Welcome to Day 30 of the monthly series: Learn How To Coupon! The last Day!

(photo credit)

Woohoo! Today is the last day of our monthly series! Congrats to all of you who have stuck it out with me for each day, and to everyone who has read any of my posts! If you have just joined us on our last day, then all of the links to the previous days will be below!
Day 1: Anatomy of a Coupon

Day 2: Anatomy of a Barcode

Day 3: Types of Coupons

Day 4: Where to Find Coupons

Day 5: Stacking Coupons

Day 6: Coupon Abbreviations

Day 7: Electronic Coupons

Day 8: Doubling Coupons

Day 9: Catalina Coupons

Day 10: Buy One Get One Free Coupons

Day 11: Organizing Your Coupons {Part 1}

Day 12: Organizing Your Coupons {Part 2}

Day 13: Sale Cycles

Day 14: Stockpiling

Day 15: Coupon Sites and Deal Matchups

Day 16: Coupon Policies

Day 17: CVS

Day 18: Walgreens

Day 19: Rite-Aid

Day 20: Target

Day 21: Walmart

Day 22: Shopping Online {Earn Cash Back Rewards}

Day 23: Planning Your Shopping Trip {Part 1}

Day 24: Planning Your Shopping Trip {Part 2}

Day 25: Problems At The Store

Day 26: Coupon Ethics

Day 27: Coupon Database

Day 28: Couponing With Kids

Day 29: Saving Without Using Coupons

Today’s Topic: Review 

So we have spent the last 30 days learning what coupons are, how they work and how to shop with them. Today I just wanted to review what we have learned so far and go over some basic tips and resources!

If you want to go back to any of the articles, they are listed above for you to read.

Basic Tips:

-Don’t feel stressed out. When you start couponing, you will feel like there is so much to learn! And there is, but that doesn’t mean that you have to learn it all in one day! It has taken me a while to get used to shopping how I shop now, so it’s always a work in progress!

-Start saving your newspaper inserts. If you just don’t know where to begin, just start by saving your coupon inserts from your Sunday paper. This way while you are reading how to coupon in this series, you can begin building a good amount of coupons to start working with.

-Get a Couponing Buddy! I love shopping with my friends because it can relieve some of the stress of trying to use coupons all on your own. If you have a more experienced couponing buddy, then they can show you the ropes in the stores, and you can see how everything works too.

-Go prepared. Don’t head to the store without some sort of plan as a beginner. Know what you are looking for and try to get everything that you may need ahead of time.

-Start out at a store that isn’t to complicated. When starting to use coupons, try not to do multiple transactions at once, or use a bunch of coupons. Just start out a store that you know is coupon friendly, and use a few coupons. Maybe even take advantage of a reward going on. Once you get the hang of that, it will build your confidence to help you do it again at another store.

Review:

Now that our days are done, I wanted to review some important points from each day that we have been learning. Each of the numbers represents the day that we covered and what is important to take away with you from that article:

1. Read your coupon when you get it. Pay attention to whether it is a store or manufacturer coupon. Look for any restrictions on the coupon.
2. Barcodes are transitioning from traditional UPC’s to the GS1 Databar. This will affect the way you read barcodes, so always pay attention to the wording as well.
3. The two main types of coupons are Manufacturer and Store coupons.
4. You can find coupons in the Sunday newspaper, online, in the store, magazines, social media (like Facebook), or on the products themselves.
5. Some stores will allow you to stack a Manufacturer AND a Store coupon together on one item to maximize your savings.
6. There are many short-term abbreviations that coupon sites use. This words are long, and often used, so knowing these abbreviations will help you in identifying common Coupon Lingo.
7. Many stores and websites provide clip-less and print-less electronic coupons that go directly to your shopper loyalty cards!
8. In some grocery stores, just by shopping there, they will double up to a certain value of each coupon you have.
9. Catalina coupons are Manufacturer and/or Store coupons that are printed from the Catalina machine located next to the register. They will also print rewards or promotions.
10. Buy One Get One Free coupons combined with store sales make for some cheap or free items. Knowing the difference of how a sale would work with these BOGO coupons is important.
11. Organizing your coupons with the “Clip-Less” method is taking your whole coupon inserts and filing them by date.
12. Organizing your coupons into a binder is known as the “Clipping” method, or “Binder” method. You organize all your coupons by category, date or alphabetically.
13. Each item that you buy runs on a sales cycle. Knowing when to purchase certain items can save you big time!
14. Stockpiling is buying an item at its cheapest price, using coupons (if possible), and buying a lot of it to sustain you until that sale comes around again.
15. Learning how to maneuver Coupon Deal sites like mine and others is important, so that you will be able to follow along the posts and wording used to list the best deals.
16. Having a copy of your store’s Coupon Policy with you, and knowing what it says is a key aspect to succeeding in couponing. Know what the store does and does not allow.
17. CVS is a very coupon friendly drugstore that accepts coupons and has rewards known as ECBs. They also offer store coupons. You need an ExtraCare card to shop here.
18. Walgreens is another drugstore that accepts coupons. They don’t require a shopper card. They have Register Rewards, and offer store coupons as well.
19. Rite-Aid is another drugstore that accepts coupons. They do require a Wellness card. They offer +UP Rewards and Single Check Rebates, as well as store coupons.
20. Target is a store that accepts coupons. They also offer store coupons, and sometimes run gift-card promotions. They price match competitors. No shopper card needed.
21. Walmart is a store that accepts coupons. They do not offer any BOGO sales, but have everyday low prices. No shopper card needed. They allow coupon overage, and price match.
22. Shopping online with sites like Ebates, and Shop At Home will give you a percentage of what you buy online back to you.
23. When you are starting your shopping trip, planning at home is important. Making lists, clipping needed coupons, and bringing your policies are important.
24. While in the stores, map out your plan. Add your totals together and gather all coupons ready to be used at the register. Be ready for checkout with your coupons.
25. If there is a problem at the store, have your Coupon Policy handy, and talk to the manager or Corporate if necessary to solve the problem.
26. Following some simple rules when using coupons will help you and others enjoy coupons all together. Be considerate of others, and follow the store and manufacturer’s coupon rules.
27. The Coupon Database is a large search engine for coupons that will help you locate any coupons available for items you need.
28. Have your kids coupon with you! There are many ways (and many ages) that kids can participate in helping out.
29. There are many times where you can’t use coupons, or don’t have any. Looking for other ways to save money is easy and important, even without coupons!
30. Review.

Other Resources:

So now that the series is ended, please stay in touch with me, and keep up with all of the best deals going on! Below are other places that update with deals and make it easier for you all to connect with me:

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

RSS

Email

Thanks so much to you all for going along in this series with me! I hope this has helped all you Coupon Newbies out there! Have fun, and save lots of money!

Happy Shopping!!

Welcome to Day 29 of the monthly series: Learn How To Coupon!

If you are just joining us, we are nearing the end of our monthly series for all the Coupon Newbies out there. If you have missed any posts, or would like to go over anything else, you can click the links below!

Day 1: Anatomy of a Coupon

Day 2: Anatomy of a Barcode

Day 3: Types of Coupons

Day 4: Where to Find Coupons

Day 5: Stacking Coupons

Day 6: Coupon Abbreviations

Day 7: Electronic Coupons

Day 8: Doubling Coupons

Day 9: Catalina Coupons

Day 10: Buy One Get One Free Coupons

Day 11: Organizing Your Coupons {Part 1}

Day 12: Organizing Your Coupons {Part 2}

Day 13: Sale Cycles

Day 14: Stockpiling

Day 15: Coupon Sites and Deal Matchups

Day 16: Coupon Policies

Day 17: CVS

Day 18: Walgreens

Day 19: Rite-Aid

Day 20: Target

Day 21: Walmart

Day 22: Shopping Online {Earn Cash Back Rewards}

Day 23: Planning Your Shopping Trip {Part 1}

Day 24: Planning Your Shopping Trip {Part 2}

Day 25: Problems At The Store

Day 26: Coupon Ethics

Day 27: Coupon Database

Day 28: Couponing With Kids

Today’s Topic: Saving Money Without Using Coupons.

So we have talked all along in this series about how to save money using coupons. BUT, it’s important to also note that there are so many ways that everyone can save without using coupons!

You will find many instances when shopping for items, that there aren’t coupons available, or you simply don’t have any. So knowing some additional money saving tips for these types of things will really help you reduce your entire budget of spending.

Let’s talk about how to save money in all kinds of areas without coupons:

Restaurants:

-Order water. Drinks can be so expensive now a days, so if you and your entire family get drinks, it can really add up! Try and get water to save some extra bucks.

-Share meals or appetizers. If you go to a place that has large meals, see if you can share it with your family. It will give you a variety of food, and cut down the cost of each of you having to get a meal. Be aware that some restaurants may charge a “sharing” cost, so try and avoid that if possible.

-Go during lunch instead of dinner. Typically restaurants will have some of the same menu items in a smaller portion for lunch, and at a cheaper price. You can save big by just switching the time that you go out to eat!

-Go when they offer specials. One of my local pizza places has great personal pizzas. But they are about $10 per person. They just started a promotion, that if you come after 10 p.m., you can get the pizzas for Buy One Get One Free! So right there I save 50% by changing the time I go. try and look out for any daily specials you restaurant may have.

Movies:

-Go to the matinee movies. These are movies that aren’t prime time movies, and are usually in the early afternoon. You can save a few bucks on tickets by going at an earlier time!

-Look for movie specials. At my local Carmike theaters, they run a special on Tuesdays where they offer $1 Popcorn and $1 Drinks. So just by going on a certain day, you can save.

-Older movies. I don’t know if this is everywhere, but we have a few theaters around here that play movies that are a few weeks older (not new releases). In return, your ticket costs are only $2.50 per ticket!

-Rent movies from $1 box. Places like Redbox and Blockbuster have mobile boxes everywhere where you can rent movies for only $1! You get the disc, and return it the next day. You can often get special codes that make these movies free!

Gas:

-Look for any type of fuel rewards programs that any of your local stores offer. My local Lowe’s Foods offers a $0.05¢ per gallon savings when you spend $100 at there stores! So if you already do your grocery shopping there anyway, this is an additional perk.

-Places like Walmart also have gas stations that are a few cents cheaper per gallon to fill up. You can sometimes buy gift cards from Walmart to purchase gas, and when you use them at the pump, it deducts a few cents off your per gallon gas. This varies in each place.

-Look for local gas station rewards. My local Sheetz offers a savings of $0.03¢ per gallon for having  their Sheetz loyalty card. They also have all kinds of freebies and perks in the store with foods and rewards.

In-Store:

-Look for Buy One Get One Free sales. This is going to be an instant 50% savings, so if you don’t have coupons, this is an excellent way of saving!

-Shop in-season for foods, fruits, and veggies. Produce is typically cheaper when you buy it in season. So try shopping for fruits and veggies by what’s in season.

-Shop low-price stores. If you don’t have any coupons, you can also add in shopping at your low price stores to help in additional savings. Places like Walmart have “low” prices, and places like Aldis have fantastic prices on foods, and produce. Keep in mind these places won’t have BOGO sales, but you can save a lot of money in general.

-Price Match. Don’t be afraid to price match an item from another store if you store allows it! Walmart allows price matching, and the store we just talked about-Aldis, has great prices on produce and other items. So if you shop at Walmart, you could price match your local Aldis, and still get the same savings.

-Look for clearance. This will become a major source of savings, especially after holidays. All stores have some sort of clearance. So be on the look out. It may just be that these things are out of season, or after a holiday. The items are greatly reduced, and you get the savings! If you shop after a holiday, you can get the same pricey items for a fraction of the cost. Just save the stuff for next years holiday, and by then, you won’t have to shop for anything! And you can do it all over again after that holiday! It’s lots of fun.

-Buy meat on sale and freeze it! Meat also runs on sale cycles, and when you catch a great deal on meat, buy a lot of it and freeze it! It freezes well, and you don’t have to go to the store to buy more when it’s back to being expensive again. Turkeys are super cheap around Thanksgiving, Hams around Christmas, Corned Beef around Easter, and HotDogs and Hamburgers around summer.

-Buy store brand/non brand name items. If you don’t have coupons available, you can still find great items that aren’t name brand! You can do your own family taste testing to see if they even notice the difference. We have found that store brands of things like baking soda, dish soap, don’t really make that much of a difference on what brand they are!

-Make things from scratch versus buying meals. You out of pocket costs will be much cheaper if you buy ingredients to your meals and make them versus them already being pre-made. It will cost you a little more labor, but less money.

-This is one of my favorite tips!! When you are in the produce section, look at all the “bagged” produce. Things like carrots, potatoes, whatever. Now these items usually have a price per bag, meaning each bag cost the same. And while it says the weight of the bag on the front, each bag doesn’t weigh the same! The companies can’t cut the items individually to match exactly, so each bag varies. What you do, is take a few of them, and weigh them on the scales that are in the produce section. You will see that some are even a half a pound over what the bag says! So get the largest bag you can, and still pay the same price.

Thrift Stores:

-Thrift stores aren’t just old and dirty clothing. You can often find new, brand name, and sometimes still tagged clothing. Many people don’t wear some of these clothes! So try shopping at some of your local thrift stores to see what you can find.

-I have also had great luck with kitchen appliances at thrift stores. I find small appliances like crock-pots, and utensils that cost a lot of money otherwise, and they work great!

-One of my local thrift stores also has 50% off a certain colored tag each day! The items are already marked down, but you can really save with the extra 50%.

-One of our local Goodwills has a “bulk bin” shopping side where instead of paying per item, you pay by weight! This makes many things like clothing very cheap.

Yard Sales:

-Yard Sales are another great source for cheap items. You can usually get some great things for cheaper than the stores! You can usually haggle the price at yard sales, whereas at the store you can’t.

-Look for things your family needs. I found barely used brand-name bread maker for $5 bucks! It works perfectly, and came with the manual.

-You can look for your local yard sales in the newspaper, on Craigslist, or just by driving around and seeing signs. The largest day for yard sales is early Saturday.

Vacations:

-Cook “in” for most of the days that you are staying. If you are staying at a place or hotel that offers a small kitchen, then try and plan most of your meals to eat in. Bring a crock pot, so you can have something cooking all day while you are out at the beach or something. Or bring simple sandwich items, and breakfast items, so that each meal isn’t eating up your money by going out.

-Go in the “off season”. You are going to see some major savings by going to places like the beach when it’s not their prime season. The hotels have a harder time getting as many people to stay in their hotels, so they slash their prices and pass the savings to you.

-Do things like camping or day drives where it can be a vacation simply by being in the outdoors and seeing everything. I live near the Blue Ridge Mountains, so I can drive with my hubbs for a day drive, and it’s so beautiful just to get out and see a place like that.

-Split the costs with friends and family. If you are going on a vacation with family, get a room and split the costs. This may not be possible for everyone, but I have done this with friends before and it save a lot of money.

-Carpool. On the same note as the last idea, if you are already going on vacation together, then see if you can carpool to save on gas and money.

Free Things To Do:

-Find things that you and your family can do for free together. Going to places like parks, and fishing are fun, bonding and don’t cost much money (usually free).

-I wrote an article called 10 Free or Cheap Date Ideas. There are many things that you and your special someone can do with little or no cost to you.

There are so many ways that people can save lots of money even without using coupons! So don’t feel discouraged if you can’t use coupons, or if you are just starting out. If you have other ways of saving money with0ut using coupons, feel free to add them below!

See ya for the last day of our series: Day 30!