Couponing

I spent a while doing fairly serious couponing thing back in the '80s, when stores commonly offered double and triple coupon savings. I never achieved the two baskets of groceries for $10 that the most avid couponers boast of, but I did fairly well. As the double coupon trend died out, my work life got busier and our shopping shifted away from the name-brand products that it was easy to find coupons for, so it didn't seem worth the time. Now that the prices of food are rising so much, though, I've been feeling like I ought to get back into it again.

Nobody's doing double coupons these days, but it does seem that there are a lot of online sources for coupons that didn't exist back then. And name brands are more interesting. I found coupons for Patak's brand Indian foods online today. I also found some coupons for independent local stores (and restaurants) at My Clipper.

I'm hoping others will share their coupon sources and tips.

Here are a few sites with printable food coupons. Some require registration and you may have download their printer software.

Smart Source
Name brands.

Coupons.com
Name brands.

My Clipper
Coupons from smaller, independent stores.

Walgreens
Printable versions of the coupons from the store circulars. A surprising number of food items, at least this week.

Target
Amount of grocery items varies considerably store to store.

Some things I can think of are, getting previews of the coupons before they come out on Sunday@ http://www.taylortownpreview.com/ Then if you want to buy extra Tribune's, Dollar Tree sells them for 1.00 a piece. I believe Menards may also.

If you must shop at Jewel then use their "Avenu" system @ http://www.jewelosco.com/eCommerceWeb/A ... pLoginPage

Combine your offers with coupons and you can get terrific deals. Last week I scored 12 pks of Dr Pepper for about 75 cents a piece.

Jewel and Dominicks both take expired coupons,although some Jewels try not to. I've also been successful at Meijer's & Ultra Foods. One tip for using them is to look for a teen aged boy cashier. Their minds are usually elsewhere

try cutting the expiration date off...

Artie wrote:One tip for using them is to look for a teen aged boy cashier. Their minds are usually elsewhere

Lol- my strategy to a tee!

I recently got a 3-day subscription to the Trib (Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) for 50 cents a week. (I other just read it online.) Obviously the Sunday coupon savings alone pay for the subscription. I just looked at the Trib's website and didn't see it listed as a subscription option, but you might have success getting the deal if you simply call the Trib's 800 number and ask for it.

I use the following websites.

Valpak

Most people receive Valpak in the mail via a carrier route sort mailing in an envelope. I like to print additional coupons off the online site.

MoneyMailer

Another envelope of coupons that typically is sent to your home.

Red Plum
Brand Names. This coupon company puts out one of the two coupon inserts in the Chicago Tribune.

I also find that a lot of manufacturers put coupons on their websites. They might require you to sign up for a free newsletter, so I use a free yahoo account for these services. Keeps the spam out of my daily inbox. For example, Pillsbury has coupons that change on a monthly basis on their site.

Kim

Walmart has Bush's Grillin Beans for $1.25 this week a cans. There are four flavors and they all sound rather tasty. Anyway, a couple weeks ago there was a $1.00 coupon for those beans. So I ordered 20 of them off Ebay, cost me $2.50. So I got 20 cans of beans for $7.50, not too bad.

I used to help my mom with coupon stuff quite a bit when I was a kid. I was always impressed by those people who walked away with a cart of groceries for $10, or something, and there seemed a certain gamesmanship in the pursuit.

I hadn't really thought of how online communities would affect that world, but it's been fun to poke around some of the links that have come up here and in the rising cost of food thread.

One particularly good coupon I ran across was $1.00 off any Muir Glen tomato. Our local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has 14.5 oz cans for $1.22...I bought 20 cans of tomatoes yesterday for 22 cents a piece.

http://youandyourfamily.com/lower.php?url=coupons
(Look for the Muri Glen [sic] link on the page linked to here, registration required.)

Like Kim, I use a yahoo account to avoid all the superfluous junk.

I'm sure many are familiar with this, but for those who aren't...

Each month Walgreens publishes something called its EasySaver catalog (available online here http://www.walgreens.com/store/rebateclub.jsp and in stores). The catalog includes a lot of coupons for in-store use only, plus rebates on a number of items. They usually have 5-10 things that are free after rebate, plus ~50 items that have a rebate (but aren't free). If you choose to get your rebate loaded onto a Walgreens gift card, they'll give you a 10% bonus on your rebates. Since most of these items are taxed at only ~2%, the 10% bonus more than makes up for the cost of postage and sales tax.

You can use manufacturers' coupons on these purchases, so free after rebate can turn into money-back after rebate.

Posted this in Other Culinary Chat in the "high cost..." thread. Thought it might be useful here too:


Lth -

IF you are an avid clipper (or even an occasional one,) today is one of those days that should put a great big smile on yer mug:

Jewel -

10 for $10 General Mills products when bought in multiples of 10. All of those 75c off chex coupons should come in REAL handy. Also, I'm finding lots of coupons for nature valley granola bars, "curves" products, chex mix, cheerios snack mix, Caribou coffee bars, and more that are going to fill my pantry for pennies today. Some of this stuff will be free for me. Time to dig through those coupon stacks!

The problem I have with clipping coupons is that we don't use a lot of brand name items, and I can't figure out how to organize the ones I would use - a few cereals, cleaners, personal products, in a manner that I will check for and use them.

What are your best organizing tips so that you actually use them?

EXACTLY how you just listed them.
Cereals, cleaning products, ,meats, cheeses, condiments. Go to your dollar store, and grab a coupon organizer. It's just a plastic pouch with sections that have tabs - like a mobile file cabinet that's the size of small pouch. I hope you haven't sworn off name brands because of the price. I'm buying 15 boxes of General Mills Chex cereal today for 25 cents a piece. I'll also be buying Nature Valley granola bars for 30 cents and 50 cents a box today. Whatever Cheerios Snack Mix is, I'll be getting three or four boxes for free. I'll also be getting 10 more boxes of asst Gen Mills cereal for 50c/box.

seebee,

When you acquire 15 boxes of Chex cereal, does your immediate family eat them all or give them to friends and family?

Regards,

I'm a loyal fan of Fiber 1 cereal. You never used to see coupons for it nor would it go on sale, but recently they've raised the price (to almost $5) and started to print coupons for it. I have several of those coupons, so I'll definitely be buying 10 or 20 boxes of it. If I can get a year's worth of cereal--usually costing about $100--for less than $20 (after coupons), then I'll definitely jump on it, even if I do have to search for a place to store it.

Cathy2 wrote:seebee,

When you acquire 15 boxes of Chex cereal, does your immediate family eat them all or give them to friends and family?

Regards,

It depends. I tried to deliver some to my parents house today, but my mom had already gone to Jewel, and picked up 40 boxes herself. She averaged about 30c a piece, and will deliver some to my siblings.

I am in possession of about 25 boxes right now. I went with the S/o, and bought 40 assorted General Mills items. Nature's Valley Granola Bars, Betty Crocker Fruit snacks, Gardettos snack things, Cereals etc. It cost a little over 20.00. I averaged 50 cents a box. My Jewel had coupons in the aisles even. 1.00 off of two. Only a handful of ppl were really paying attention. It's really funny to watch people looking at the displays and reading out loud "Ooooh 2.00 for a box of Golden Grahams - what a great deal!" and then walking right by the coupons that are right in front of them. Must be nice to not have to care about $.
Anyway, Cathy2, I'll probably throw a few to my co-workers, but for the most part, I will keep most for the immed family. It's nice to have a big pantry / basement. They will keep just fine. Most were dated Apr 09. I can go through two boxes of cereal a month...easily. P.s my Honey Nut chex were NOT part of the deal. I wound up with Chocolate CHex, Strawberry Chex, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Cin Toast Crunch, Golden Grahams, Fruity Cheerios, and probably plenty of other brands. It was a good day. I'll go back for more tomorrow. Still have 10 more to buy.

I actually had some problems with this promotion. Fiber One was out-of-stock at my local Jewel, so I asked for a rain check. I ultimately had to escalate it to a manager, because they claimed that Fiber One cereal wasn't included in the promo (this despite Fiber One being listed in the ads, with no caveats that it applied only to Fiber One bars, which is what the store claimed). After the manager finally agreed to give me a rain check, I said, "If this promo isn't supposed to apply to Fiber One cereal, then your ad agency should be fired, because this is a very misleading ad." He actually replied, "I can't imagine how much this mistake is costing us."

So here's my question: Has anyone else been able to buy Fiber One cereal and get the the 10 for $10 price without escalating it to a manager? Since my store (Broadway & Addison) was out of the cereal, I had to take their word for it when they told me that it wouldn't ring up at 10-for-$10 even if it had been in stock.

Aaron Deacon wrote:
One particularly good coupon I ran across was $1.00 off any Muir Glen tomato. Our local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has 14.5 oz cans for $1.22...I bought 20 cans of tomatoes yesterday for 22 cents a piece.

Dumb question alert:

I haven't clipped coupons before but it sounds like I could get some great deals if I started. Can you use one coupon as many times as you want--like did you just bring in one coupon for 20 cans, or did you have to actually print out 20 coupons?

PlayItGeorge wrote:

Aaron Deacon wrote:
One particularly good coupon I ran across was $1.00 off any Muir Glen tomato. Our local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has 14.5 oz cans for $1.22...I bought 20 cans of tomatoes yesterday for 22 cents a piece.

Dumb question alert:

I haven't clipped coupons before but it sounds like I could get some great deals if I started. Can you use one coupon as many times as you want--like did you just bring in one coupon for 20 cans, or did you have to actually print out 20 coupons?

I'm a coupon-user(hi! my name is and...)

In my experience it's one coupon per

there might even be limitations upon how many coupons/products you can apply

then again, sometimes cashiers let things slide(see: Bed, Bath, and Beyond...)

PlayItGeorge wrote:

Aaron Deacon wrote:
One particularly good coupon I ran across was $1.00 off any Muir Glen tomato. Our local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has 14.5 oz cans for $1.22...I bought 20 cans of tomatoes yesterday for 22 cents a piece.

Dumb question alert:

I haven't clipped coupons before but it sounds like I could get some great deals if I started. Can you use one coupon as many times as you want--like did you just bring in one coupon for 20 cans, or did you have to actually print out 20 coupons?

As CG suggests above, I printed it out 20 times.

Aaron Deacon wrote:

PlayItGeorge wrote:

Aaron Deacon wrote:
One particularly good coupon I ran across was $1.00 off any Muir Glen tomato. Our local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has 14.5 oz cans for $1.22...I bought 20 cans of tomatoes yesterday for 22 cents a piece.

Dumb question alert:

I haven't clipped coupons before but it sounds like I could get some great deals if I started. Can you use one coupon as many times as you want--like did you just bring in one coupon for 20 cans, or did you have to actually print out 20 coupons?

As CG suggests above, I printed it out 20 times.

Thank you.

Aaron Deacon wrote:As CG suggests above, I printed it out 20 times.

Note that the printable coupons have serial numbers so you can't just set your printer to print the same coupon 20 times if you plan to use them all at the same time.

seebee wrote:Jewel -

10 for $10 General Mills products when bought in multiples of 10. All of those 75c off chex coupons should come in REAL handy. Also, I'm finding lots of coupons for nature valley granola bars, "curves" products, chex mix, cheerios snack mix, Caribou coffee bars, and more that are going to fill my pantry for pennies today. Some of this stuff will be free for me. Time to dig through those coupon stacks!

I couldn't find this promotion in Jewel's online weekly ad, but another site said it was good till May 10. I assume this is with a Jewel card?

Is it mix and match products or do you have to get 10 boxes of the same thing?

Some General Mills coupons here:
http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/coupons/

Jewel card probably needed.
mix and match.
Some things included: cereals, betty crocker fruit snacks, nature valley granola bars, gardettos snack mixes, chex mix, there are more, too.

LAZ wrote:

Aaron Deacon wrote:As CG suggests above, I printed it out 20 times.

Note that the printable coupons have serial numbers so you can't just set your printer to print the same coupon 20 times if you plan to use them all at the same time.

I did, though, and they took them just fine.

I hadn't ever tried to use coupons at ethnic markets, but when I stopped in at Assi Plaza in Niles, I happened to spot some Dixie paper goods for which I had a coupon (online type) and needed.

The clerk looked at the coupon I presented, mystified, and put it down. I handed her the product and said, "It's a coupon for this." She put both items down. I repeated myself, but it was clear she had no idea what I was saying.

She turned to another clerk and showed her the coupon. The other clerk shook her head.

So they don't take coupons at Assi Plaza, whether as a matter of policy or lack of training, I don't know.

LAZ -- you are correct; the General Mills special is actually a smaller ad that is wrapped around the weekly ad you can view online, that part wasn't available online.

I called ahead just to make sure & it is running through the 10th. The special ad clearly lists all the options you have for this offer, most of which seebee detailed.

The only downfall is that they have limited cereal options; only regular Cheerios; a handful of [odd] Chex offerings (chocolate & strawberry, if I recall); Kix/Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and some other choices I don't eat very often.

I ended up with 2 Cheerios, 2 Kix, 2 Golden Grahams, and 4 boxes of various Nature Valley granola bars. Basically I was hoping for more Cheerios & Chex choices, but oh well, still a great deal.

Had a few coupons, so I think I got all those for $0.75 each. Also to note, the Jewel I visited (Addison/Elston) was saying it was a limit of 10 boxes per customer, which was more than fine for me. And yes, Preferred Card is needed.....

miss ellen

To add to the info about the General Mills cereal promotion: Fiber One (the cereal) isn't included in the promo despite the fact that it's listed in the ad without an qualifiers. Apparently they only meant to include Fiber One Bars. I raised the issue with customer service and they sold me 10 boxes for $10 (which was really 10 boxes for $4.25 pre-tax after coupons). As someone who's worked as a copyeditor, I felt like I had a valid argument, and the manager obviously agreed with me. (Some items listed included the word "Bars" in their name, and some items on the list included printed qualifiers, such as specific sizes...the Fiber One on their list included neither of these things.)

Aaron Deacon wrote:

LAZ wrote:

Aaron Deacon wrote:As CG suggests above, I printed it out 20 times.

Note that the printable coupons have serial numbers so you can't just set your printer to print the same coupon 20 times if you plan to use them all at the same time.

I did, though, and they took them just fine.

Well, not at the Dominick's in Arlington Heights, where I had to argue with them to take two perfectly legitimate coupons printed from the web. Both coupons were for the same product, but each had a different serial number.

About 10 minutes to closing time, the assistant manager was running the checkout. I hand him the two 50-cent coupons for Dixie Ultra paper plates and two packages of plates.

Mgr: I can't accept more than one of these.

Me: Why not?

Mgr (pointing to a line on the coupon): They're for the same item. We can't take more than one coupon per item.

Me: I have two items, one per coupon.

Mgr: I'll show you our policy. (Brandishes paper that reads, "Do not accept more than one 'copy' of a coupon.")

Me: I only have one copy of each coupon. You can see each has a different serial number.

We go around a couple more times. I ask for the manager. He says huffily, "I am the manager," even though I can see "assistant manager" right there on his badge. Finally, he agrees to accept the coupons, but I can see he thinks he's doing me a favor.

And I only had the two coupons. I can only imagine what would have happened with 20 or more.

I work at Woodman's and we don't accept online coupons. The theory is that there are to many ways to duplicate/counterfeit and therefore they aren't accepted. The prices are already very low therefore in most cases you are paying less for the same or equal item at Jewel or Dominick's.

I work in the deli and our Sara Lee products are all priced at $5.99 LB. The same deli items at Jewel are at least $8.99 LB. Most of our cereal is at least 20% cheaper then our competitors.

mousec1 wrote:I work at Woodman's and we don't accept online coupons.

I determined this weekend that Shop & Save also doesn't accept online coupons, although they take newspaper and magazine coupons. They said it was because the coupon broker they use doesn't accept them.