Tuesday, September 1st, 2009...2:00 am
7 Tips for National Coupon Month
Since September is National Coupon Month, I thought that today, September 1st, would be the perfect day to reiterate some tips on making the most of coupons when shopping. For this task I turned to Sok Verdery, founder and CEO of CouponShack.com, a coupon site that finds and compares discounts, and lets you search by store, brand, category, or product.
Here are 7 tips on how coupon usage can save you hundreds of dollars each year at the grocery store. Sure, some of the tips are no brainers but they’re worth repeating.
1. Check the weekly circulars and sites like CouponShack.com for current grocery coupons. Plan your menu for the week around the sale and promotional items. Whenever possible print out coupons at home, from sites like CouponShack, and bring them with you to the store. As long as your coupon has a UPC code, the supermarket should accept it.
2. Do self-checkout to ensure that the coupons are used properly. This way you don’t have to wait until you’re in the car and reviewing your receipt to discover a mistake. If you do it yourself, with self checkout, you’re in control. (I love this tip!)
3. Save up coupons for when the store is offering buy one, get one free deals. Not only will you be getting one item for free but also you’ll be saving money on the item you still have to pay for.
4. Look for grocery stores that offer double coupons. You can see a partial list of stores by state that honor double coupons here.
5. Don’t be shy about asking for “rain checks” when an item on sale is out of stock. This allows you to come back and get the product for the discounted price once there are more on hand–even after a sale has ended.
6. If a coupon is expired, try to use it any way. It doesn’t hurt and sometimes you will find that they are still active.
7. With dollars’ off coupons on limited items, make multiple purchases to maximize your savings. I did this recently at a clothing store that was offering $10 off when you bought two pairs of jeans. Now, if I bought four pairs of jeans in a single transaction, I could use the $10 coupon only once. However, if I split the purchase into two, I got $10 off my first purchase of two pairs of jeans, and then $10 off the second purchase of two pairs of jeans.
Let us know if you have additional tips and shopping secrets to make the most of using coupons.
Some great tips, all except for #6. Unless your store has a written policy stating it excepts expired coupons, I wouldn’t recommend it. Knowingly giving an expired coupon is considered coupon fraud. There are so many coupon deals to be had and most coupons are repeatedly issued, there’s no real need to use an expired coupon. And you don’t want to get a bad rep with your grocer. Better to play by the rules.
Good point. Thanks. I wouldn’t want to recommend anyone do anything fraudulent. However, I do know that at Bed, Bath and Beyond, they WILL take their own coupons beyond the expiration date, and I don’t consider that to be fraud.
Leah
Lowes and Home Depot here will take expired coupons. I don’t know if this is the policy everywhere but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Btw, they will also take each other’s coupons as well.
You are SO right, Leah. BB&B is very generous with its coupon policy and a handful of grocery stores are, too, from what I understand. (Don’t have any accepting expireds in my area.) I guess if someone were really wanting to use an expired, they could ask the manager. No harm in that!
Sorry if I came across too strongly first time around.
One little comment…and not something I thought of myself, but came from a very thoughtful (in the true sense of the word…someone who does a lot of thinking) person:
I now avoid the self-check out option at the grocery store for the sole reason that having a machine do the checking out probably means the elimination of a job for someone who has few other job opportunities. It’s a small gesture, but with the job market as dim as it is, I think it has some meaning.
My experience with self-check out is that the bagger (me) does a terrible job loading the bags and I usually end up having to wait for the self-check out montior person come and push some button if I am buying alcohol or am having some other problem. I’ve had good luck in using coupons past the date, but I only try the ones that are within a few days or weeks of the expiration.
The same with Dicks and Sports Authority. They honor each other’s coupons.
Great article. It’s a competitive industry and it keeps growing. You can take a look at http://www.couponcodes4u.com to see all the coupons that you can use to save money when you shop online. It’s easier than cutting coupons and taking them to a store. Hope this helps!!