Through the years I have tried clipping coupons. I have always quit because:
1) The savings have never seemed worth it to me. I mean saving $0.25 on a bottle of Joy dish washing liquid is not going to drive me to early retirement.
2) I have also never been lucky enough to live near a store that doubles (let alone triple) coupons to make the effort more worthwhile.
3) Most of the items I found coupons for are not things we usually consumed. I don’t buy Pillsbury Grands, or Crescent Rolls on a regular basis and have no use for canned soups.
So, it just seems that clipping coupons was just not for me. However, it seems it’s time to backtrack on that perception. Over the last month I have been introduced to several resources that have shown me how to make clipping coupons work for me.
Not having a newspaper subscription and not wanting to get it because I was sure whatever coupons came with the Sunday newspaper wouldn’t work for me, had been another reason I wasn’t clipping coupons. I found two solutions to this little problem. First, I found the website Taylortown. In this website you can preview the list of coupons appearing on your Sunday newspaper as early as the Wednesday before. There are a few minor differences in the list the website posts and the actual coupons you might get. But I think those are due to regional differences and how companies decide to market their products. But the vast majority of coupons is the same. Now, I am able to decide in advance if I want to buy that Sunday’s newspaper or not because I can determine in advance if there are any coupons that would make it worthwhile for me to get it. Second, I have found that I can get my Sunday newspaper at a price cheaper than the weekend subscription. My local Dollar Tree store carries the Sunday newspapers for, you guessed it, one dollar. The cheapest price I have found so far.
The other resources I have found have to do with helping me get the most bang for my buck. Coupons can save you money, but to make sure you save the most with them, it’s best to combine them with store sales. But how do you find out about all of these sales? By reading blogs like this one.
We have also all heard of using The Grocery Game to make the most of your coupon clipping. Unfortunately I have never been lucky enough to live near a place where her list could work. Or the supermarkets around me have never been in the list of stores she tracks sales for. To use this service you also have to pay though. However, at the Couponmom you can get similar research done for you for free. You do need to register to use the services provided but afterwards you can access all of this information for free. She also doesn’t track all grocery stores out there but she does quite a few. And again, she pairs any current sales with coupons (even letting you know from which insert it came) to make sure you save the most.
Finally, I have also discovered online coupons. I try to check at least once a week the website Coupons.com.
I hope that if you don’t clip any coupons sharing how I am making it work for me this time around will make you give it another try. Who knows, maybe an extra $0.25 off a bottle of Joy dish washing liquid CAN lead me to early retirement.
