Stacking coupons

Stacking coupons is the best way to maximize savings. What it means is combining a manufacture coupon with a store coupon. Sometimes the fine print on a coupon says, "cannot be combined with any other offer". This is referring to other like coupons for a single item. For example you cannot use two 1.00/1 coupons for a single product.

How I make stacking work for me is I look for coupons (manufacturer and store) that are for the same product. Ie a target coupon for 1.50/1 iams dog food and a manufacturer coupon for 3.00/1 iams. This way I will be getting 4.50 off the retail price of the product.

What if the coupons are for different amounts of products? If I have a store coupon for 5.00/2 cover girl products that means I must buy 2 cover girl items to use the coupon. If I have a manufacturer coupon for 2.00/1 cover girl product I can use two of them because I am buying two products. I would end up getting a total of 9.00 off of both or 4.50 off of each.

How to read coupons

There are two major kinds of coupons, manufacturer and store coupons. It is important to know which is which, the difference between the two and how to use them.

Things to look at:

1. In the upper left hand corner is printed "Manufacturers Coupon". This means that in the example below that Colgate put out this coupon.

2. The expiration date in the upper right corner tells you the last day you can use your coupon by.

3. The amount the coupon is good for.

4. What the Coupon is good for. Here the coupon is good for $1.00 off of ANY 2 Colgate Toothpaste. In fine print below is states, "except for trial size". This means that you can use this on any flavor or type of toothpaste Colgate puts out as long as it is not a trial size...You do not have to get what is on the picture, it is just an example.

5. The fine print at the bottom. This varies by coupon and can state many different things. The most important things to look for is if there is anything about how many "like" coupons can be used in the same shopping trip. One thing that can be confusing is the wording of "Limit one coupon per purchase". This does not mean you can only buy one. It simply means that you can only use one manufacture coupon per item(s) that you buy. Also, if a coupons states you have to buy two make sure to actually buy two.

Many stores give out coupons as well. They are very similar but there are some simple differences. Just like above you want to check out the main items listed above. Here the coupon is a Target coupon and can only be redeemed at Target.

Both types of coupons come in the paper and online. When printing online coupons make sure to print from reliable sources such as coupons.com, couponnetwork.com, redplum.com, smartsource.com, target.com/coupons. Never, never, never photo copy coupons to get more. This constitutes as coupon fraud which is a criminal act.

Why stockpile?

Many people wonder why would anyone buy 20 bags of rice or 35 razors. Typically when a person shops they only buy what they need when they need it and stores know it. Toilet paper isn't something you will need only once a year so if they put it on sale only once a year people will still buy it. Fact of the matter is there are staples of life that everyone will always need. The idea of stockpiling is to buy when the prices are low and buy enough to last until the next sale. Sale cycles run about every 3-6 months on products. So Secret deodorant may be on sale right now bit not again until July. If you can get a product cheap enough, say .15 each, buy enough to last your family until the next sale.

Products follow predictable patterns for sales. When is flu season? December or January. Guess what's on sale...cold and flu medicine. Same for holidays or seasons. A good example of a seasonal sale is mustard. During the big BBQ holidays mustard and other condiments will go on sale AND many manufacture coupons will come out to make this product free or close to it. Does your family only use mustard when BBQing? Mine doesn't so I will buy enough mustard to last a few months.

Stockpile prices for me are at least 80% off for health, beauty and home products. I look for around 50-60% off for stock prices on food. Other parts of the country people can get away for less but prices in California are high.

So what are items I will never pay anything but tax for? Kleenex, paper towels, shampoo/conditioner, band aids, razors, snack items, deodorant and lotion just to name a few. If you really want to cut your family budget down for the long term, stockpiling is the way to go.

How to get started

Couponing might be a bit overwhelming to get into. I know when I started I just didn't know where to begin. Grab 4 Sunday newspapers, scissors, a stapler, 3-ring binder, dividers and baseball card inserts.

Set up you folder. Get the biggest one you can find. Label your dividers by categories that you will use. There may be coupons in the paper you won't use so don't waste your time or space on making a section for those. Catagories I use are:
Medicine
Baby
Candy
Paper products
Laundry
Air fresheners
Breakfast
Soup
Pasta
Granola/fruit
Salty snacks
Prepared sides
Condiments
Drinks
Oral care
Personal care
Cleaning
Frozen
Dessert
Bread
Meat
Baking
Sweet snacks
Batteries
Pet
Refrigerated
Misc

The way that I cut my inserts is by stacking matching pages from each newspaper insert and cut all four, or how ever many, at one time. You can line the pages up and staple them together to insure they stay in place. When I cut the whole page out I immediately put them into the baseball card insert. Believe me, it's less work this way. When I started I would individually cut each coupon out, then match up the coupons the after they were all matched put them in my binder...it took forever. Now even with my six month old twins I can find the time to clip my coupons.

Coupon Lingo

Once you get going with your coupons you will find it has it's own jargon that's takes some time to decode. Here is a list of common works or phrases you may come across.

RP = red plum
SS = smart source
PG = proctor and gamble
OOP = out of pocket
ISO = in search of
MM = money maker
Wags = walgreens
Catalinas = store or manufacture coupons that Print out next to the cash register during check out
RR= register rewards
ECB = extra care bucks

Hopefully this list will help you when you come across a coupling site

How I got into coupons

Like many people I had seen TLC's Extreme Couponing and was curious as to how anyone could save so much at the store. Could a regular person like me really walk out of the store with free stuff? I had to find out. Ever since having my twins money has been tight and if I could save even $20 a week it would really help. I bought my first sunday paper and carefully clipped out each coupon and put them all in a baggy and off to Ralph's I went. I was so excited, free stuff here I come. I walked around for two hours progressively getting more and more frustrated. The only stuff I was finding was stuff I didn't want and it wasn't even cheap. I came home and I'll admit, cried. I wanted to help the family budget out so badly and at this point it didn't look like coupons were all they were touted to be.

The following week I skipped the paper but I started search online for any help. I found out just how this all works and how people get the deals. The only problem for me was that all these people on the Internet were from other parts of the country with different sales and lower prices. So deals they were talking about didn't apply in southern CA. In my blog I will share with you how to save money here in the LA area.

I assure you that you can use coupons to significantly save money. It's easy once you know what to do. Here I will show you sample transactions to use at stores each week, freebies and helpful hints about saving.