It's the end of the month..

1. Have you done and printed this month's AdPerks from Rite Aid?  The coupons will be good until the end of April, but your credits and videos will be reset on April 1st

2. Print any coupons from Coupons.com, Smartsource, Redplum etc before they reset - you can get a twofer out of them

3. Make sure your printer is stocked with ink and be ready to print new coupons on Thursday!  Remember that high value coupons go first!

Reminder: Harris Teeter Triples

Here are a few tips and suggestions to make your Super Doubles week at Harris Teeter the best it can be....

1. Make sure you know the rules at your HT

• Some stores limit the number of printable coupons to 2 per product per day, even if they come from different sites
• All stores have a limit of 20 coupons per day
• Prioritize - Free or nearly free with triples (.99 and under)
• then use your sale matched triples (.99 and under)
• then used your sale matched high value ($1.00 and over)
• save your non sale matched high value coupons unless its a need it now!
• Most stores will only take one coupon per BOGO offer - but you can buy just one and it will ring up at half price
• Stores will not provide overage (so if you buy an item for $2.00 and use a $.75 off coupon, you will only get $2.00 off, there are no "money makers" at HT)
  
• Make sure you read all the fine print on your coupons and get exactly the right size/color etc... they will be very strict with this.

2. Make sure that your tripled coupons make the offer a good deal...

•  Are you actually going to use it?  Just because you have a coupon for it and the coupon is tripled, if you don't get it free, it's money out of pocket and space in the cupboard that you will waste...
  
• A full price item at $4.99 with a $.75 off coupon that is tripled to $2.25 is net $2.74 OOP, but if you know that that product regularly goes on sale for BOGO  you can hold your coupon for the BOGO deal and get the same product for $1.00 OOP after $2.50 price and $,75 coupon value doubled to $1.50
• Take contingency coupons... any item that is advertised on the websites as free after coups will fly off the shelves so plan to take 30 or more coupons to the store for your first trip to make sure you benefit from your trip
• Ask your store staff when they restock the shelves... what day the trucks come in for the products you want to get free... and if they aren't getting things in when you will be able to go back, go to customer service and get a raincheck...

3. Go with a positive attitude...

• The cashiers and staff are happy to help you to save money and its not their fault that the store sold out of all the freebies you wanted, that you brought too many internet coupons or that the product you are trying to get free is 1 oz below the stated limit on the coupon... so make sure you smile and thank them for what they do, even if you have a problem :)
• Don't forget that you can ask for 'triple coupon' rain-checks and have them stamp your coupons to use later as triples if there is a product that is out of stock!

H.

Coupon Exchange Idea!

One of my friends from Moms Club has introduced me to great way to do a continuing coupon exchange with your friends!

All you need is:

A few other couponers
1 gallon size freezer bag per person
1 index card per person
something else for each person to take their swapped coupons home!

A bag or box to keep the bags in, and another bag or envelope for expired coupons to send to the troops...

How it works:

Each person brings their coupons to trade in their freezer bag and writes their name at the top of an index card and slips it in the bag.  You pass your bag to the next person and they write their name onto the index card and then go through the bag to take what they need...
This continues until everyone has gone through all the bags and taken what they need.. the coupons are then combined into one bag until the next time... invite more people to the table and they can start with the new coupon bags, but also go through any of the previous bag to find needed coupons... if you've already gone through you won't have to again... that's what the index cards are for - to make sure you know what bags you don't need to look through...

A couple of tips:

As you look through each bag -if you are first - pull any already expired coupons and set them aside for the Coupons for Troops program
If you are last - if there are coupons that will expire before you meet again, pull those too and put them into the expired coupons.

Our group has been meeting periodically - at other events or just getting together for lunch and passing the bags around :)

Do you participate in coupon exchanges?  How do you organize them?

Coupon Hunting Tip

Did you know that there are sometimes more internet printables out there than you see on any given page?

Smartsource.com and Coupons.com ask for your Zip Code to do targeted couponning - but allow you to change your zip constantly..

Today, I was browsing other couponnning sites and noticed that no matter what I did, I wasn't seeing the Huggies and Pull Ups coupons they said were on Coupons.com... so I started playing with zips...

and found some new coupons I hadn't seen before at 30303 - including the elusive diaper coupons...

H.
(PS Sorry for those who have already read this on Acting Balanced... I accidently posted there first...)

Couponning 101 - CVS'ing

For those who attended last night's workshop... this is the page that was missing from your package... if you didn't make the workshop, this is a good overview of CVS'ing

Program is called Extra Care Bucks (ECB)

• Requires a key tag/card
• Make sure you register your card online for extra savings
• Ensure you give your email address for $ off $$ coupons
• ECB’s are essentially rebate coupons that can be used for any item in the store on your next purchase
• ECB’s offers are weekly or monthly

You pay for the item and get ECB back as an instant rebate coupon

• Best ECB offers are buy item, get all $$ back as ECB, but many are buy $$ worth of product and get a partial ECB back
• You can use coupons on top of ECB’s and that’s where the savings add up
• ECB’s expire about a month after your purchase

CVS Scenario
Often, they have a Proctor and Gamble ECB promotion, buy $20 worth, get $10 back
This usually happens when the new P & G coupons come out
You buy
2 bottles of Tide at $8.99
3 bottles of Dawn at $0.99
Total= $20.95
You use 2 tide coupons for $3.50 off; 3 dawn coupons for $0.50 off for $8.50 off and a $4 off $20 that was emailed to you so that your OOP is $8.45 and you get $10 back, making $1.65 worth of ECB above your OOP.


A few more tips:

• Make sure you always give them a $$/off $$$ (like the $4 off $20) coupon first before manufacturers coupons. In the example above had I used the manufacturers coupons first the total would have been less 20 dollars.
• Always have a list of exactly what is free, sometimes it is very specific items and you want to make sure you are getting the right things.
• If you are using a $4 off $20 or type of coupon like that make sure you have a few backup plans to hit your $20 in case your CVS is out of something.
• Take in a calculator to help you quickly add up your total to make sure you are going to have the right amount for you ECB’s to cover it.
• You need to always make sure that what you are buying is equal to your ECB’s or a little more (pennies). You can pay for $4 worth of items with $5 in ECB but you are losing money that way and don’t really want to do that. So find some filler items that you like, $1 disposable razors, a pack of gum… lots of options.
• Divide your purchases into ‘rolling’ purchases in the same trip, or use up your ECB on things you need if you don’t plan to go back to CVS often