Coupon Lessons

Avoid being overcharged … Wrong prices and missed coupons!

January 15, 2013

in Beginners,Coupon Lessons

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Avoid being overcharged !

How many times has your cashier given you the total, and you think to yourself, ” That doesn’t sound right “?  Only to get to your car or get home and find out that you were overcharged for an item or they missed some of your coupons!!  UGH!!  Is it worth it to around and drive back?  If you are like me, you are so happy to be home, going back is out of the question!  To avoid this all together, we must be preemptive!

Once you put all of your bargains on the counter your coupon adventure is far from over!  I usually take a kid or two with me when I am shopping.  The girls job is to unload the cart while I watch EVERY item scan.  You would be shocked at the number of times I have caught an item ringing up wrong!  Just last night I got free grape tomatoes because they rang up at $2.99 instead of $2.50!  Yep..I said FREE!  Some stores will actually give you the item for FREE if it rings up wrong!  Publix is one of these stores!  I have gotten everything from FREE diapers to FREE Gator meat because of an error at the register!  It really does pay to watch the register!

Now about those coupons!!  You spend so much time planning your trip, cutting out your coupons, calculating & re-calculating, you really want everything to work out the way you had anticipated. So now its time to make sure all your hard work pays off!  Yep!  You guessed it!  Time to watch each coupon scan!  Many times coupons will stick together and the cashier will inadvertently miss one.  Sometimes they will accidentally drop one in the already scanned pile.  Lets face it, when you are couponing….a missed 50¢ coupon is money out of our pocket!  A dollar is a dollar..ya know!  We all know what a dollar can buy, right?!  Watch those coupons:)  Internet printables tend to stick together worse than others.  I usually separate internet printables with insert coupons to help with this problem.  Make sure you are saving every penny you planned on saving!!  Hopefully, these tips will help you avoid over paying because of human error or computer error!

Happy Couponing!


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Dollar Tree does not carry DISNEY or MARVEL Vitamins!

August 27, 2012

in Beginners & Policies,Coupon Etiquette,Coupon Lessons,Coupon Policies

Thanks to Freetail Therapy for the Photo!

 

I know we are ALL thrilled that the Dollar Tree has started accepting Manufacturer coupons!!  I had the opportunity to try this out yesterday and it worked out great!!  However, when couponing the Dollar Tree or any other store it is imperative that we use our coupons ethically!

A lot of website are posting the above REDPLUM.COM coupon and telling people to use it at the Dollar Tree on Disney Items, making them free.  The above coupon was NOT intended for Disney pencils, stickers or any other Disney product other than vitamins.

If we read the fine print of the above coupon you will see the following: 

This coupon is to be redeemed by Nature Smart. Nature Smart is a Vitamin ONLY company.  Even though this coupon states it can be used on ANY, the retailer will NOT BE PAID if it is used on anything OTHER than vitamins.  Dollar Tree does not sell Disney or Marvel Vitamins, at least at any store I have visited!

 Use but don’t ABUSE our couponing privileges!!



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To pack or not to pack.. The Savings of Brown-Bagging it!

August 9, 2012

in Awesome Deals to Grab,Back 2 School 2012,Coupon Lessons

Are you packing school lunches this year??  We always pack lunches!  It takes a little extra time, but the payoff is huge!!  At my kids school lunches are $2.50!!!!

Cost for School to provide lunches for my (4) girlies

DAILY: $2.50 x 4= $10 A DAY!
WEEKLY: $10 x 5= $50 A WEEK!
MONTHLY: $50 x 4= $200 A MONTH!

*Way too much for my budget!!  A packed lunch usually cost me around 75¢ or less!

Cost for Momma’s Packed Lunch Special
DAILY: 75¢ x 4= $3 A DAY
WEEKLY: $3 x 5= $15 A WEEK
MONTHLY: $15 x 4= $60 A MONTH

*Now that’s more like it!!

Last year at a pre-K school meeting, they had a school nutritionist come and speak about school lunches…. She was talking about the benefits and value of purchasing a school lunch.  And one of her selling points was how affordable they were!  HA!  Of course, when they gave us the opportunity to ask questions…I had to speak up!  I explained that we chose to pack lunches because $10 a day was not affordable for our family!  She actually said that I could not pack a nutritional lunch for less than $2.50!!  I was livid to say the least!!  However, I remained calm:)  I simply let her know that through couponing & shopping the sales, that it was VERY possible to pack a nutritional and tasty lunch for MUCH less than $2.50!

Now how about some coupons to help you out, packing those lunches?!!

$1.00 off any Jif Hazelnut Spread

$0.50 off Cereal Treat Bars

Look through hundreds more coupons! Print your coupons from SMARTSOURCE HERE, COUPONS.COM HERE, REDPLUM HERE, COUPON NETWORK HERE.
Search our COUPON DATABASE HERE to find exactly what you are looking for!

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Deal or NO DEAL?

April 3, 2012

in Beginners & Policies,Best Deals,Budgeting & Stockpiling,Coupon Lessons

How do I know I am really getting a “Good Deal”?

To start, its good to know what a deal actually is… To explain this, I will break it up into 3 types of deals:  A Deal, A REAL DEAL, and the SUPER DEAL!

(1)  A DEAL:  A deal would be any item that is at least 50% off or more.  That should be your target price at the very least.  You can cut your grocery bill in half or more, without cutting the first coupon.

Sales rotate on a 6-12 week cycle, depending on where you live, with the exception of seasonal items.  The trick it, buying enough to get you through until the next sale.  After you have shopped like this for a while, you will see the trend and know when items are going to be on sale.

(2)  A REAL DEAL:  A real deal would be an item at its lowest price point (50% off or more) , matched with a coupon!!!  This makes for HUGE SAVINGS and sometimes even FREEBIES!  For Example a sale might be:

This is a Savings of 80% when you buy (2) and your store doubles coupons!  You would end up paying 33¢ each!

(3) A SUPER DEAL: A Super Deal would be an item at its lowest price point (50% off or more), matched with a manufacturer coupon & a store coupon!!  Talk about savings!! This is where you can really stack up the savings!  An example might be:

This is a savings of 73% when you buy (2)!  I would end up paying $1.44 each!

Ways to avoid buying impulse items that could potentially cancel out your savings!

(1) Make a list and stick to it!!  This is the easiest way to avoid impulse purchases!!

(2) Carry Cash!  Leave your cards at home!  If you are making a list and using The Q-Tipping Moms Shopping Calculator found HERE, you should know almost to the penny how much your purchases will be.

(3) Beware of those End Caps!! Items displayed on the end caps are not necessarily bargains. We tend to grab things we see on special display!  Sometimes they will even have a big sign to make us think we are getting a deal!  See Rule 1!!

(4) Don’t fall for the power of suggestion.  If a store advertises a 10 for $10 deal, this DOES NOT necessarily mean we have to by 10.  Most of the time these really means $1 each!!  (more examples 2/$5, 4/$4, 4/$5 and so on)

(5) Avoid grabbing the “Store Brand”.  Store Brand is RARELY the best deal.  When you shop when items are at the lowest price point, especially if you have a coupon, more times than not the name brand will be the cheapest.


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Is it or isn’t it….

October 22, 2011

in Beginners,Coupon Etiquette,Coupon Lessons


Okay, after getting the following message on my ORDER INSERTS PAGE, I felt the need to further discuss..

“I read a feature from the CIC website.It states that the disclaimer from coupon cliping services that you are paying for thier time not the coupons is still illeagal.So if you are talking about using coupons responsibly how can you recomend these coupon clipping services if there are not leagal.Also buying coupons on ebay is illegal.I don’t understand how you could recomed these site.You are recommending sites that are not legal.Could you please explain why we should use these sites.I am really confused. Thank you.”

First of all, after further research….THERE is NO LAW at this time against buying or selling coupons online. For something to be ” illegal”, there has to be a law in place at the federal or state level.  There is not a law anywhere, (at this time) on any level of government, that deals with selling coupons.  Therefore, it is not illegal to buy, sell or trade coupons for personal use.  

The issue that raises all the red flags is the fine print on most coupons.

 The fine print on most coupons says in some form or fashion “that they cannot be transferred, sold, traded, auctioned or altered etc.”  This is not a law, these are the rules set by the manufacturer. If you violate a manufacturer’s rule, then the manufacturer has the option to void the coupon.  Technically, if you obtain a coupon from a coupon swap or from a friend then the manufacturer can VOID  the coupon. I don’t think most of us have a problem with that practice.

The CIC, which the reader is referring to, is a private organization funded by manufacturers. ( I use the CIC often to check for fraudulent coupons)  The CIC warns “Coupons being sold on the Internet or by other means may be stolen property or counterfeit. Individuals attempting to use these coupons may be subject to prosecution.”  I would NEVER tell anyone to buy stolen coupons. “Stealing” anything IS ILLEGAL. Selling any kind of “Stolen Property” is also illegal.  I have VERY good faith in my most highly recommended website’s http://www.insertinsanity.com and others found HERE.  All of these places are obtaining whole newspapers legally (Therefore, I know they are NOT counterfeit) & taking the coupons out, sorting them & charging you for their time to do so.  Ebay is a different story.  You are placing your faith in the seller that they did indeed obtain the coupons legally.  If you feel you are breaking the rules by ordering coupons off eBay, then you answered your own question. Don’t do it. However, I find it no different from paying my daughters $5 bucks to cut out my coupons, which I do very often. I am the first person to speak out on using coupons ethically. I would NEVER knowingly tell anybody to do anything unethical or illegal for that matter. With that being said, I have no issues recommending the websites that I have here and other places. If the law changes, I will change, but as of now I stand by it. 

It is illegal to defraud Manufacturers.  You do this by altering coupons or counterfeiting coupons or copying coupons.  In my opinion, no matter how you obtain your coupon…as long as it was legal and as long as the coupon is used correctly when it is redeemed (right product, right size, right expiration), then the manufacturer has no issue with it.

 


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A Lesson on Coupon’s: Updated 9/6/11

September 6, 2011

I wanted to address a few questions that I get frequently.  Maybe it will help you out to see pictures:) The 1st question that puzzles folks is.. “How do I tell a store coupon from a manufacturer coupon” (Target coupon used as example) Click on the picture to make it bigger.The top coupon is a [...]


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