Coupons

I caught a segment on NBC last week about people going shopping and leaving with a whole cart of stuff and only paying like $1.50. I want to know where these people live...... Seriously, I do. I can tell you where they don't live........... : ) Really I do wonder though. I admit I am very jealous about this and would love the chance to go shopping somewhere that doubles coupons weekly, where I could go buy a cart of stuff for $1.50. Someone please give me that chance!!

My husband thinks coupons are usually pretty stupid - well sometimes. He laughs and jokes when he sees me pouring over the ads and my coupons. I usually do okay, but rarely save more than $10 per trip. Sometimes I get really lucky and do save more than that, but that is very rare.

One thing about coupons is that they do you no good if you don't have them with you. I try to remember to take them with me anytime I walk out the door cause you never know when you'll end up stopping by a store. I used to just take them when I knew for sure I'd be going to the store, I've come to learn that if you don't have them you will typically end up stopping by some store where you have this great coupon for....sitting at home. So now I take them almost everywhere - yes there are times I still forget, I just put off my purchase if possible till I have the coupon with.

Another thing about coupons, it's crazy to use one just because you have one. I used to do that a lot. On occasion I still do - if it's a great coupon for a product I've always wanted to try. I do clip most all of the coupons out of the paper and save them - just in the hopes that the local Kmart will decide to have another Double Coupon week.

To really save use coupons on items that are already on sale. For example, if you have coupons for $0.35 off of pizza rolls wait to use them till the item is on sale for $1 before you use them. Then you can get the pizza rolls for $0.65 and really save. Most items come on sale at some point, and grocery stores tend to have the same products on sale every so-many weeks.

A great way to get coupons is by writing or emailing a company that has a product you really like and/or use frequently. I've emailed several companies and have had them send me coupons just for me providing them feedback. I emailed Campbells about how much my daughter loves their soups (she really does!) and they sent me several coupons for free product. I also emailed Farmland and told them how much our family likes their lower sodium bacon, they sent me a bunch of $1 off coupons. I saved those coupons till our local Hy-vee had Farmland bacon on sale for $2 and stocked up using my coupons. I bought 6 packages of bacon for $1 each!

If you contact a company about a complaint on a product it's important that you have the packaging from the product still available. About 6 years ago (when my daughter was in diapers) I bought a package of Huggies. A couple of the diapers were defective. I called the company and was able to provide them the information stamped on the package (that gave them info about where they were manufactured, the date, and the time). They sent me coupons for $11 off a package of diapers! They also sent several coupons for $1 off any Kimberly-Clark product. Which I believe I used to get some paper towels for free. : )

Do you have any good couponing strategies that you'd like to share?