On Couponing: How-To

Every month, one of those coupon inserts gets delivered to the house. This is not enough to do efficient couponing. I could buy the local newspaper and get all the coupon inserts out of that, but let's just be frank. In Southern California, we get the worst coupon inserts with products I would never dare to eat (because they are so unhealthy) or with products I would never use (lots of allergy medication coupons, and I don't have many allergies.)

For me, the most efficient way to coupon, and the cheapest way, is to print coupons out from online. The largest source of online coupons is coupons.com. New coupons come out every month, and they sometimes add 2-3 new coupons every few days. Notice it's July 1st, so it's time to head over to coupons.com to print your free coupons today!

Now, there are a few things I do when I print coupons. First, I always try to print 3 to a page. Save paper. (And recycle the rest after you cut your coupons out!) Second, while some people choose to just print all the coupons, I only print coupons for products I will actually use, or products I could potentially use if the price comes out low enough. Therefore, you have to be discriminatory in your coupons. I try to only print coupons that will either double to a dollar, are for one dollar off, and coupons that are only off one product. Don't be fooled into printing a coupon that says $1 off when you purchase 3, unless you already use that product and buy it regularly. $1 off 3 sucks because it does not double at the grocery store, at least not in SoCal. Also, unless the product is under a dollar, $.33 cents off for a product you don't normally use will never be worth it; the product will be very expensive still. Last, coupons.com allows you to print two of each coupon per computer. Since I have two computers, I always try to print four of each coupon right away. Coupons actually do run out, so sometimes if you don't print them right away (within the day,) they will be gone.


After I print coupons out, I clip them, usually only when I have time, and it's usually when I'm watching TV.

Let's not waste more time than we should doing this; that's my philosophy. You're not going to see me doing this 40 hours a week like those people on Extreme Couponing!





Next, I start organizing and grouping like coupons together. Again, I do this while I'm doing something like watching TV or chatting online late at night.

Because online coupons expire quicker than coupon inserts in the newspaper, I organize them by date first, then by product type.

I know a lot of other people just organize them by product type.





Finally, when I'm going to a store, I pull out the coupons I think I am going to use, and organize them according to the store layout, if I know it, and then clip the coupons together. Here, I was going to Target, and I've been to Target a million times, so I know the store layout extremely well. This leads for an easy shopping trip that gets me in and out with just the products I need.

Sometimes I do pull out some coupons just to see how much they cost at Target, so I can mentally keep it in mind and be able to compare it to grocery store prices later.

Anyway, that's just a taste of how I started. There are more efficient, better ways, I'm sure, but this way works for me because it's fairly low maintenance.

Coconut Water

Coconut Water isn't cheap. It just isn't. There aren't coupons for coconut water. In fact, I would argue, there aren't really "deals" for coconut water either. It's pretty much, if you want to drink coconut water, you have pay for it. I guess everyone who drinks it can afford it but me. Then again, the only people I've seen drinking it are celebrities.

Anyway, coconut water can generally be found on "sale" at $2/drink. $2 for 11oz. is pretty freaking ridiculous. Even Costco* jacked up the price of coconut water to $15.40 a box (12 drinks per box.) That comes out to $1.28 per unit.

This is the best deal I've been able to score on coconut water so far. $.99/drink at the local grocery store. That comes out to $11.88/box. You didn't have to buy a whole box, but it just goes to show you how much I like coconut water, since I bought two entire unopened boxes. I paid a hefty price for this bounty, and I'm not sharing it with anyone!

Although Zico is pictured above, my favorite is Vita Coco. If Vita Coco ever goes on sale that cheap, expect that I will STOCK UP.

It's not that it tastes great, but it does have a clean flavor that leaves you refreshed. I use it after working out as an alternative to Gatorade-type drinks because it is more natural and also contains essential electrolytes. Also, if you ever have a hang-over, and are not allergic to coconut water, I would suggest giving it a shot, though I can't verify whether it works or not, since I don't drink.

So there it is, my "deal" for coconut water!

*I should just mention that the Costco price I quoted is for Vita Coco.

$11 at Target

11 bucks at Target gets you:

4 bottles of Lipton Naturals Ice Tea (on sale for $1 each, then b1g1 free coupon makes them $.50 each).

3 boxes of Freschetta by the Slice Pizza (3 for $5, but $.75 off coupon per box, and it comes with rebate to get a free box.)

Suave Shampoo and Conditioner ($.89 each bottle, $.75 coupon off each bottle, making them $.14 each).

4 packets of reduce sodium taco seasoning ($.72 cents each, 2 coupons for $1 off 2, making them $.22 per packet)

Jamba Juice Frozen Smoothie in a bag ($2.64 each, $1 off coupon, making it $1.64)

2 bags of King Hawaiian Sweet Bread Hoagie Rolls (on sale 2/$3, and I had $1.00 off coupon off 2, making them $1.00 each)

and finally 2 Sally Hansen Nail Polishes ($2.54 each, target coupon for $1.00 off, Sally Hansen Manufacturer's coupon for $1.00 off, making each bottle $.54 cents).

Albertsons HOT DEAL (May end today.)

If you live near an Albertsons, you NEED to do this deal today. Fiber One Brownies are on sale for 2/$5. You're gonna need 2 computers to print this coupon out 4 times: http://www.fiberone.com/offers/offers.aspx. That makes the brownies $1.75 a box. Note, you MUST buy 4 boxes for this deal to work. When you check out and have them scan your preferred card, you'll have to pay $7 out of pocket.

But then, the machine will print one $5 off coupon off your next purchase, and it will also print a $2 off coupon off your next purchase. This essentially makes this brownies FREE. Now, if you have other stuff to buy, then purchase these first on its own transaction, and put everything else on a second transaction.

In my case, my second transaction was Athenos Greek Yogurt. They are on sale 10/$10 (or $1 each), and I had two $1.00 off the purchase of two coupons, bringing them down to $2.00 for 4. I then used the $2 catalina coupon I got off the Fiber One brownies, making the yogurt FREE.

I am still holding onto the $5 off coupon off your next purchase. It expires 7/12/2011. The new advertisements come out tomorrow, so I have no doubt I'll be using this $5 off coupon soon. However, if I did have more groceries to buy, I would have just used it all on a second transaction.

Does this post make sense? Sometimes I think I only make sense to myself...

Vons' Haul #2 (Weekly Ad of 6/22-6/28)

What can you get from Vons with $10 dollars? Let me show you:

Fiber One Cereal Deal: If you buy 4, it costs $1.99 each, otherwise it's $2.99 each. I had 3 $1.00 off coupons off 3 boxes, and the fourth was a $.75 off coupon. That means 3 boxes were $1.00 and the fourth box was $1.25.

Ocean Spray is on sale until today for $1.88. I had two $1.00 off any Ocean Spray Blueberry Drink coupons, making them $.88 each + $.10 CRV each.

Luna bar was $.99 with a $.50 off coupon that doubled making it FREE.

Pure Protein Bars were $1.00 each but I had a b1g1 free coupon, making them $.50 a bar.

Wrigley 5 gum is 10/$10.00. I had a b1g1 free coupon, making them $.50 each.

Ice cream was $3.99. Vons had an instore ad coupon making it $2.49. I had a $.75 off manufacturers coupon that doubled up to $1.00 making it $1.49.

I ended up with 76% savings according to my receipt. Now, this may not seem impressive, but getting Fiber One Cereal for ~$1.00/box is seriously hard. That cereal NEVER goes on sale that cheap.

I <3 DEALS!

CVS Redux

I don't normally mess with CVS and there "Extra bucks" reward program because it takes too much effort. If you don't know what it is, I'll just give a little recap. You buy something advertised on sale with extra bucks. You pay for the item, and then you get a printed coupon for some amount of money of "Extra bucks" to be used towards a future purchase. It's basically a store credit. The only way to get around this, is to split your purchase into multiple transactions. It's a hassle for both you and the cashier, and if you get a rude cashier, it can be a really bad experience. Today, because there was a really good offer, I decided to do this multiple transaction thing.

Transaction #1: 2 jars of peanuts cost $5 out of pocket, and I got a $2 extra bucks coupon.

Transaction #2: I bought 2 Hawaiian Tropic Lip Balms for $2.99 each, and I used my $2 extra bucks coupon from transaction 1. I paid $4.50 with tax, and got a $10 extra bucks coupon.

Transaction #3: Centrum vitamins are normally priced at $11.99, and are on sale for $9.99. I took my $10.00 extra bucks coupon and applied it to this transaction, making the out of pocket cost $.87.

Transaction #4: The ran out of peanuts, so I bought the Hawaiian Tropic Lip Balm and the $1.19 Hershey's Candy Bar. I had a coupon for a free candy bar. I paid $6.00+ tax and got a $10.00 extra bucks coupon.

Transaction #5: Centrum Vitamins were on sale for $9.99. I used my $10 extra bucks from transaction #4, making my out of pocket cost $.87.

Everything pictured above cost me $18.70. Compare this to if I had just bought 2 boxes of Centrum Vitamins, which would have cost me $21.74.

You can't always get everything for free, but always try to work the system where you can.






Receipts of the first 3 transactions.

Free Candy Bar @ CVS

I never go out of my way for free stuff. It makes no sense to drive somewhere if I'm just getting free crap that I may or may not use, all the meanwhile paying $4.00/gallon of gas. So I really only collect on deals if I'm there anyway.

So a few days ago, my parents wanted me to go somewhere with them. On the way home, my mom requested we make a stop at CVS. I wasn't prepared for this stop so I didn't have both coupons on me, but I had at least one, and was able to cash in on this FREE candy bar (original price, $1.19... pfff, expensive!)

Had I known we were going, I would have had both coupons on me so we (my mom and I) could each use one. Ah well! I stopped eating candy again anyway, so the only purpose of this was collecting on a free coupon. I have a while before the other expires, so next time I'm out that way, I'll probably pick one of these up again.

What to do with them, I don't know... maybe s'mores later this summer...