Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www
Transcription
Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www
1 Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 2 Table Of Contents ALL ABOUT ME 3 UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT 5 ORGANIZING/CLIPPING COUPONS 7 BUY A COUPON BINDER 12 COUPON 101 15 COUPON JARGON 19 99 COUPON TIPS 20 EXPIRED COUPONS 33 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 37 STOCKPILING 43 RAININGHOTCOUPONS.COM 44 Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 3 All About Me… Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m a stay at home Mom to 2 little boys and have a wonderful husband who works hard every day to provide for us. We have 3 Great Danes, 2 cats, and my kiddos have 2 rats…oh, & Sushi, our pet beta fish! You can’t believe the chaos in our home, but that’s what makes it exciting! Since I’m a Stay at home Mom, I work hard to keep up with deals and coupons. With only my husband working, I needed to find a way to make the most of the money he earns (especially after baby #2 came). That’s where my money saving journey began. After learning on my own how to truly stretch a buck, I created Raining Hot Coupons, which also keeps me in check with deals! I love to help others keep up financially with raising and supporting their families. My husband is very supportive of my coupon addiction…let’s face it, he loves for me to get shopping out of my system while saving money…who knew that was possible?! I love to teach others because I remember when I first started using coupons how confused I was and just needed help! Since then, I have gained a lot of experience and feel the need to pay it forward and pass it on to others. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 4 I have been known to give out coupons to people in line when I see that they have an item in their cart that I have a coupon for. It makes their day and feels so good to make someone smile! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 5 Understanding the Concept... Here is one question I get asked all the time, in fact it’s the number one question I get; How can you take a $0.50/1 coupon and turn it into FREE items?! I get asked this question mostly by strangers who see my binder or see me shopping and I have to admit, I had that exact same question when I first started. To be 100% honest, I actually gave up the first time I tried using coupons long ago! YES, I admit it, and you probably wouldn’t have guessed that but it’s true. I was so utterly confused! I read about it online, heard from other people, thought about attending coupon classes, saw others with coupon binders in the store. It was just so hard for me to look at some of the coupons out there for $0.25 or $0.50 and get excited. This is a huge part of the reason for Raining Hot Coupons. I don’t want others to walk away from using coupons because they get too confused. I try to make things easy to understand and learn because like I said, I never really found anything on coupons that was “easy” to learn. (My hubby Steve was working so hard for our family of four and we were living paycheck to paycheck!) Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 6 I then came back to the idea of using coupons and saving money and REALLY wanted to dig in. We were living paycheck to paycheck and I found myself CONSTANTLY putting food on the credit card (which is not a good idea). Now that I am addicted to it, love it, teach it, I can’t get enough! I want all you coupon newbie’s out there to feel the same way, I want you to not be confused and not give up. When I first started, this part boggled me the most (and the reason in my opinion why more people don’t use coupons). It’s how to get items for cheap or free with $0.50 coupons or even $1.00 coupons! The trick, the magic, the secret is to match up the coupons WITH THE SALES! That’s IT! Do not use a $1.00 off coupon on a product that is $4.00. Instead, save it for when the item goes on sale for $2.00 and see, you just got an item that is normally $4.00 for only $1.00! It’s really like turning that $1.00 coupon into $3.00 off. One more tip, and a big reason why coupons exist is to get us (the consumers) to try out companies products! If you see a coupon on an item, you can almost be sure that the item on that coupon is going to be on sale sometime soon, somewhere! They want us to try their product because we we’re able to get it for inexpensive, AND hopefully fall in love with it. Then, purchase it later when there are no coupons for it and we pay full price. Let me tell you, it’s a great idea and it works. There have been items that I may have never tried but since I got it for free or close to it I will try it out and sometimes get hooked! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 7 Organizing/Clipping Coupons Here is my Sunday ritual: 1- Go to the Dollar Store and buy my newspapers. You would be surprised how much that extra .50 savings adds up every week with 10 newspapers, and let’s face it, we all love to save money! 2- Go home and pull out all of the inserts from each newspaper. There will be a Red Plum, Smart Source, and some weeks an extra insert or two such as General Mills. (Keep a look out for those). I then give the remaining part of the newspaper to my parents who have a parrot whom loves doing his “business” on them! I sometimes will keep some of it for my kiddos to do their art projects on them as well as carving pumpkins. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 8 3- Start out with one type of insert. So let’s say Smart Source first. Take your pile of Smart Source and find the “center” or somewhere near it. Open it up and lay it in an open area (you will need a lot of space). 4-Now do this with the rest of the Smart Source pile. Make sure each insert is opened to the exact same page. 5- Take one page from each of the opened inserts (make sure they are the same pages) and staple the coupons on them. Make sure you staple every coupon front and back and staple over the PICTURE, NOT on the barcode. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 9 6- Now you cut out each of the stapled coupons. This will leave you with a stack of 10 of the same coupons stapled together. Continue to do this with every single page and then do the same with the Red Plum, but make sure you separate all of the Red Plum clipped coupon stacks from the Smart Source coupons. This is so that if I refer to something such as 9/12 RP you need to know where to find it and if you have all the coupons together you won’t know what coupons were from which insert. Next 2 steps will explain how I keep them separate. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 10 *TIP- If you have an insert that is two pages you just open the pages up as if it were one big insert. 7- So now you have all your inserts coupons clipped. I leave them stapled together. This makes it so much easier when at the store so I don’t lose random coupons. Then say you want to use 2 out of the 10 coupons you can just pull them off slowly, it’s really easy. Or say you want to use all 10, then you can just hand the stapled stack to the cashier and yes, they will accept them stapled together. 8- I buy freezer ziplock bags (from the dollar store) and label them with the date and what insert it is on the front. So I would put 9/12 Red Plum or 9/12 Smart Source. Put your stapled stacks in the bags and voila! When I refer to something saying 9/12 RP you know exactly where to find it!! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 11 9- I have crates in my garage that I store the coupon filled ziplock bags in. On the front of the crate I put a label with the month. So that means in each crate you will have 4 weeks of coupon inserts so if there were two inserts in every paper that month then you will have 8 ziplock bags filled with coupons. If you’ve been doing it this way you know how messy those inserts get after clipping a few coupons out of them! By the way, I pull out my FAVORITE coupons, the ones I know I am going to use or need to use and add those to my coupon binder so I can have them at the store. I sell coupon binders on my site, and if you are interested in them please see below. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 12 Buy A Coupon Binder It’s here! The ever so popular Raining Hot Coupons’ Coupon Binder! It’s complete with everything you need to use coupons and save money! These binders are very sturdy and high quality. I’ve done my research in finding you the best quality for the best price! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 13 So, what comes is this fabulous binder you ask? Here’s what you will get: o o o o o o o o o o o o Pink 2″ Case-It 3-ring zippered binder Sturdy handle and my favorite, a shoulder strap! 27 (9) Professional Pocket Coupon Protector Sheets (add more with the packages below) 4 (3) Pocket horizontal pouches which hold almost any size coupon, Register Rewards, Catalinas, etc. (add more with the packages below) 16 plastic Tab dividers (these are the most sturdy and won’t rip like the paper type) 20 front and back typed categories for tabs + 20 blank tabs Pocket on the front “Coupon 101″ 2 paged Exclusive Raining Hot Coupons publication with tips and coupon lingo to get you started “Organizing this thing” Exclusive Raining Hot Coupons publication page with complete directions on how to organize your binder Mesh pocket on inside front Front page category table of contents and information page “Freebie Coupons” page o There are different packages you can choose (the difference between them is that they include EXTRA coupon sheet protectors and can only be purchased when you make your binder purchase): Sheets are 10 for $4.95 and $4.00 for every set of 10 after the first one. Binder is Only $39.95 and you can purchase it here: http://www.raininghotcoupons.com/couponbinder/ Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 14 Package 1 – Binder w/ everything + 8 (9) slot coupon sheets AND 2 (3) slot coupon sheets + $4.95 (10 extra sheets) Package 2 – Binder w/ everything + 15 (9) slot coupon sheets AND 5 (3) slot coupon sheets + $8.95 (20 extra sheets) Package 3 - Binder w/ everything + 20 (9) slot coupon sheets AND 10 (3) slot coupon sheets + $12.95 (30 extra sheets) Package 4 – Binder w/ everything + 30 (9) slot coupon sheets AND 10 (3) slot coupon sheets + $16.95 (40 extra sheets) Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 15 Coupon 101 Now that you’re diving into using coupons, you will find that you won’t have to pay for many different necessities again! Such as, toothpaste, razors (including the nice ones), toothbrushes, deodorants, soaps and more! I remember when I first heard this and thought to myself “say what”?! Yes, this is very true and some of the stores you will be getting them for free from are Rite Aid, Walgreen’s, & CVS! Where do I get my coupons you ask? Well, there are MANY different places to get coupons… · Sunday Newspaper – These are the mega coupon papers! You will want to get one (or more) every Sunday. A good rule of thumb is to purchase 1 newspaper for every person in your household. We are a family of 4 so therefore I would need to purchase 4 newspapers every week. Let me tell you though, when there are HOT coupons in the paper, I will purchase more than that! They will have coupon inserts in them including Red Plum (RP), Smart Source (SS), Proctor & Gamble (P&G). Occasionally you will get bonus inserts including, General Mills (GM), Target and more. · Printable Coupons (from the Internet) – My favorite sites to print coupons from are Coupons.com, Red Plum, Smart Source, and Target (yes, they have coupons)! · Magazines – All You Magazine is a great one to get. You can find these at Walmart or get a subscription on my page. It is full of manufacturer coupons. Also, the Parents magazine is a great one that has good coupons for parents such as, Gymboree, Amazon diapers and more. · Products you purchase – Keep in mind that on a lot of boxes of items you buy, there are coupons! For example, my box of Tide Laundry Detergent had $4 worth of coupons in the inside cardboard. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 16 · Tear Pad or Blinkie – these are found in the Grocery stores and have coupons on them that you can take. · Peelie – This is a coupon sticker found on the outside of a product. · Catalina – These will print on the back of your receipt or with your receipt and usually for an item similar to something you purchased. · Coupon Trains – Consider circulating and trading coupons via mail with family & friends. My Tips before hitting up those stores! · Start out slowly and don’t plan on getting in on every single deal or it will all feel overwhelming! When I first started I would find a good deal and go out and get it but I found I was doing this way too often and really just using a lot of gas. Understand that you don’t need to get every deal. · Be organized! I shop one day a week and the night before my shopping day, I get my lists ready and coupons together. I choose Sunday because you will see that on Saturday I post the coupon matched lists and Sunday is when the new ads start (for drugstores where you will find a ton of great deals). · Figure out a way that best suites you when figuring out how to organize your coupons. This is so important because if your coupons are not organized, you are going to get stressed out when you can’t find certain coupons and using coupons to save money is going to take a lot more time. Print out Store Coupon Policies, and I highly recommend this in case you have a problem with a cashier honoring your coupons. If you have your store policy with you, you can just pull it out and it will make things a lot easier for you. Not saying you will have problems, but sometimes there are cashiers out there that feel like they are doing something wrong when you are getting items for free or close to it. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 17 · Get your store’s weekly ad circular. You can also view it online or it will come in the mail so that way you can match the items on sale with your coupons. · Only purchase the items on your list!! Doing this alone will always save you money….unless of course you find a freebie! · Here’s an important one…Sometimes a smaller sized item is indeed the better deal! Some coupons don’t have a size restriction (these are my favorite) so therefore you may be able to get that item in the travel section for FREE and if you have several coupons, you can stock up! · Brand Loyalty is a no-no! Be willing to try out new products that you have coupons for. I use to never do this before using coupons and now that I do, I have actually found a lot of things I really like that I normally wouldn’t have tried. · Overage = AWESOME! Understand what overage is and that it can dramatically lower your grocery bill. Lets say a product is on sale for $1 and you have a coupon for $2/1 for that item. After using your coupon, you will get $1 in overage, which will then be applied to the balance of your order! Do you see how that can really lower your balance…it’s like getting paid to shop! Note: Some stores don’t allow for overage. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 18 Coupon Jargon There are a lot of times when I will refer to something as 11/28 RP, and you new coupon users out there will say “huh?!”. So I’ve compiled a list of different abbreviations often referred to in the coupon world. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ECB- Extra Care Buck (CVS store credit voucher that will print when specific items are purchased) RR- Register Rewards (Walgreens store credit voucher that will print when specific items are purchased) – these do not “roll”, meaning if you purchase the same item you received the voucher for, another one will NOT print. +Up- Rite Aid store credit voucher that will print when specific items are purchased – these DO “roll”! P&G-Proctor and Gamble SP-Stockpile SS-Smart Source coupon insert PG-Proctor and Gamble coupon insert RP- Red Plum coupon insert Peelies-coupons found on products in a sticker form MQ-Manufacturers Coupon OOP-Out of Pocket Expense Q or CPN-Coupon YMMV-Your Mileage May Vary – sometimes a deal will work for you but may not for someone else. TMF-Try Me Free offer FAR-Free After Rebate CAT-Catalina coupon (Manufacturer coupons that print out from a machine at the register depending on what you purchase.) B1G1F, B2G1F-”Buy one get one Free”, “Buy two get one Free” TEAR PAD- A pad of coupons hanging on a shelf usually next to the item at the store. BLINKIE-those things that pop coupons out at the store. POP-Proof of purchase – or UPC GC-Gift Card Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 19 99 Coupon Tips Below is a HUGE list of 99 Coupon tips! I posted a question on Raining Hot Coupons Facebook page asking for coupon users favorite coupon tips and below are their responses! Thank you everyone for giving a tip or two. 1. Cynthia Sandifer: Patience and persistence. 2. Damara Jones Jennings: It is ok if coupons expire! Do not buy just because you do not want to waste a coupon! 3. Angela Fracassa Ward: Don’t clip the coupons when you get ads. Just cut out what you need when you are going to use it for a trip. 4. Karina Christopher: Organize, research and have fun 5. Tina Barnes: Start with ONE drug store and ONE grocery store. I was overwhelmed with Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS deals, so stuck with just CVS until I got good at it. Same with grocery stores. I just do Publix B1G1s now and PM at Walmart for other stuff. 6. Christina Ferris: Dont try to go on a shopping trip with your coupons shoved in your purse lol. 7. Tesa Marie Howard Blanchard: make sure you read each coupon and sale for fine print! 8. Kiley Lee: Don’t expect to go to the store and only spend a few dollars like they do on tlc…. that is not normal shopping. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 20 9. Melissa Sanders Mostiler: Start with no more than one grocery store and one drug store. Trying to get to every store within a week can be overwhelming! 10. Heather Nebel: Don’t get discouraged if you don’t save a ton of money on some trips. Sometimes you come across really great deals and the savings are amazing and then other times it might just be a few things. The key is just to save money when you can and not over do it. Don’t ever buy something _just_ because you have a coupon. And most importantly, make it fun! I love seeing my total on the register go down, down, down after I hand over my coupons. 11. Melanie Menikheim: just because a coupon is expiring doesn’t mean you have to use it. no pressure. there will be another coupon and another sale. it’s all about timing! 12. Angel Brown: Start slow, and if any friends coupon, go along…don’t buy…just watch and listen 13. April Kidd Presley: Don’t let the show “Extreme Couponing” prevent you from trying to save money. (I for one recommend not watching it) 14. Jill Ivie: Do not do double coupon Tuesdays at Walmart. Not worth the extra savings of a few dollars. 15. Emily Anne Duncan: don’t use coupons because they are a good deal, use them only on items you’ll actually use, and be patient, try to match coupons with store sales in your area. 16. Melissa Moreno: Stay organized…get a binder! 17. Theresa Gonzalez: Be patient… do research and get organized… start small! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 21 18. Cassandra Colvin Weaver Don’t buy something that is a great deal unless you actually will use it! Its great to donate but sometimes that .50 could have been spent better elsewhere! 19. Mary Lynn Hagwood I love the buy one get one free deal + add two coupons to that deal = nice savings…I’m fairly new at this too and wonder why I did not do it along time ago! 20. Yvette Rupp I agree- Don’t feel like you HAVE to get any and every deal. Only buy what you will use. When you find some good coupons that still have some life to them before they expire, sometimes sitting on them for a week or two will score you a GREAT deal. just because you have a good coupon doesn’t mean we have to run out the door that day. LOL. I would also find a way to organize your coupons. Whatever works for you. By type, alphabetical, in a binder, in an envelope. There is no right or wrong way, its what works best for you. 21. Cristina Krasienko Do not shop with kids! Lol they will try to buy everything other than what you went for! 22. Jane Marie Buy only what you need. If you throw it out or have to give it away, you’re wasting money. Factor in the cost of newspapers, gas etc into your savings. If you have to drive 20 miles to save a $1 you’re losing money. 23. Kelly M Giles get organized! I made my own coupon binder with my kids leftover stuff! I only spend 75 cents and now I know where they all are so I can use them effectivly!!! 24. MOMS who Love to SAVE Be proud of yourself! Every little bit of SAVINGS counts…. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 22 25. Tina Wright Horn if its somthing you dont use , need or want, its NOT a deal..its a waste of money and or the item.. unless you are donating it. 26. Nichole Walling Don’t expect to save 99% on your very first trip… The average fist -timer saves around 35%. Try not to go overboard for the first trip anyways. It can get stressful. It gets easy with practice. 27. Casey McCraw Don’t be afraid of the coupons or the cashiers, if the cashier acts confused with the coupons she’s probably as new as you are to the game. If they insist that you can’t use the coupon, either go to their management or just ask them to remove it off the bill. 28. Cynthia Sandifer Be nice to your cashier. 29. Melissa Griffin I started buying only with what we needed that was on sale and had a coupon, Im still new but so far that is what has helped me the most. START SLOW 30. Ryna Edwards start with one store like target or walgreens 31. Nichole Walling Oh, and do your homework! I researched couponing for 15 days before my very first trip! (and my savings were 34%) 32. Ashlee Linnea If you are getting this stuff to sell be reasonable everyone wants a good deal. I went to a yard sale and I knew she couponed it was obvious. The stuff there was as much or a few pennies less than full price in the store. I told her about it, she said she was doing an act of service to people who dont have time to coupon. Nope not even close, she was being greedy. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 23 33. Shonna Lovett Mackelprang DONT BE A SHELF CLEANER!! THESE PEOPLE ARE THE WORST AND THEY RUIN IT FOR THAT AVERAGE SHOPPER. Extreme couponing is only useful is you intend to help others. NO ONE needs 100 boxes of pasta in your pantry just because you CAN get it for 5 dollars. If you have reached the point where you are shopping for a family the size of the Duggars, but you are only a family with 1 or 2 kids, then you might want to dial it down a bit. Saving money is great, but lets keep things in perspective and give every one else a chance to reap the benefits of couponing. 34. Jenny Cupp when I started, I would only purchase things I could get free or almost free that I really needed because of lack of money…however I got my mom into couponing and she supplies my papers every sunday, so in return I find all the deals and get the coupons together before we get to the store and we split the cost making the cost for both families hardly nothing!! Most times the cost is so little she buys mine just for helping her save so much money 35. Jessica Bloom I haven’t been using coupons for long, but if you are not brand conscious, determine the price of the item with the coupon and compare that to other brands of the same item. I’ve found cheaper deals a few times by just comparing brands. 36. Rhonda Forgey Collins Learn store policies so that you don’t find yourself not getting the deals that you went to get. Every store is different, so look up their policy it will save you a headache and heartache later. Also, always read the small print on coupons, to find out if there is a limit or etc. 37. Shonna Lovett Mackelprang Also remember that regardless of how good the deal seems, MOST of the time you are spending money to use a coupon. If you dont really need it, dont feel obligated to use the coupon. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 24 38. Melissa Moreno Sounds funny, but at bigger stores, like Walmart or Target, I try to scope out my cashier…grouchy cashiers are the worst. Male cashiers are usually the best in my experience! 39. Brandie Gossett Amanda Newsomeke sure you start out at one store!!! Don’t try to go to multiple stores. Take a “test” run at a store that is easy to get used to like “KROGER”. GREAT store for first timers. I Mastered a store then moved to the next. I have been going hard for 2 months and only have 3 stores under my belt!!! IF it is Easy for everyone else it “may not be easy for you too”. Don’t get discouraged. If you fall get up and try again!! 40. Andrea Malm Howard like raining hot coupons on FB (I like this one Andrea! =) ) 41. MOMS who Love to SAVE KNOW YOUR STORE COUPON POLICY! Make a list of the food you want to buy and the coupons you have…this way you don’t get frustrated at the register (like I have!) ;o) 42. Stephanie Kennison Know how much you’ll realistically use. Don’t clear shelves. I doubt you really need to take the last 20 toothpastes. Even if they are free. 43. Joann Wendelken Phelps Tried couponing for the first time the other day..I saved about $11.00..Not much but it was items I used daily so i figured I did alright. Thanks for the tips! 44. Karen Brown Sweeney Choose your level of insanity (Jenny taught me that) and don’t beat yourself up cause you miss a deal others get… be happy for the deals you do get. Don’t hoard… be polite… share (donate)… learn then teach, don’t try to explain everything to somebody until you get a handle on it!!! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 25 45. Lilly Hill team up with your family and make it fun filled saving. 46. Trisha Bice Pick a few items that you know you family uses, get an idea of how much your family uses of that on a monthly bases, I started with Ragu, it goes on sale about every 4-6 weeks and there always seems to be a coupon, I’ve learned to by 6 each time eventhoug i have coupons enough for 12. By the time i need more they will be on sale again, saves me $ for that trip and space in my pantry and nothing expires 47. Crazy Coupon Clipping Deal* is… My idea of a good deal changed drastically when I started couponing. I rarely pay over $1 or $2 for anything I know I have a coupon for. 48. Nancy Ponder Evans Don’t be in a rush to run out and use your coupon. Usually on the first day the shelves are probably already bare. Wait a few days the shelves will be restocked 49. Grace Knapp only print or clip coupons unless its something you know you will use start small get a binder so you can organize your coupons and shopping list organization is key to a successful shopping trip 50. Jennifer Trent Find a coupon buddy and team up. Always easier to hand over a stack of coupons with your buddy behind you and not some mother of 4 screaming children waiting for you to “hurry up”. And help each other out, share deals and trade coupons. 51. Barbarann Fernandez Make lists, write down what’s on sale at which store and attach the corresponding coupon to that list. If you do all the prep work at home, you will be less to miss out on a deal or coupon. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 26 52. Cassandra Lovelady If youre abiding by that stores coupon policy there is nothing wrong with how many coupons you’re using, whether it’s 5 or 50 (or more). Hold your head up high and be proud that you’re saving yourself/your family money. Dont let some bitter cashiers or customers discourage you! 53. Barbara Boarman Set a budget. It doesn’t take long to over spend when you are buying multiple items of everything you need. 54. Nancy Ponder Evans And don’t forget to price match and still use your coupon. Makes for more savings 55. Meg McAdams Coyne Don’t panic when your family actually starts using your stock I’m by no means a “shelf cleaner” but I do get excited when I have bags of cookies, pop-tarts, cereal, etc. on standby and I must admit I used to get sad to see them dwindle. Now I realize the deals will come around again. 56. Susan McCarter Combs Know you’re cost after the coupon! Budget, budget, budget! 57. Patti Goldman Gleason I only use coupons on sale items, and my main use for them is to save money on items I use or maybe to try out something new. I have cut my grocery bill in half just by using coupons. My suggestion….don’t hoard. Don’t but 550 bottle of bbq sauce or croutons if you will not use them. Stock up on the things that your family uses a lot or needs if you can get them cheap! 58. Keri Hemmerling Hold on to coupons if the deal isn’t that good… Either it is a rare coupon you must use, or a coupon you will see a lot! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 27 59. Jackie Carr McHargue Make it a habit to only go to the store when you have your binder…..this alone saves us a fortune (no more wasteful grabby trips), plus you get in the habit of always looking to see if you have a coupon foe an item. 60. Julie McGuire Don’t buy something just because you have a coupon. 61. Jean Crosby I started with shampoo, bath soap, toothpaste and toilet paper so my grocery money is now spent on groceries. 62. Christina Marie Le Hew Do a spread sheet for your first month of couponing. Show what was out of pocket and what your savings were. Have it auto tabulate so you physically see your first months savings. Do this for a few months to track your progress and share the info with family. Its a real boost to continue. 63. Cecilia White Be disciplined. It’s easy to be tempted to buy things when you’re at the store so often. Buy what you planned on unless there’s an unadvertised super low sale or clearance. 64. Amanda Bass Ross Keep in mind the shelf life of the products, When I first started years ago I’d have things go past their shelf life before we used them.. Only buy what you know you will use by the use by dates.. 65. Jackie Ellis Organization from day one 66. Brandon-Sally Cox Please don’t buy too many toothpastes. Lol! Its cool if you donate some but not very many people realize they expire and usually expires before you get a chance to use them all. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 28 67. Bethany Sellers Evans DON’T TAKE YOUR COUPONS AND SALES ADS TO THE STORE ON SATURDAY WHEN THE SALE DOESN’T START TIL SUNDAY. lol 68. Ellyn Harrer For me Walgreens is the worst, so take in a copy of their coupon policy, they are THE biggest coupon police. 69. Laurel Briggs Lela Mittie Peaveler, I think with WalMart and Smiths you have two good stores, I shop Smith’s alot since they are part of Kroger, they don’t always have the same sales as Kroger, but I still have found some awesome deals. I’m not a fan of WalMart, but I still go there cuz they also have great deals. Make a price book on the stuff you normally buy, get to know your “good deals” so you can compare. 70. Megan Reynolds If you live in a small town, that doesn’t have a store ie: Walgreens, CVS, price match at Walmart!! I do it every week, but make sure to take the add with you. Also print out the store coupon policies, it can help when the cashier is confused!! 71. Penny M. Roberts Hyde As a first time couponer, my advice is to be prepared! I spent two weeks deciding which coupons I needed, preparing my binder and ten going to town. All said and done, deals, coupons and freebies, I saved $173. I am anxious to see how much actual time weekly it will take for upkeep and planning. If 3 hours or less, definitely worth my time!!!!! such fun, too! 72. Rebecca Anderson I live in a small town and get the local paper as well as a metro area paper. Usually the coupons are different. I meet my parents or sister in a bigger town an hour away about once a month. I will start planning trips to some of the stores in that town that I don’t have where I live. You can also get people to mail you their coupons or sales ads. Another thing that helps is having someone else encouraging you and couponing too. At work Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 29 we go through sales ads and coupons together at lunch and share stories of how much we saved. 73. Carol Scoble Cowart To begin with, I say this: #1) start with one genre of products (hygiene, canned goods, etc…) #2) pick one or two stores to start with AND #3) get organized. 74. Nicia Villanueva-Whitney READ THE COUPONS! 75. Angie VanderLeest I only use a coupon with items that are on sale (unless we really need the item right away)…you’ll get a bigger savings that way. 76. Lisa Langley Seriously think about HOW MUCH you will use. It WILL go on sale again. When I first started over 8 months ago, cereal and poptarts went on sale and were like under a dollar a box. I went nuts…We have 3 kids + 2 adults in the house. I bought like 10 boxes of cereal and 10 boxes of poptarts. I seriously thought we needed that much. Turns out, I’m now still finding boxes of cereal from that first weekend. And most of them are expiring or already are expired! It’s NOT worth it EVEN IF it is FREE if you are hoarding it and throwing it away! Not to mention, you are keeping someone else’s family from being able to get what they NEEDED. 77. Melanie Baxter My biggest tip is to make “friends” with at least one cashier at the store, it makes it easier when the cashier thinks what you are doing is cool and not a pain. Also try not to anger the managers… they can be the bane of your existence. 78. Tamelia Tumlin If you want to get a deal at the drug stores (Walgreens, Rite Aid). Get there by 8:00 on the first day of the sale. Otherwise you can pretty much hang it up. They NEVER have very much stock (maybe 10 if you are lucky of any sale item). Really, they shouldn’t even bother with a week long sale. More like a Two hour sale! I get so frustrated with those stores. We Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 30 live 30 minutes away and can’t get there on Sunday mornings cause church starts for us at 9:00. By lunch (or sooner) almost everything is GONE! Then they have 6 more days of a sale with NO STOCK! Ridiculous! 79. Christy Fontaine Stay organized! Keep your to “coupon”items when shopping and gtryto avoid too many “extras” (non coupon items), Keep your eyes peeled for deals, and you coupons on you at all times! It is addicting to save $$… so go in it with good thoughts, and it will all fall in place! 80. Patty Barbour Burton Make a list of only what u things u need not want…your point is to save money I see tons of people going over budget for stupid items..then learn your store prices on all those needed items..so u know what’s a sale n what isn’t. 81. Cory Reed Don’t forget rain checks! Easy way to extend a sale and get the popular items that are gone before u get there! 82. Lisa Olivier Galleguillos Start small, maybe start with a drugstore, where the savings can be so much higher than the grocery stores. And the drugstores often have great deals on nonpersishable food items as well as non-food items. 83. Julianne Drexler Donate ALL your expired manufacturer coupons to COUPS FOR TROOPS!!!! 84. Know that everyone’s idea of a good deal is different… And that the more you coupon the more your idea of a good deal will change. I rarely pay more then $1 or $2 for anything that I know I can find a coupon on. 85. Bring your coupons with you EVERY time you leave the house, you never know when you’ll find a good deal. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 31 86. Jaime Putnam read the coupons and the ad for sizes, lot of times i get my coupons ready for the items on sale and find out it was for the a diff size… 87. Missie Purgason Cummings don’t expect to walk out of the store without spending ANY money. 88. Gloria Acevedo Keep your coupon binder in your car for those last minute trips…while you’re there, go to the back of the store and look at the great deals on the reduced rack…everything in giant here in Pa is marked down anywhere from 33% to 75%! A little dent in a can or box equals big savings (you can pair these with coupons also!) 89. Missie Purgason Cummings oh, oh, and DON’T take your 7 and 5 year old with you!!! LoL 90. Jennifer Bocuzzo Dont buy the item just because you have a coupon for it. Most of the time, the generic brand is cheaper. The only time i buy name brand is if the coupon makes it cheaper than generic ) extreme couponing is a bunch of crap & full of crap! It’s 200% false!! I hope it doesn’t air ever again! 91. Organize, Organize, Organize! Keep a list and stick to it!!! 92. Angela Howard be courteous to the cashiers and do everything you can to help them in processing your order! 93. Shirlene McGuire I am from a small town also and broke both my legs this year which is what got me into searching sites for sales to make things easier for my husband since he was doing it all. Now I search facebook and other sites for free product coupons. Have had several shampoo/conditioners then wait for that buy one get one sale. I have always been a good shopper so I had enough soap for clothes, dishes, shower gel and TP. I don’t Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 32 believe in hoarder mentality either so I work at the items that will not go bad for real stock. We also torn out our kitchen before I had my accident so I was low on most other things due to lack of space and was buying as I go. So I watch for coupons to eat out on. This month we have had at least 10 free dinners. So keep eye out for those too! 94. Nita Frazier Experiment until you find the right storage system for you – the binder system works best for me. 95. Sylvia Rinck My biggest tip is to not feel embarrassed about using coupons! There will always be people who look at you a little funny… they’re just curious and some are probably jealous! 96. Christina Mahesse pick one store to start out with… mine was walgreens 97. Find a system that works for you and keep up with it! If you have all these great deals & can’t find the coupons… what’s the point? Know where you need to go to find all your coupons Also, even though your getting all this stuff for free, remember you have to pay tax. That can add up too! Alot of people see FREE FREE FREE and forget tax. 98. Jackie Carr McHargue ALWAYS check your newspaper before you buy it….last 2 weeks someone has taken the coupons out of mine…grr…shoot for a home delivery deal (scored mine today!). 99. Shannon Layfield Always go for bogo and try to match with coupon. I do my best savings that way. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 33 Expired Coupons Most people don’t know this but overseas military members can use expired coupons for up to six months past expiration! Please don’t get intimidated as this is a very detailed explanation about how to do it and it is actually very easy to send your expired coupons out….I just wanted to make sure I covered everything about this great program! Eligible Coupons: • • • Make sure and send only Manufacturer Coupons, not store specific or internet printed coupons. Make sure the coupons you are sending are not more than 30-60 days past the expiration (closer to 30 if possible especially if you will be sending them parcel post). You will need to clip the coupons and separate them into 2 different categories: Food and Non-Food items. Label your Baggies I use a baggie to separate the coupons and label them food and non food. Avoid using rubber bands or paper clips. Tip on separating them… Dog & cat food would be “Non-Food” because these cannot be consumed by humans. Something like Vitamins would be considered non-food as well because you would not eat these. Now things like candy, mints, gum, etc would be considered food. Just ask yourself, would you eat these? Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 34 Mailing Coupons The cheapest way to ship your coupons is just through Parcel Post but if you are going to send them this way please make sure and send them within a month after they expire since it does take longer to get there. Shipping will cost the same as it does to send it to your neighbor since the bases are U.S. Territory. How to mail them: Choose your way of shipping (parcel post is the cheapest) but there are priority FLAT RATE boxes so keep that in mind. • Put the base address and your return address on the form. • Fill out customs form 2976-A. This is easier than it sounds but you can just ask the post office worker what form this is and they will hand it to you. Then these are the numbers you will need to fill out and exactly what you’ll need to write in the boxes: From and To #1 write- “Manufacturer’s Coupons” #2 choose – “Pkg” # 4 write “$0.00″ #5 choose “Gift” #9 write “$0.00″ #10 write “Return to Sender” #13 sign & date • Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 35 Where to mail them: We have a reader that is overseas and is requesing expired coupons so you can go ahead and send them her way: Crystal Rohrer Cmr 427 box 3373 Apo, ae 09630 OR… You can go here: http://www.ocpnet.org/Base%20List/BaseList1.htm to choose a base that has “open adoptions”. Write down the information of the base you choose to adopt and then go here: http://www.ocpnet.org/Donation%20Form/AdoptionForm1.htm and fill out the “adoption form” (make sure and press tab not enter while filling out the form). Hit the enter key after filling out the form and then you can start sending your coupons to the base you chose! Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 36 Adopting makes it easier so you can send to the same base you adopted every time. They like to do it this way because they divvy up the coupons sent to each base so this way every base is getting coupons. Once you have your base adopted, you will be able to send your coupons there every month making it easier. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 37 F.A.Q (Frequently Asked Questions) 1-”Where do I find the coupon tabs that are in your binder? Here is a list of my personal categories that I use in my coupon binder. You may want to tweak them a little bit depending on your needs. You can also order a completely Organized Coupon Binder here: http://www.raininghotcoupons.com/couponbinder/ *Beverages *Cereals/Breakfast *Baking *Boxed Items *Canned Items *Sauces/Condiments *Snacks/Candy *Dairy *Meats *Frozen *Personal Care *Baby/Pets *Cleaning/Medicine 2- What does 9/12 RP or 8/22 SS mean, what do the RP and SS stand for and how do I find those coupons? Whenever you see something like RP, P&G, SS, it is talking about the name if the insert from the Sunday paper. So if you buy the paper on Sundays (that’s where you’ll get your coupons, and the Dollar Store has them for $1) they will have inserts in them full of coupons. Every Sunday they will have a RP (Red Plum) and SS (Smart Source) and some Sundays they will have a P&G (Proctor and Gamble). So if a post says “9/12 RP”, it means the insert was from the Sunday paper on 9/12 in Red Plum. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 38 3 - I am trying to figure out the best way to organize. If you do a binder how do you find them by date also? Your blog lists them by date like 11/04/10 ss and if I put the whole inserts in a bag how would I find them? I actually use both systems. I use the bag system with the dates written on the front of the bag and organize them that way. Then you need to organize the bags. You can either organize them by the inserts so Red Plum would all go in one bin and Smart Source in another…OR you can organize them by date so like one month worth of coupons goes in one bin. It just depends how you want to do it. If you choose to do it by the insert, you can still find them easily when we use dates on blogs. So if we say 10/24 RP then you just need to go to your “Red Plum Bin” and find the bag labeled 10/24. Also, with the binder what I do is just put my favorite coupons in it (the ones for items I use or will need to buy or want to buy). Now some people don’t want to deal with all the other coupons in the inserts so they just clip the ones they want and put them in their binder and then when coupon blogs refer to certain dates you wouldn’t go by that, you would just have to look in your category. So for example, if the coupon is for Gum 10/24 RP. You will ignore the date and just look in your “snacks and candy” category to get your coupon. I personally keep all the coupons that’s why I have to use both systems. 6- What is the best way to shop at Walgreens? The managers have told me you can not use register reward to pay for other items that you would get register reward for. That’s true about the RR at Walgreens and that’s a big reason I like Rite Aid, because you can roll the register rewards. I would recommend doing separate transactions at Walgreens if you want to get multiple register rewards. Sometimes I will do item A first then item B in the second transaction that also has a RR and then use item A’s RR from the first transaction to pay for it. Then use the reward I get from item B on another transaction buying item A again… (Just keep going back and forth with 2 items) so Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 39 you can spend the least amount out of pocket, in a way it’s like rolling them. Also, pay at the “cosmetics counter”. The cashier gets a bonus on any beauty products you get there (so it puts them in a better mood) and that way you don’t have a line behind you when you’re doing several transactions. 7- Do you have a certain schedule you seem to follow to get the best deals? Like do you buy papers and clip on Sundays, shop certain stores on Monday etc.? Also how many papers do you usually buy each week? Here is what I do: Saturday night I figure out what stores I’m shopping and what deals I’m going to get which I will be doing in a minute! Since most of the time the coupons you are going to use are from previous weeks, I get them organized and put them together for the next day (Sunday). On Sunday morning I go get my newspapers and if I need to clip any coupons out of them I either do it in my car or go back home and do it. Usually there aren’t that many out of that Sunday’s paper so it’s easy enough to do it in the car. Then I go to my stores…usually Rite Aid first, Walgreens, Smiths, then Albertsons and occasionally Target. Some weeks I just go to Rite Aid, and Walgreens depending on what deals are out there. When I get home I usually clip and organize my coupons. I know it sounds like a lot and a long time but I’d say half of my Sunday I spend on my coupons and the other half with my family. Now you may want to get your newspapers Sunday and then go out Monday but where I live, a lot of hot, good deals will be gone if I wait until Monday. Plus, I figure I’m going to be out getting my newspapers anyway so why not get my shopping done. I get between 5-10 newspapers depending on what coupons are going to be in them and if there are Albertson’s “twice the value” coupons in it or not. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 40 8- I am a military wife, does that mean I can use any expired coupon at the Commissary? Stateside (within the continental United States) commissaries do not allow the use of expired coupons. Only overseas U.S. military commissaries can legally allow the use of expired coupons. After a coupon has been expired for six months or more, it is useless even at an overseas military commissary. 9- I am still not seeing drastic results such as others. My question is how do I get things that we eat and that are on sale for less than 40 dollars a week? My tip for you would be – stockpile! It does take some time to get your stockpile up but once you have a large stockpile then you can spend your grocery money on staples and things to put meals together. It’s kind of hard to explain but let’s say you want to make lasagna one night and you have a stockpile of tomoto sauce that was on sale a month ago, pasta, and cheese you froze from a sale a month ago (yes, you can freeze cheese). Well now when you go to make the Lasagna, you are only going to need to buy a couple things to put it together (that staples). That’s when you will start noticing your grocery bill go down! Like I said, it does take some time to build a good stockpile but every week there’s new sales which means more and different items to add to it which in return means LESS you have to buy at full price when you go to make your dinner meal. 10- Can you please explain how you get 2 items for free when you use a B1G1 Free coupon with a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale? With B1G1 sales if you use a B1G1 COUPON then you don’t have to pay anything. It’s kind of confusing but basically the free item you are getting with the coupon covers the item you would have paid for. So say there’s a sale on cereal for B1G1 Free…you’re getting 2 cereals and since you have a coupon for a FREE one and the sale is for a FREE one then both end up being FREE. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 41 11- The Rite-aid circular has coupons with ‘Rite-aid’ printed on them but state manufacture coupon up at the top. Is this a store specific coupon or a manufacture coupon that I can use anywhere?? I see this quite often with Target as well. Sometimes the coupon will state “reedemable at walgreens”? The Rite Aid ones can only be used at Rite Aid. The Target ones however, can sometimes be used at other stores. Sometimes it will say on the fine print. If they are in a circular ad, they can only be used at that store. Walgreens will have the same type in their circular ads. Now as far as the “redeemable at” coupons, it all just depends on where you try to use them….some stores will let you use them and some will not. 12- What if I cannot afford to buy or put together a coupon binder? You do not need a binder to save money…..You can clip your coupons and put them in ziplock bags (I still do this sometimes) and just write the dates on the front from whatever inserts are in it. That way when I post a deal and say 2/27 RP, you know to look in the bag that says 2/27 RP. Pull your coupons out and get an envelope for each store, then place the coupons you will be using for that shopping trip in your specific stores envelope. 13- This past Sunday, in the paper that was delivered to my home, I had 2 RP and 2 SS inserts. I went to Walmart and purchased a couple more. When I got home and was ready to clip, there were no RP inserts!! So, my question is… Do the newspapers in all the stores not have the same inserts? The papers in YOUR region or area should all have the same inserts (different regions can have slightly different inserts) but in your same city, you should have the same. Now, with that being said, there have been a couple times when the $1 store doesn’t have any inserts (but most of the time they do). Also, one time I got a stack from the gas station that was behind the counter and the cashier had to actually clip the bundle and it was the strangest thing, Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 42 half of them had inserts and half didn’t!! That doesn’t happen often at all but when it did happen to me I returned them. I’m not sure why it happens…. 14 - I’m I allowed to use a buy one get one free Gillette body wash and a 2 dollars off of 1 together right? Yes (depending on your store, but yes for the most part)…you are using the $2 off coupon on the item you are purchasing. The buy 1 get 1 coupon applies itself to the “free” item. Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 43 Stockpiling How much money should you budget per month to spend on a stockpile? I don’t really set a budget amount because depending on the sales for that week/month I will most likely be lower than any budget (although some months sales are not as good as others) so it really varies. I find that if I set an actual “budget” I end up getting extra items just because I have an extra $30 to spend. How long does it take to get a stockpile going? Really not that long, especially on items like toothpaste, deodorant, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo/conditioner etc (at least one of these items is free almost every week). After established, how much will is take off the regular grocery shopping bill? It’s good to have a good stockpile because then you only have to buy the “staples” to meals. For example, if you’re making pasta for a meal, you can almost always have a great stockpile on pasta and sauce but I like to make my sauce with fresh garlic, so I will just need to purchase garlic as a staple for that meal….see how that can drastically reduce your grocery bill?? Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com 44 RainingHotCoupons.com Last but certainly not least, I highly recommend checking out my site Raining Hot Coupons. http://www.RainingHotCoupons.com Raining Hot Coupons is a money saving/deal blog that helps everyone learn how to use coupons and save a ton of money. It offers FREE coupon matched shopping lists, videos to teach you how to get started using coupons and features any HOT, current deals. It’s updated daily with any fantastic deals out there to save you the most money! Please be sure to check out my Coupons videos, Facebook page, Twitter and more: Raining Hot Coupons Facebook Page (never miss a HOT deal): http://www.Facebook.com/Raininghotcoupons Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/rainingcoupons YouTube Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/raininghotcoupons Raining Hot Coupons Copyright 2011 | All Rights Reserved www.RainingHotCoupons.com