Lisanne

I clip coupons, both the ones I will definitely use and many more than I "might" use. The trick for me is remembering to use them, since I rarely have more than one or two for things I'm buying.

All the supermarkets here (not Wal-mart) always double coupons up to $1, and Giant occasionally has $1 doubler coupons where you can double the dollar & up ones. I was shocked to find out that not all areas have supermarkets that will double coupons.

I shop the sales. Every Sunday, I get the newspaper, which has the supermarket sales. I make a list of every item I might want that's on sale. Sometimes an item will be on sale at more than one store, but for a better price at one. I generally do shop more than once a week, so I get the sales at 2 or 3 stores.

I've never managed to score big savings with coupons the way I've read some people do. I always run into "you can't combine this coupon with other savings" limitation. I don't know how other people do it.

But I have occasionally gotten freebies. Like Band-aids - Acme (in Eastern PA) would have a dollar sale and I'd have a dollar-off coupon and get the band-aids for free. I think I managed this once for three years in a row!

I don't like most store brand items, so it's a waste of my money to get them. I do try them. I used to love Wegman's tuna fish, but they stopped making the kind I loved so now I'll probably go back to a brand name.

Lisanne

Another way to save: Some supermarkets have a policy that if they overring you on an item, you get the full amount back for that item. It can be because the item rang up at the full price rather than the sale price, because the shelf price was different, the sign was misleading, etc.

I always check my receipt before leaving the store. Even if your store only refunds the amount you were overcharged, you want that money back. And overrings happen very frequently in some stores. I've gotten some great things that way: bags of shrimp, gourmet cookies, makeup.

SaraSewing

My categories are: Canned and bottled foods, Pkg and box foods, Snacks, Cereals, Frozen and refrigerated foods, Juice and drinks, hair and toothpaste, cleaning, pets, paper (like t.p., baggies). With the very front slot for those I'm redeeming today, and the 2nd slot for the ones that expire within a month to get them used. The very back slot is for rebate offers, so I can accurately buy the number of items for a rebate (like Quaker Oats had a recent one for $10)

littlehud

I use what I can but I usually buy store brand so there are not coupons for those.

Elisabrat

I do use them and when I lived for a few years in AZ my sis in CA sent me coupons from the papers. They are much higher in value here in CA. Stores dont double out coupons so you can easily get .50 c coupons regularly. I would make the people in AZ drop their jaws with my coupons. Like hey! That wasn't in MY PAPER! I need every penny too. My friends save them for me and I spend one hour a week just poking through them. I shop for what is on sale and that I can use a coupon for at the same time.

carrieg

DH does the grocery shopping. :-D But he does take coupons. But he religiously compares prices and many times the store brand or SaveaLot is cheaper than using the coupon.

I am the one who buys our bread at the Aunt Millie's outlet store. Recently bought 6 pkgs english muffins and didn't realize it was BOGO. So they were .55¢ each. Figured I save $18 on that purchase if I had bought at a store! They go right in the freezer.

craftiladi

I was a coupon queen while raising the kids..oh the stories they love to tell...but now thats its mainly just me [except every other weekend] I start my shopping at Dollar General or .99 cent store...I am pretty good about planning my meals around sales and I have learned along time ago how to stretch a meal into two meals.

craftiladi

I still think its magic that whatever we are discussing that we get advertizments pertaining to that topic and after I hit sent a ad for coupons.com came up...I have never been able to get that site to work. It installs fine but the coupons never print.

Marcia

Thanks Charlee--I will take coupons anywhere I can get them. These are the sites that I visit for coupons---

http://printablecoupondatabase.com/

http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/O...id=iq37&nid=10

http://www.redplum.com/

http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smar...=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO

http://www.iheartpublix.com/

Even if you do not have a Publix near you, she posts links to coupons you may not find on other sites.

thequilterslink

years and years ago i use to use coupons and do what they called refunding, sending in boxtops or upc's for free products or money back. Did really well at it, but it lost its appeal when postage started going up. Now i just use store brands on most stuff, and shop at sav a lot or walmart