I'm new to the whole world of couponing and the amazing deals that are out there to be had. I always used to look on coupons as great, but not really worth it. I'd see coupons for 50 cents off something I usually bought so I'd set it aside. Usually, I forgot about the coupon and never saw it again until weeks later when I was cleaning off the counter.
Recently, I discovered the HUGE assortment of online couponing sites. It first started when I ran across Money Saving Mom because she had posted a link to a $1 coupon for Campbell's soup. I eat the microwavable bowls for lunch at work all the time so when I saw a link somewhere for $1 off I figured, why not? As it turns out, the $2.99 soup was on sale at Fry's for $1. I stood there in the soup aisle somewhat bewildered because I wondered if the coupon would ever work if the item was going to end up being free. I figured it couldn't hurt to try and I needed the soup anyway so I put a few cans in my cart and proceeded to checkout. Low and behold, the coupon did work! My first ever coupon freebie!
I walked out of Fry's that night with a coupon high. I'm a sucker for a good deal. I ended up printing off two more copies of the coupon and used them before the sale on the soup ended the next week. Three free cans of soup!
I then started poking around Money Saving Mom again to see what other coupons she might have posted links to. I realized that she had posts that outline which items are on sale at a given store and what coupons match up with those items. That's when I started to realize that the real trick was finding store coupons/sales and combining them with manufacturer coupons! Basically, keep creating situations like the soup one above! And there are literally hundreds of blogs devoted to helping you do just that. I've found one specifically devoted to Target (Totally Target) that I love. I also find that googling "*store name* *date* deals" always brings up tons of blog posts that outline the good deals for that week. Sometimes one blog catches something that another doesn't.
And that my friends, is how my couponing addiction started.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
