Getting started with coupons!!

Okay here goes, this email might be long!!....

To start off you want to make sure that you have a newspaper for every person in your family. I believe there is a deal right now for $39 a paper. Just call the Newspaper Agency and tell the you heard about the deal and they should give it to you. I think they are pretty hard up to sale papers so it shouldn't be any hassle. (Last year I believe I paid around $80 for the year, so $39 is awesome!!). The idea is to buy in bulk, stock up, then shop from your storage before you go to the store. It will take 3-4 months to really start saving. You want to buy products that are on sale plus use a coupon.

So, Albertson's, Smith's, Walgreen's and Target are the main stores I shop at. I used to shop at Walmart because I couldn't afford the others but I hated it and now I am so glad I don't have to shop there anymore!! I do occasionally, but not as often as I used too. I get most of my health and beauty supplies from Walgreen's (a lot of it free!), they usually have really good deals. I also mostly shop at Albertson's, they also have the better deals as well.

The main grocery ads start on Wednesdays and go through the next Wednesday. So when you get your papers on Sunday there is a possiblity of 3 different coupon booklets (Smart Source, P&G, and Red Plum. Sometimes there are other ones as well, so keep your eye open i.e. Unilever). Take them out and write the date on the front of it with a sharpy so you can find the dates easily. Keep them in chronilogical order. Then you can go to grocerysmarts.com (enter the passport g84cht) (if you add it to your favorites after you have added the passport, you won't have to keep adding it every time you go to the website). There is a drop box of all the stores. Just click on the store you want. The products with the red stars are the better deal. The more stars the better the deal is. Five stars is the best. I don't usually buy anything that isn't a 4 or more (unless of course I need it right then). This is where I get my grocery list from. Sometimes they miss things too, so look at the ads and see if there is something you need and see if you have a coupon for that product. Most likely if it is a high priced coupon and it is on sale, it's probably a good deal.

There are also some blogs that I follow to get my FREE stuff. I check them pretty often so I don't miss out on the high value coupons. Here they are:

www.utahdealdiva.com
www.shoppingwithcents.blogspot.com
www.hip2save.blogspot.com
www.couponsdealsandmore.com
www.couponsdealsandmore.com
www.moneysavingmom.com
www.survivingthestores.com
www.goodorfreedeals.blogspot.com
www.alc-walmart.blogspot.com
www.pinchingyourpennies.com

You have to be careful though, not all of these blogs are from people in utah. The utahdealdiva, surviving the stores, pinching your pennies, grocerysmarts.com, and shopping with cents, I believe are the only ones. Prices are going to vary from state to state and region to region, even from store to store. I pretty much just get an idea of what deals people have gotten and then try to come close.

Coupon Policy:

Walmart: some stores will accept black and white coupons. Others won't. Although, no where in their coupon policy does it say it has to be in color.

Target: You can stack a target coupon with a manufacturer coupon.

On some of these blogs there are links to coupons 101. I would suggest reading about Walgreens. It is kind of confusing but well worth it.

Albertson's:

• Limit your doubles shopping trip to 3 transactions TOTAL. Albertson's original intent was for each FAMILY to have access to 1 set of doubles. They realize this is not happening, so they're limiting us to 3 sets per family. Three sets will allow us all to save a good amount of money each time, so I encourage you to adhere to this rule!


• With each set of doubles, you will have to split transactions and you may have to go to the back of the line. This really depends on how busy the store is. Use good judgement. If you're shopping at 6am, then you will probably be just fine splitting your transactions up and using them one after another. However, if it's 8pm and the store is still pretty busy, just do one at a time, going to the back of the line or even putting your groceries in the car and going back in to do subsequent transactions.


• Read your coupons well and make sure you're getting the correct item. This is a good rule to use all the time, but I guess right now, in an attempt to get more items free, shoppers are attempting to bend rules and it's not going over well with the checkers!


• Please know that managers are doing their best in educating checkers about the double coupon policies. If you get a checker that is saying otherwise, kindly ask to see a manager. Don't be afraid to do so- they would rather clear up any confusion than deal with shoppers reporting negative experiences! I know from experience that some checkers just seem to dislike shoppers who use coupons. I shop at odd times and so there's often only 1 available checker. If it's someone I know who is anti-coupon, then I just use the self-check lane! Thanks Utah Deal Diva
  

This is a lot of information crammed into a "short" email. Let me know if you are confused or if I missed something!

Good Luck!