Lesson One- Coupons

Welcome to The Bargain Shopper Lady Online Coupon Class.
During this class you will learn the basics of couponing combined with a few savvy coupon secrets that I hope will make you become a pro at saving money! Before you start, sign up to get updates from The Bargain Shopper Lady website or join my brand new Facebook page to get more great coupon tips!

The first lesson is all about coupons, one of the most important parts of bargain shopping. Did you know that almost every store in the world has some type of coupon? Stores need coupons to survive! It is our job to FIND THEM and USE THEM!

1. Get your coupons.
There are many ways to get coupons.
* You can buy a Sunday newspaper or a double Sunday newspaper. A double Sunday newspaper is when there are extra papers and the newspaper bundles two papers together to help you save money. Sunday newspapers run from $1-$3 and double Sunday newspapers are only $2-$5 total. So you can get extra coupons for your buck this way. Sometimes a double Sunday paper is hard to find, but I can almost always find one at Wal-Mart. Some cities do not have double Sunday newspapers.
*You can print coupons online. A great place to find manufacturer’s coupons online is
. Print them right from your computer!

*You can get coupons at the register with your receipt when you check out at a store. These coupons are known as Catalina coupons. They are called this because the name of the company that makes the machine is named Catalina. Catalina coupons are manufacturer’s coupons. The company pays the Catalina company to print them on their machine based on what you purchase during your order. This invites you to buy something or purchase a competitors item it you chose to use the coupon on the next visit.

2. Organize and store your coupons.
You can use many different ways to store your coupons. I recommend three based on your personality. You can use envelopes, a storage box or the binder method to organize your coupons.

The Envelope or (Pencil Holder) and Binder Method- Due to a lack of time, I prefer the envelope and binder method. I usually just have 2 pencil holders (similar to the kind you used in grade school) and a few envelopes. I put all my coupons in one pencil holder and pull from them when I am about to head to the store. I put them into my priority envelope. I can usually make an entire shopping list based on my priority envelope. I can almost always find a coupon for items such as bread, milk, orange juice, everything I need. If I need anything extra that I do not have a coupon for, I make a small list on this envelope. I get a new priority envelope for every shopping trip. When I am finished the coupons go back in the pencil holder. Also I use the coupon clipping service, so I don’t have a whole lot of coupons. I really only have the ones that I need. I also buy a few double Sunday papers and just keep the coupon inserts in a folder together labeled by date.

The storage Box Method is good if you are somewhat organized. It is a huge box with labels. You can find them at Wal-Mart or you can purchase one online. A great place to find one on line is at Refund Cents . (Refund Cents is also a great site to join to learn about coupon ing!) You may not want to use this method if you have kids who might want to dump your coupons out. Unfortunately, this method is not very kid friendly. However, it can work well and it works great for a friend of mine. Label the labels on the box dividers by food category; frozen, dairy, meat, snacks, baby.

*If you are extremely organized, The Binder Method is for you! It does take extra time as well, so it you don’t have more than one hour a week to spend putting it together, you might want to try something else. Here is how it works. First, go to the store and buy baseball card holders (they usually come in packs of 10 sheets) and a binder. You can usually find baseball card holders at Wal-Mart or the Dollar Tree. You can find tabs to label each page or use address labels. Place all your diary together on one page. You will use each pocket to hold the same like coupon. So if you have 5 coupons for Hunt’s Ketchup, all 5 will go in the same spot. The first one will show and the other 4 will be behind it. The binder method can save you money and extra time in the store because you can find coupons quickly for items on sale. Time Saving Tip for cutting coupons: Get a cool Fiskars scrapbook cutter from the craft store. Place up to 4 of the same coupon inserts from the paper and stack them together. By doing this you can cut the same coupon 4 times in one motion.

3. Learn how to use your coupons.
There are many types of coupons. There are manufacture’s coupons, store coupons, Catalina coupons and competitor’s coupons. A store should take a store coupon along with a manufacture’s coupon. For example, if you print an online coupon from Target.com, you should also be allowed to use that coupon, plus a manufacture’s coupon (from the newspaper) to purchase an item. This is stated in their coupon policy. How can stores afford this? Here’s how; the manufacture will reimburse the store for the manufacture’s coupon and corporate will reimburse the store for the store coupon. This can easily allow you to get an item for free.
Here is an example of how you can get a free item.
There are on-line printable Target coupons for 75 cents off French’s mustard. There is also a manufacture’s coupon for $.30 cents off. The mustard is on sale at Target for $.94 – .75- .30 = (-11) making it FREE. Target won’t give you money back, instead they will adjust the Target coupon to make the item free. (Tom Thumb has actually given me money back on occasion!)
You have now completed your first course of our coupon class! Congratulations!

Task: 1. Start collecting coupons. Buy a Sunday Newspaper or order coupons online. I purchase one double Sunday newspaper and put the inserts into a folder. Some bargain shoppers prefer to buy up to 4 double Sunday newspapers costing them $8. Decide which way you would like to store your coupons and grab one at the store if you don’t already have something.

Session Two- Matching Coupons to Sales Ads

This can be one of the most profitable things you will do with couponing once you get the hang of it. It may seem hard at first, but just like anything you do in life, it will get easier as you practice! This is what I call The Bargain Shopper Ladies Method to matching sales ads. I have included in these paragraphs my baby steps to this process. Read through them as I hold your hand!

1. Get sales ads.- Grocery stores usually run a sales ad from Wednesday-Tuesday. You should get grocery store sales ads in the mail on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday during the week. Mine usually come on Wednesday but not always. If you don’t get them in the mail they can usually be found in the Wednesday newspaper and you can also go to your favorite store and get one yourself. Mega chain store ads- These stores, such as Target, Walgreens, CVS and Wal-Mart can be found in the Sunday paper or you can get one in the store yourself. The larger chains that are not just grocery focused run their sale ads from Sunday to Saturday.

2. Circle items in the sale ads.- It can be very overwhelming to see a sales ad. Let me teach you a very simple method to doing this yourself. Pick up your favorite store’s ad. Mine changes weekly. It’s usually Safeway (Tom Thumb) or Target. It used to be CVS. Take the ad and a highlighter and circle all the products that your family buys. You might circle six things on every page, you might only circle one. Also check for special promotions listed in the ad such as, If you purchase 3 Post Cereals, you will get a Catalina coupon for a FREE gallon of milk. These promotions are usually listed on the front page or in the middle of the ads in a highlighted box explaining the promotion.

3. Take your circled items and find coupons to match. Does a coupon exist for the items that you need? There is a website where you can find this information out on your computer. Go to http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ . Kudos to the makers of this invaluable resource! Sign up to join the site so you can access their unique coupon database. Go to the top where there is a link for coupon resources. Use the drop down arrow to access the coupon database. Here you can search for any item to see if there is currently a coupon for it. Type in French’s mustard. The database will show you a list of coupons that are out for the item if there are any, the date the coupon came out, the value of the coupon and when the coupon expires. SS means that it came from the Smart Source insert in the newspaper. If you don’t have time to cut coupons you can keep your inserts in a folder, labeled by date it came out and you can find coupons this way. This is something that I personally do every week along with the envelope method.
Make a list of the items that are on sale that have coupons available. You can then go and cut these out or find them in your organizer if they are already cut. If something is a great sale and there is not a coupon for it, write that item on your list anyway. You need it and it is probably a good deal even though it won’t be free or cost you a few cents.

4. Find an ad to coupon matching list online. This paragraph is for the busy people! There is a free ad matching list resource on-line at http://www.couponmom.com/ . Here the Coupon Mom has grocery lists to different stores under the title, grocery lists by state. If you look under your state you can find various stores. Tip: Look under other states for more stores that might not be listed under your state.
You can also pay someone else to match ads for you. After getting and ad and trying this method yourself, you might say “I don’ t have time to get the ads or look through them.” That is okay. There is another option designed just for you.
There are two sites that I recommend. A very well known site is http://www.grocerygame.com/ . This company does all the ad matching for you and charges you a fee to join their lists and access their information. Their list is a little more indepth than the one on couponmom.com . You can print the lists that you need and save a lot of time. It will run you around $10-20 a month. When you consider the savings it could be worth it. You can usually try these sites for $1 or for free to see if you like them. If you end up using the list and saving over $50 on your groceries then I would say that it was worth your time. I currently do ad matching myself. I like to match my coupons to the ads at Safeway or Tom Thumb and to the coupons online at Target. After I match these two ads I check http://www.couponmom.com/ as well. I usually find more sales than are listed on the coupon mom sheet and I am always glad that I scanned the ads first.
Task 2- Get a grocery ad and circle the items on sale that your family uses the most. Go online and see what coupons are available. Find a few of the coupons in your organizer or order them online. If this was extremely difficult for you, sign up for a $1 or free trial to an ad matching service. If you don’t end up using the lists very much before the trial is over, then stick to the free web site http://www.couponmom.com/ .

Session Three- Finding Bargains Based Upon The Store Shopped

Here are a few savvy secrets to help you out with shopping by store.

1. Always take your coupons with you. If you don’t have your coupons, you can’t use them!I actually leave mine in my purse at all times, unless I am sorting them. A coupon bag, diaper bag or in the car is a good place to keep them as well.

2. Don’t buy what you don’t need (unless it’s free). I am not one to buy a ton of stuff that I don’t need, if it is free, I’ll take a few (maybe 3-8 free items) but if I have no use for it and my family won’t eat it and I have to pay for it, I will not buy it. Don’t be one of those couponers that has to use every coupon you find! That will not save you money.

3. Learn about coupon policies and what works at each store.

There are some stores that I just LOVE to shop. These stores are very coupon friendly.

1.Target

2. Safeway, Tom Thumb

3. CVS

4. Walgreens

5. A store that is not very coupon friendly is Wal-Mart however, they do something very unique called Price Matching. We will discuss that further on in the session.

6.Kroger, Alberstons and other chain stores

1. Target-Target is great because they have their own list of online coupons. You can print these at Target.com (see The Super Target Coupon link at the bottom of the Target.com page) or you can see a full list of coupons, print and generate them on my web page http://www.bargainshopperlady.com/ . Target rotates their coupons on http://www.target.com/ weekly so to get the full list you will need to go to my website.The greatest thing about Target is that you can use a manufacturer’s coupon with a store coupon and they provide a large amount of store coupons that you can print out on line. Let’s look at the French’s mustard equation that we talked about in Session one and let me show you how I got it for free. It is on sale for $0.94. Print a coupon online for $0.75. Then go to http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ . This is a huge resource for couponers. Sign up so you can view the coupon resources. Go to the database. Type in French’s mustard. It shows you that there is a coupon out for $0.30 and what date it expires. Go find that manufacturer’s coupon. Shortcut: Use http://www.couponmom.com/ and you would have already known that there was a manufacturer’s coupon for this product. Now it would look like this $0.94-$0.75-$0.30= -$0.11 Yes, that says negative eleven! Target won’t give you money back but the register will adjust the store coupon to make it FREE!

2. Safeway, Tom Thumb- This by far is one of my favorite stores. I don’t know if it is just mine, but they are great a putting little take $0.75 off or $1.00 off coupon sticker on the item right before the product has about three days to expire. Now if it was milk, that would be gross, but other items my family can finish off in a day, like yogurt for example. If these coupons are on a product I can usually use a manufacturer’s coupon and get the item for free. Tom Thumb triples (only one coupon of the same kind) up to 39 cents and doubles (only one coupon of the same kid) up to 50 cents. If you used a coupon for 50 cents off it would double it to take a total of $1.00 off. I also work for a fundraising company called Enjoy The City, if you don’t have a coupon book from them, you should check their web site to see if they have one in your area. The Dallas coupon books have a $10 off $50 coupon good at Tom Thumb. They have this coupon in other cities that have a Randalls or Safeway store as well. I always put this coupon on top of all my other coupons, and they always take it off first. So I automatically save 20 percent of my bill without even trying or cutting other coupons. A former bill of mine was $17 and I used this coupon along with others bringing my total down from $72. They even gave me $1.26 back one time when they had a cake mix deal and I used coupons on top of it. Yes my total was -$1.26! See why I love this store?

3. CVS – This store has a very unique thing called Extra Bucks. This is a great store to start out bargain shopping at if you are a beginner. Go to the store and sign up for a CVS card if you don’t have one. This card is key to getting Extra Bucks when you make a purchase, so you will need to put it on your key ring or in a very accessible place. If you look at the sales ad or join the newsletter on my website, we will email you when CVS has Extra Bucks. Extra Bucks are printed coupons that come out on the bottom of your CVS receipt. They are valid only at CVS. The manufacturer has set up a deal with CVS to let you try something with and instant rebate or Extra Bucks. So if you went in to buy Purell Hand Sanitizer and it cost $2.99 , the CVS ad might offer you $2.99 in Extra Bucks. These would print out at the register after you bought the item so that you could buy something else with the $2.99 coupon. Sometimes Extra Bucks have a limit of 1 per customers so you could only do this one time. Other times Extra Bucks are unlimited. In this case, you could go in and buy Purell Hand Sanitizer as many times as you want with only paying the upfront cost of the first $2.99 bottle. You would use your coupon to purchase as many bottles as needed. I would probably want 3 but if I felt that our family would use the product a lot I may buy as many as 10. You can use Extra Bucks to buy anything in the store except excluded items like alcohol and gift cards. You can actually make money in Extra Bucks if you have a coupon for the Extra Bucks item. Let me explain for the Sanitizer. If you had a coupon for $1 off the sanitizer (found in the newspaper) you could use that coupon and CVS would still give you the $2.99 in Extra Bucks. If you ordered coupons from an online source and you had 10 of them, you could actually use 10 and get $10 in Extra Bucks to purchase something else in the store. So the first Hand Sanitizer would now cost you $1.99 with a coupon but you would get a $2.99 Extra Buck. Making money off coupons is tricky but gets easier and is actually legal at this point in time.

4. Walgreens – Walgreens has a system where they use an Easy Saver Catalog to show you which items you can buy that are FAR (free after rebate). You can purchase the listed items and mail in for a check or a Walgreens gift card. If you opt for the gift card you will get 10% more as a bonus. The next month you can take your gift card and purchase the next month’s Easy Saver Rebate deals with it. This way you only pay for the first month’s items and actually get 10% more each month. A good thing about Walgreens gift cards is that you can use them to buy other gift cards. When you have earned over $40 on your gift card you might want to purchase a $25 gift card for someone or yourself and then you ended up getting it for free!

5. Wal-Mart- Some of the cashiers at Wal-Mart are not aware of their coupon policies and make up rules when you check out. You can only use one coupon per item bought since Wal-Mart does not have store coupons. Don’t be afraid to call the manager if a cashier tells you otherwise. The managers should know the coupon policies. Wal-Mart however does a great thing called price matching. That means if you bring in ads to the other local stores, you can get all your goods at one time for the best deal. If Albertsons has Dannon Yogert on sale for $0.40 cents each, then Wal-Mart will match that price for you. Just show the cashier your ads as you check out. (The best way to find what you want to price match is to highlight all the items that you want.) To price match the ad must have that specific brand listed and it has to be a set price. It can not ready buy 1 get 1 free. It must sale Dole Banannas are $0.20 a lb. I did see a lady once price match and bought 2 grocery carts full of food and toiletries for $18.

6. Krogers, Albertsons and other Grocery Stores- Not all stores double and triple coupons but some do. Krogers and Albertsons double up to 50 cent coupons (for up to 4 of the same coupons) and they triple up to 39 cent coupons ( for up to 4 like coupons). A huge myth is that doubling means that you bring in two coupons and use both. Don’t do this! It means that you bring one coupon and the register doubles it. Kroger is known for having great sale prices and usually gives out quite a few free items per week.

Task 3- Choose one store and gather coupons based on it’s sales ad (or list on http://www.couponmom.com/). Go to the store and try using two-five coupons. Try to just stick to using coupons for two items the first time you go. If you are more advanced, try as many as you can cut out! Consider ordering an Enjoy The City book or an Entertainment book online. You can get the Dallas book on my website http://www.bargainshopperlady.com/ and other cities at http://www.enjoythecity.com/, and the Entertainment book at http://www.entertainment.com/ .

Session 4-On Line Bargain Shopping

We have come to an era in time where we are so busy that on line shopping is convenient. On line stores are now offering things to attract customers such as free shipping and free return shipping. There are many well hidden secrets that come with on line shopping. I am going to share a few helpful on line secrets with you.

1. Do an on line coupon code search. If you are about to purchase an item on line search first to see if an on line coupon is available. For example, if I was going to buy diapers from Target, I would go to http://www.google.com/ and type in “Target coupons” or “Target On line Coupons”. The first page will show me the most relevant coupons. I would click on the link where I might find a coupon code that is valid. Two web sites that can help you find on line codes are http://www.couponmountain.com/ and http://www.couponcabin.com/ . These two sites have hundreds of stores listed along with valid coupon codes that you can use on line. An example of an online code is 368378246. Use it when you check out to get 15% off at http://www.shoebuy.com/ . The code expires on December 31, 2007. You can usually put these codes in a special box that indicates “coupon code” when you check out. Former codes could have saved you up to 70% at http://www.coldwatercreek.com/ or get you free shipping at http://www.target.com/ . It can save you a good amount of money for something that you were already going to purchase. Some stores allow more than one on line coupon code to be entered during check out. This can save you a generous amount of money and you can use codes to get free promotional items as well. A very popular ladies and teens web site that is know for doing this is http://www.victoriassecret.com/ . They allow you to enter up to four coupon codes on their website. In the past at http://www.victoriassecret.com/ they have run a deal where a customer can get $10 off, free shipping, free lip gloss and a free tote in the same order. Now that is what I call bargain shopping!

2. Find clearance prices on line. Some stores have a policy that once their sales quota is met, they can now clearance that item for as little as 99 cents! They have already made their goal in sales, because someone else paid the full price. Now you can take advantage of this and purchase an item below the companies initial material cost. On line clearance prices are usually better than in store because most on line stores don’t have to pay to rent a building or pay a large staff. All these are factors that are included in retail store prices.

How can you find out about the Home Run on line clearance deals?

1. Sign up your email address with your favorite stores on line. Go to your favorite store’s website and add yourself to their email list. They will send you coupons, on line discount codes, sales notices and clearance alerts. These can be very valuable. Tip: Sign up for a separate email account and use this email to sign up online with stores. I opened a free email account such as http://www.hotmail.com/ and I use this account to sign up for stores online. This way I don’t get a lot of spam in my primary e-mail account but I can still scan the free account once a day to locate good deals.

2. Join on line bargain web sites to find sizzling clearance deals. There are a few bargain web sites that have been designed to help you find great deals on line. You can sign up for these bargain sites on line. The first one I recommend is http://www.slickdeals.net/ . This website is free to join and has up to date on line deals. Last year there was a fantastic deal listed on this website to get $10 off any purchase at http://www.normthompson.com/ . I was able to have free chocolate sent out to my family as Christmas gifts using the code! Another great website is http://www.couponbyanswer.com, http://www.refundcents.com/ and http://www.afullcup.com/.  You can also sign up to receive bargain alerts on my web site at http://www.bargainshopperlady.com/ .

Task 4- Sign up for one of the on line bargain websites listed and scan the bargains listed. Do a search for bargains on your favorite stores.

Session Five- Rebates and Promotions

1. Using a rebate form.
Rebates are very important in shopping and can help you get an item for free.
Rebate forms can be found online or in the insert section of a newspaper. They require you to have certain items, like a receipt, UPC codes or box tops off of the product. Some rebates may require all three be sent in to the address listed on the rebate form.
For example, Kellogg’s is currently offering a rebate for a $10 check that you get back when you buy any 1o participating items listed on the rebate form (these can usually be found online or in the coupon section of the newspaper). I went to Tom Thumb to purchase my 10 items along with my groceries. My total bill for over $50 in groceries was $13.28. (Keep in mind that I used a $10 off $50 Tom Thumb coupon.) I used coupons for the Kellogg’s items that I found in the same paper as the rebate form. I also happened to find coupon peelies on the cereal boxes at the grocery store for buy 2 get 1 free . When I mail in my rebate and get my check back I will have only paid $3.28 for those groceries and I will have gotten all the Kellogg’s items that were listed (cereals, pop tarts and Rice Krispie treats) for free. This an example of why rebates are very valuable!
2. Promotions –
A promotion is a free offer where the manufacture will ship you this items if you buy certain products. It usually has a form as well. You can find these online, on a product’s box or in the coupons section of the newspaper. #1 Rule for Promotions and Rebates – Always save your receipts.You never know when you might need a receipt. Find a box or cute container and use it to save your receipts. I took a brown box that I had in the shape of a heart and painted it blue. Then I wrote the word RECEIPTS really cute on the top so my family would know not to throw them away. You never know when you will need your receipts to mail in for a free offer and you may have already bought the items necessary. For example, there was an Extra Bucks deal at CVS last year that ended up giving CVS shoppers free Dove hair products. It turned out the next month, a rebate was posted online and you could mail the receipt in to get a free tote bag. It turned out to be really nice and included sample products as well! Items like free toys make great Christmas and Birthday gifts too!
3. Check for online rebates and promotions.
Go to the free website http://www.hotcouponworld.com/. Sign up if you are not a member. Scroll down to the forum titled: Gimme My Money Back! Check here for the latest rebates. Scroll a few titles down to the one called: Smokin’ Promotions, here you can find a list of the most current promotions. Another website to check rebates and promotions is http://www.refundcents.com/ . It cost $1 a month to join but is one of the best websites for beginners.
4. Don’t buy items that you would not normally buy! You are not going to save money if you spend a lot on items that your family would not usually use. This is what some companies hope you will do, by offering limited items that you can only get through the promotion. For example there is a former Kellogg’s promotion for a soccer ball, http://www.frostedflakes.com/Offers/EYSSoccerBall.pdf . You have to buy five boxes of Frosted Flakes. If I had known this before I did the original Kellogg’s rebate, I may have bought five for that deal to go with this deal as well. However, we only have one box in our pantry so I am not going to go out and buy four more so that we can have a soccer ball. If I stop to think about it, we have four soccer balls already.
5. Getting two register receipts for the same transaction. This one is kind of bargain shopper intense, so hang on! In the soccer ball rebate, you do not need your receipt, only the UPC’s off of the boxes. However, occasionally you will need the same register receipt to fulfill two refunds. You can ask the cashier to print you a back copy of the receipt. Some stores are unable to do this but most stores can do this in their store. If you know ahead of time that you will need two receipts to mail in for the same transaction, go ahead and ask for a second copy of the receipt. It never hurts to ask and they can only tell you no. I have gotten a second receipt at Walgreens for two different offers.

Task 5- Sign up to get emails from The Bargain Shopper Lady site and view the current rebates and promotions. Make a box to save your receipts! Be creative!