Coupon Tip - 11/2/09

So I was chatting with a friend of mine about couponing and the thought came to me that some of my readers are seasoned couponers and some of them are probably new to the idea of "super" couponing! So I will try to start each week with a coupon tip on Monday.

So here's my first tip. ALWAYS save your newspaper coupon inserts. I know, it seems silly to someone who shops like a regular person (you know the kind of person that goes to the store once a week or once every other week). When you become a super couponer - you will not only find yourself at the store MORE often, but you will find yourself wishing you had held onto those old inserts! So SAVE them!

Saving them doesn't mean that you have to clip every coupon out and file them all away (in fact I think that would be harder to organize over the long run). What I like to do is go through the insert and see if its worthy of picking up extra papers or not (some weeks have multiple inserts or sometimes have FREEs in them and some weeks are much thinner). Then I clip what I know I will use for sure (items that I know will go on sale and I can get for pennies, or items that are staples in our home). I leave what's left as a whole insert and combine them together so there is one wrapper over the whole thing. If you take a close look at the spine of your coupon inserts you'll see that they are stamped with a date. If you store yours together like this, when a deal comes up you can reference back to the week the coupon was in that you need and its much easier to find AND you don't have to waste all that time clipping coupons you may never use!

You might be thinking - why save them if I know they are things I would never buy for my household? There are a few reasons - 1. Chances are you will become less brand loyal as a couponer. Once its in your blood its hard to pass on a great deal. And you are more likely to give other brands a try when they are FREE! 2. Couponers often "buy" things they don't need to get things they do need for free! Who says no to free money (and you can always donate the items that you don't need!!)

At the end of the day - you REALLY should be saving all your coupon inserts. Since Jewel doesn't take expireds anymore, you only have to hang on to maybe the last 6 months or so (before when they did take expireds I stored up to 18 months worth!!) File them in a cabinet, on your desk, in a box...wherever you can get back to them if you need to for a deal!

Do you have a great coupon tip? Send me an email at bargainisthenewblack@gmail.com!