I frequently encounter people who don’t use coupons simply because they really feel like it isn’t worth their time.

If you’ve run the numbers and discovered this to be the case, I respect that. Coupon use, like all areas of personal finance, is an individual choice and not everybody will find it advantageous or to their liking.

However, I find that the “not worth my time” attitude is most frequently the case with individuals who clip only the occasional coupon and do not take the time to really figure out how coupons work and how to get the most from them. Those of us who use them frequently comprehend their value and we’ve also learned how you can get probably the most out of them. Here are some tips to obtain the most from coupons.
1. Get organized

Coupons are only useful if you know what you have and where. Coupons randomly stuffed in drawers or wallets rarely get used. Get and use some sort of organizational system. Some individuals use recipe boxes or binders with sheets of pockets like those designed for baseball card collections. I prefer a small expanding file. It’s the length of a business envelope with expandable pockets inside. I can label each pocket to better sort my coupons. Figure out the categories that make sense to you and sort your coupons accordingly.
2. Frequently weed out expired coupons

Unless your stores are kind sufficient to take expired coupons, weed out the old ones a minimum of once a month. Otherwise you’ll be frustrated and slowed down within the store by all of the coupons you can’t use. Consider sending those expired coupons to assist military families stationed overseas.
3. Attempt to shop somewhere that doubles coupons

Numerous grocery stores double or triple coupons up to a certain amount. This really increases your savings. Look for special promotions where the store doubles or triples much more coupons per order or higher dollar value coupons. Know your costs although simply because some shops that double coupons charge much more than those that do not, meaning which you could shop somewhere else and save much more money, even with out the doubled coupons.
four. Know what coupons could be combined

Many shops permit you to combine coupons issued by the store (“store coupons”) with those issued by the manufacturer (“manufacturer’s coupons”) that are the ones you get from the newspaper. This indicates that if you have a store coupon for $1.00 off and a manufacturer’s coupon for the same item for $1.00 off, then you can combine them and save $2.00. Not all shops allow this, so ask if the policy isn’t obvious.
5. Match your coupons with the sale flyer

When you get the weekly sales flyer (or take a look at them online), take some time to flip through your coupons to see what’s on sale that you have coupons for. Using coupons on sale items is a great way to improve your savings. This is how many individuals wind up getting items for free.
6. Use your store loyalty card with coupons

If your store provides a loyalty program, combine the loyalty sales with your coupons to further maximize your savings. At my store, many of my transactions function like this: The item is $1.00 off for everybody in the sale flyer. Loyalty card holders (that’s me) save an extra $.50. So I’m up to $1.50 in savings. Then I have a coupon for $.50 off, which is doubled to $1.00. Thus, I wind up saving $2.50 on the item.
7. Know that the week the coupon appears within the paper isn’t likely to be the week that the item is on sale at the store

This is because coupons are usually the first wave of promotion, designed to entice you to buy the item at full cost. Later, the item will go on sale as part of the second wave of promotion. If the coupon is still valid, that’s your time to buy. However, numerous manufacturers have figured out that individuals know this and have started issuing coupons with shorter times to expiration. Purchase whenever you really feel comfy with the cost, but if you can hold out you may get a better cost later.
8. Know where to obtain coupons and when they appear

The Sunday paper is the most obvious source for coupons. However if it’s a week having a holiday, like Christmas or Memorial Day, there won’t be any coupons within the paper or, if there are, they will be sparse. You are able to see what coupons will probably be within the paper every week on-line. In the event you buy papers off the rack, don’t waste your cash on those weeks. Other coupon sources include email offers which you sign up to obtain, in store displays or coupon machines, store web sites, flyers you obtain in the mail, coupon exchanges, and web sites where you are able to print coupons. (Just make certain your store takes coupons printed from the web; some don’t because of fraud.) There are lots of much more coupons obtainable to you than just those within the paper.
9. Clip coupons only for those items/brands you are sure to use or willing to attempt at the right price

Otherwise, you’ll have a great deal of unnecessary coupons cluttering up your space and tempting you to buy stuff you wouldn’t usually buy.

I invest very small time on my coupons (about twenty minutes every Sunday to clip, sort and weed coupons, ten minutes every Wednesday to go through the store flyers and add items to my list, and about half an hour to create my list and match the coupons to my list-so about an hour per week) and my savings average in the $50/week range. To me $50 per hour is nicely worth my time. Your savings may vary depending on where you shop and what you buy, but understanding how to get the most out of coupons will be the initial step to success.

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