=SUM(E2-F2)*A2" and in (I) "=SUM(D2-E2+F2)*A2"
once u create the first line u can copy and paste over as many rows as u wish (the formula will adjust itself for each row)

for the Grand totals u just add the columns... if u use 40 rows the formula used for Grand Total would be: =SUM(H2:H40) same idea for your Total Saving only it would have columns (I) instead of (H)

KEEP in mind...for BOGO coupons or WUB2 u need to divide the coupon value by 2 so it calculates correctly

Hope this helps

If this exists already I do apologies ...if I missed anything feel free to ad or make any comments.



Happy Hunting (for coupons) and Shopping

[annedougherty]

Great post, and no, no one is going to bash you! lol Feel free to contribute to the weekly deals thread. I sometimes spend 20+ hours a week on it, lol, so yes, the focus is on deals with coupons. Also, not everyone knows that something is a good deal if it's an item they never buy. So the more people contribute and point out deals, the better the list will be!

[CouponCobb]

welcome nd great advice, i look forward to hearing more from you. I feel the same about all u said

[keeley]

thank you, I've been using coupons for a while now but you have given me a few new ideas and things to remember

[evenangelsdie]

thanks for the great advice!
i am a newbie at this too, and just came back from a shopping trip at the RCSS with the hubs that wasn't too successful. we did our regular grocery shopping, but i was bummed that i wasn't able to use more coupons than i had. i went prepared with my little folder thing full of them, and flyers from shoppers that had products on sale much cheaper than some of the items at RCSS. When we got to the cash i asked about the price matching and the kid just said "no we don't do that". he was like 16 and i was kind of thrown off my game when he said that because i had heard on here that RCSS will price match. (one of the things i was attempting was the free advil deal with coupons PMed to shoppers price). i just told him i wouldn't be buying some stuff then and gave it to him to put back. i know i should have asked someone else but there were a bunch of people behind me and i'm not the fussy kind.

[Marteli]

Thanks, I felt the same way .. I've been couponing for a month now and this is great, I definetly share with you the fact that WE NEED TO BE ORGANIZED ! and defenitly we now our game (couponing) and we now we are not doing anything wrong in taking advantage of the prescious savings couponing is giving us.

[Derton]

If I may add: Check the other products with different brand/names before using coupons.

Sometimes, even with coupons, the brand name is more expensive than the store name (or the 'no name'). Event with good rebates.

[blondcouponlady]

Wtg your advice will help many!.....I also wanted to add if buying anything and you intend to stockpile, check expiry dates. If I buy food, I grab for the bottles in the back cause they rotate their stock often and expired stuff usually is in the front.

[aoffman]

Great post!
I can't agree enough with the being organized part. I have a list for each store with the coupons pinned to it.

[KMammy]

Awesome thread! Condesedes everything that's great about the Smart Canucks community into one easy thread.

May I suggest adding search info for the site so we don't wind up with 55 different threads that say exactly the same thing about say...Finish Detergent?

[love2travel]

Thank you for the feedback and encouragement...and thank you for the advice:

Check the other products with different brand/names before using coupons.

I also wanted to add that in order to keep my shopping list organized and know what to expect at the register I made my own list on Excel that calculates my total and my savings, being in Excel I also use a different sheet per week so after a few weeks I can easily go back and see what were the deals I spent my money on and decide if it is worth buying again this week or not.

The column titles I used are:
Qty Product Store Reg Sale Coupon Coupon type Total Total Saving


I used Excel formulas that calculate the total and the saving at the end I also added a grand total for the Total and Total Saving (if anyone need help with recreating the list or help with the formulas I am glad to help)

thanks again

[SSteph]

I'd like to add, don't get overexcited, buy stuff you DO have use for.

No need to get 200 toothbrushes just because you pay 0.15$ for a 0.99$ toothbrush when you only like brushing with that nice 2.99 toothbrush..


Oh, and you say to avoid unnecessary attention in store, on the contrary I'd say go through all aisle at least quickly, scan for the tearpads!!! And look for those 'store manager's deal' that are not listed in flyers, sometimes worth it!

Thanks for putting a 'how to begin couponning' together!

[Luckster]

Wow!! Thank u soooo much for sharing your knowledge! I really do appreciate all your tips and advice!! Happy couponing!!

[luvfirth]

I was a cashier for several years at an RCSS in BC (it was my job in high school). When a customer needed a price check, an override, or otherwise "held up" my line, I personally looked at it as part of the job. People have to wait in line and I was paid by the hour regardless. I never really felt like it was the customer's fault (except maybe on one or two occasions when I had a truly problematic customer). Nine times out of ten the hold up is the store's "fault" - wrong price on the shelf, or you need an override if you have too many coupons (this happened to me today at RCSS). While it can feel like an eternity while you're standing there waiting, it's really only a couple of minutes if that. As a cashier, I always apologized to the customers, both the one I was dealing with and those in the line, for the wait. I found that went a long way. It can for you too if you smile and have a good attitude about the wait. It's those who rolled their eyes or acted like I should just take their word for it that the price was what they said it was. A little courtesy from all sides go a long way. Today I held up the line waiting for the override, but I just waited patiently and was pleasant. It didn't take long. And I'm not embarassed to use coupons anymore - I'm saving money and the suckers behind me aren't!

The point of this rambly post is to say, don't feel bad if you have to hold up the line. Stuff happens. It also doesn't hurt to check policies like PM at customer service - note the name of the person who confirms a policy or coupon for you, and give the cashier that name if you have trouble.

[reallyloveyourstuff]

Fabulous post with a ton of great advice, thank you for that.

Thank you for the feedback and encouragement...and thank you for the advice:

I also wanted to add that in order to keep my shopping list organized and know what to expect at the register I made my own list on outlook that calculates my total and my savings, being in outlook I also use a different sheet per week so after a few weeks I can easily go back and see what were the deals I spent my money on and decide if it is worth buying again this week or not.

The column titles I used are:
Qty Product Store Reg Sale Coupon Coupon type Total Total Saving


I used outlook formulas that calculate the total and the saving at the end I also added a grand total for the Total and Total Saving (if anyone need help with recreating the list or help with the formulas I am glad to help)

thanks again

You may confuse some people by saying outlook rather than excel. I would be curious if you have a template for your spreadsheet that you could send by email or through a filehosting site like hotfile or megaupload or something. I for one would be really interested in that. Once again, thank you for the great advice.