Tip #4: Know Where To Find Coupons {Surviving The Stores Through Couponing}

Tip #4: Know Where To Find Coupons

Before we get to where to find them, I guess we should first talk a little about what a coupon is!

Coupon: a coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product.

The word “Coupon” is of French origin from the word “colpon” meaning “piece cut off”

The first coupon was actually put out in 1888 by the Coca-Cola company to help get their product in soda fountains nationwide. Coca-Cola put out free drink coupons in various magazines and mailings all over the country to get people to try their product.

Do you think it worked?   I’d say their marketing strategy definitely paid off!

Marketers know that coupons are very influential in the mind of consumers… they want us to buy products that we normally would not because we have coupons for them.

But just because marketers WANT us to spend more money while using coupons doesn’t mean that we have to! We can use coupons and spend much MUCH less than we otherwise would.

But before we get to that… how do we find coupons? Here are the top 5 places to look for coupons:

Newspapers

Newspapers are what most people think of first when they think about finding grocery coupons. Most large-city Sunday papers have a couple of coupon inserts in them each Sunday. The most common ones are the Smart Source and Valassis (or Red Plum) inserts. Proctor and Gamble also puts out a monthly coupon insert.

On Saturdays I publish the Coupon Preview which lets you guys know how many inserts there will be in each Sunday paper, along with a link to see which coupons will be in each insert.

Online Printable Coupons

More and more companies are making their coupons available to print right from your home computer! These coupons are accepted just like the newspaper insert coupons at grocery stores and drug store across the country.

We post a Printable Coupon Round-up each day with many of the new printable coupons that have become available that day.

Some websites that always have grocery coupons available to print are: Coupons.com, Redplum, Coupon Network, All You, Mambo Sprouts (lots of organic/natural food coupons), and Smartsource.

Magazines

Yep, there are lots of coupons in your favorite magazines!

All You Magazine is the magazine that BY FAR has the most coupons in it each month.

Be sure to check through any magazines that you get in the mail for coupons that you might want to keep!

In The Store

There are a several types of coupons that you can find right in the store:

Blinkies: These are coupons that are usually right by the product, usually from a box that has a red blinking light on the top (thus the name “blinkies”). When you take one coupon out the machine will spit out another one.

Catalina coupons: These are coupons that print out at the register after your purchase (sometimes it is attached to your receipt and sometimes it comes from a separate machine) – we will talk more about these types of coupons in another post!

Peelie Coupons: Coupons that are stuck to the package and you have to peel it off. NOTE: Please don’t take peelie coupons unless you are buying the product!

Tearpads: A pad with several coupons (sometimes refund forms) hanging from a store shelf or display. These are also usually near the product.

Winetags: A coupon found in the wine section or hanging on wine bottles. Many times these are for meat & cheese items. Depending on your store/state they might say “no wine purchase is required.”

In The Mail

Probably one of the most overlooked places for finding coupons is the MAILBOX! You can get these coupons by emailing companies directly and asking for them (many will even send free product coupons!), or for signing up for company mailing lists. Whenever I see a new coupon booklet available to receive in your mailbox I make sure to post about it here on Surviving the Stores!

Where do you feel like you find the best coupons? Newspapers, online, magazines, in the store, or in the mail?

Coming up next… How to use coupons to maximize savings!