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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Where to Find Grocery Coupons

Recently a neighbor asked me where I find my coupons. Here's my list.
  1. Newspapers- I take a subscription to the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune for weekends only. I know that The St George Spectrum carries the Red Plum inserts in addition to Smart Source, Proctor & Gamble, and General Mills, however the subscription costs 6-8 times as much as the Salt Lake papers, so whatever additional coupons I would get are not really worth the cost. Two newspapers provides me with more than enough coupons. If there is something to good to pass up I'll get it from a newsstand.
  2. Coupon printing websites- Coupons.com is the biggest one, but I have found that most often any coupon found there can be printed from the Swagbucks website instead, which gives you points that can be exchanged for Amazon gift cards.  Big food companies like Kellogs and General Mills will often have coupons on their websites that you can print. You can also try RedPlum.com & SmartSource.com, but I have found the printing widgets to be less reliable and their trouble shooting tips to be worthless, and I consider myself to be fairly technically competent.
  3. Facebook- Many companies will allow you to print coupons for their products if you "like" their page. I tend to not use my personal account to do this, because I prefer to have my FB feed be full of updates from my family, friends and neighbors and not cluttered with ads. When I find great printable coupons I share them on my public Facebook profile.
  4. GrocerySmarts.com- I Heart this website. Not only does it match up coupons with ads, it tells me where I can find individual coupons to print. It totally makes my life easier. This one also gives tips on how to get Catalinas.
  5. Mail- Because I am pregnant I have been getting oodles of coupons for infant formula for free (I think I filled out a survey at some point and that's what started it). Smith's also send me a booklet of coupons for various products at least once a month. If you are really ambitious you can write away for more coupons, but I'm not. CouponingtoDisney is great reference for companies you can write to for coupons and samples.
  6. Rite-Aid.com- Another printable I am generally not patient enough for this one. There are great savings to be had, but I usually have to sit and watch a video to get them, and I find that the vast majority of the time when I go to Rite-Aid the great deals are all gone.
  7. Grocery Checkout- Often coupons (aka Catalinas) will print when I am paying for my groceries, or sometimes they will be on the back of the receipt.
Virtual Coupons- I love these because there is no clipping involved. The only hassle is remembering your login and password to load them.
  1. Upromise- These can be stacked and do not show up on your total. I often forget about them. You just have to link your grocery cards to the Upromise website, and if you purchase one of the items instead of getting "money off", you get "money back" in the form of college savings. The problem with these is that are for national brands and I find that many of them are for products that my local stores don't even carry, but I still try to look through them once a month. Another problem is that these coupons are slow to show up and there have been occasions when I know I have bought a product from the list (even without stacking with other coupons) and never received credit for the coupon. But I have saved a few dollars using these.
  2. pgeverydaysolutions.com- These Proctor & Gamble coupons are also linked to your grocery card, but are not stackable. There is some overlap with Smith's digital coupons. You can also request that they mail samples and coupons to you and I find that these coupons often are of higher value than the ones found in the newspaper inserts, plus they're free.
  3. Smith'sFoodandDrug.com- These are also linked to your grocery card, but are not stackable. This site sometimes also provides a few additional printable coupons. You do have to wait at least two hours after loading them to redeem them. Warning: if you have a better paper coupon for a product and have already loaded one of these to your card, you don't get to pick. You have to take the digital discount. There is an exception to the stacking rule. As an example if you have a digital coupon for Reese's Puffs and a paper coupon for 2 General Mills cereals, you can use both if you buy 2 GM cereals and one of them is Reese's Puffs. This site also sometimes has promotional games you can play for free stuff. Last summer I played a spin game and got a free package of Johnsonville sausage and a free Gatorade.
  4. Shortcuts.com- Same rules as the first two, and it also offers a few printable grocery coupons, but I have never printed from this site. There is some overlap for the digital coupons found here and the Smith's website and sometimes it won't let you load from both, but then sometimes it will, you just have to purchase 2 of an item to redeem both coupons. Annoying thing about this one is they are always sending me emails trying to get me to do my online shopping through them. I'm happy with using Upromise and Ebates.
  5. Cellfire.com- I like this one because I log in using my cellphone number and birthday. I can remember that regardless of what computer I am on. This one doesn't offer a huge selection, they're mostly GM product coupons that are also found other places. But when I find a stock-up sale on fruit snacks they come in very handy.
  6. Savingstar.com- This one is either really great or meh. Like Upromise you link coupons to your grocery card and you don't get money off, so they're stackable, and once you reach a savings total of at least $5 you can use your savings to purchase a gift card. (The only one I remember is an Amazon gift card, but there were others.) I've gotten some awesome ones like Huggies and Carnation Instant Breakfast, but this month doesn't offer much that I might actually buy. I also found that they're somewhat retroactive. I bought the Huggies and the next day discovered the digital coupon here and loaded the coupon in case I went back for more. I never did and the next time I checked my account they had given me credit for the Huggies coupon. Sweet. (That was just my experience, no guarantees that that will happen every time.)
Are there any places that I have missed? I hope that was helpful.

2 comments:

  1. Good tips, thank you. I don't utilize nearly enough of these ideas.

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  2. Also I've recently found that TotallyTarget.com, often has links to printable coupons that I haven't found elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete