These time-saving couponing tips take the hassle out of using coupons.
Using coupons is a great way to save money and put a serious dent in your monthly grocery budget. However, most people don’t use coupons because they think it takes too much time. I would agree with this statement. Using coupons does take a lot of time but it doesn’t have to. There are ways to save yourself a lot of time and money by using coupons. Below you will find five time-saving couponing tips that will have you saving money and time!
Time-Saving Couponing Tips
Use the No Clip Method
Cutting all your coupons takes up a lot of time! Cutting coupons is the reason that some people stop couponing altogether. Thankfully, there is a way around cutting all your coupons that will save you a lot of time! When you are visiting coupon match-up sites, you will normally see things like RP, SS or P&G. These abbreviations stand for Red Plum, Smart Source and Proctor and Gamble.
If you want to use the no clip method you will simply pick up your newspaper every Sunday. Once you have your Sunday paper in hand take out each of the coupon inserts. You will want to write the date on the cover of the coupon insert along with the abbreviation for the insert in hand.
So Red Plum might look something like 9/19/18 RP. Once you have all of the inserts from the weekend newspaper you can organize them in a file holder.
Having your coupons organized in this way will allow you to find coupons when looking at coupon match-up sites.
Cut all Your Coupons at Once
If the no clip method doesn’t work for you that is okay! You can cut all your coupons at once and put them into a binder if you would like. Cutting each individual coupon out of an insert can easily take hours. You can save yourself a lot of time by cutting all of your coupons at once.
Line up all matching coupon pages, staple them together and cut them out carefully. This process works great if you want to cut your coupons and saves you a lot of time. Once you have all your coupons cut you can organize them into a binder or any other system you are using.
Check the Cashback Apps and eCoupons
Use your smartphone. You can use the Saving Star app to load offers directly to your store’s rewards card. Many grocery stores will allow you to load their eCoupons to your rewards card from your phone. Search the Ibotta phone app and the Checkout 51 app to find cashback offers on the items on your grocery list.
Stay Organized
In order to effectively coupon, you will need to come up with some sort of organizational system. It is almost impossible to coupon if you are not organized. You can use the no clip method listed above or you can use any other system that works well for you. The key here is finding a system that works for you and sticking to it. The more organized you are the easier couponing will be for you. Here are several methods for organizing coupons.
Set a Schedule
I have found that setting a coupon schedule works great for me. Not only does it keep me organized but it’s a great time-saving couponing tip. A coupon schedule might look something like the following:
Sunday: Pick up your newspaper and then cut or file your coupon inserts.
Monday: Look up the weekly sales and make a detailed grocery list of what you need to purchase. Once you have your list together, pull the coupons you will need. You can find most of the grocery sales in your area on the Favado App.
Tuesday: Go shopping. This allows you to take advantage of the sales that just began on Sunday while also getting all of the deals that expire on Tuesday (some of the store sales in my area run from Wednesday to Tuesday and some run Sunday to Saturday).
Create a Detailed List
Before you even head out the door to do your shopping make sure you have a list. A very detailed list! Some people like to make this list in excel where others like using pen and paper. Either way is fine. You will want to list all the stores you need to visit, what you need to buy at each store and any coupons you have.
I make my list by the order of my grocery store layout. If I am going to visit several stores, I will make a separate list for each store.
I paper clip each coupon that I plan to use to the grocery list. I also bring my coupon book in case I find a great deal that I want to match with a coupon.
I make a note next to the item if I have an eCoupon that I need to redeem, so I don’t forget to either redeem it at the cash register or submit it once you have completed your purchase.
You will also want to have your coupons organized in a way that will be easy for you to see if you need to pull one out of your coupon file and hand them over to the cashier during check out.
What time-saving couponing tips do you have?
Patricia says
Good tips!
I’d add a few thoughts.
a) For maximum impact on your budget, only use coupons for things you would buy anyway. Don’t be beguiled into buying something you don’t normally eat/use just because it’s a great deal. The exception to this, of course, is when by matching up a coupon with a sale, you can get something for free. Free’s always good 🙂
b) Watch for catalinas, which are those print out coupons you get with your receipt. Especially Proctor and Gamble’s — several times last year they offered a deal where if you bought $30 worth of their products, you not only got a coupon for $10 off on groceries, you also got a $10 visa card. Awesome!
c) Don’t be that crazy coupon lady (or gent) that everyone hates. Don’t make the clerk’s life miserable. Don’t insist that the manager be called every time a coupon doesn’t take. Customers like that just make couponing worse for all of us, and sometimes result in stores actually changing their policies (to prohibit stacking, for example).
I’ll give you a recent example from a couponing blog that shall remain unnamed. Almay had a good coupon ($5!) for “cosmetics”. This blog owner was actually advocating that deodorant was a cosmetic because of some FDA language she found. Obviously, at store after store, they refused to honor this coupon for deodorant because most reasonable people don’t consider deodorant a cosmetic. She was pushing her readers to fight this battle, call managers, write stores and cite the FDA policy, etc. To which I cringed and rolled my eyes. Don’t do that. It just makes stores less willing to cope with those of us who want to use coupons normally and rationally.