Know & Gather Your Coupons

There are two main types of coupons Store coupons and Manufacturer’s coupons.  You’ll find both store and manufacturers coupons in numerous places.  Some may surprise you!

 Store Coupons

A store coupon is a coupon issued by the retailer itself.  Consider them more like a store discount or sale price that you’ll get only if you present the coupon.   They can vary greatly in appearance but almost all of them say “Store Coupon” or name the store like Target’s store coupons do…they say “Target Coupon” on them.   Unless you have a store near you that accepts competitors coupons you may only use these at the store that issued them.

If you read the fine print on the coupons they’ll also give you more information on how the coupons can be used.  Some store coupons are good on quantities of an item so you may be able to purchase multiples with just one coupon!

So, where do you find store coupons? 

Store coupons can be found in the stores weekly ad among other places.  Many stores have these right out front or at customer service but you can also find them in your weekly paper usually the day before the ad starts.  Stores like Fred Meyer will have coupon booklets right up front and even place store coupons throughout the store for their customers.

I like store coupons because often they will fill a gap in coupons…like for fresh produce or generic store brand items that manufacturer’s do not issue coupons for.   Plus, if you have a store coupon many stores will allow you to “stack” a store coupon and manufacturer’s coupon together.   This means you can use one store coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon together on the same item to maximize your savings!  Say, you have a $2 Target coupon for Dove lotion and a $1.00 Dove lotion manufacturer’s coupon…you can use these together at Target to save $3.00 off of one Dove lotion.  Nice, huh?

 Moving on to manufacturer’s coupons…

Manufacturer’s coupons are issued by the manufacturer of the product.  They usually say “Manufacturer’s Coupon” on them and always have a remittance address back to the manufacturer in the fine print.  These are treated like money at the store.  The retailers take all manufacturer’s coupons they receive, send them to the remittance address to get reimbursed for the face value of the coupon plus a small fee for accepting it!  It’s a win win situation…the stores get their money and you get  discount.

Alright then…where do I find these?

Sources for Manufacturer’s Coupons

Your Sunday Paper -

This is your main source to find coupons. I highly recommend getting a subscription to your local Sunday paper.  Newspaper subscribers generally have priority over newstand purchasers when it comes to newspaper inserts, so you’re basically guaranteed to get every single insert you’re entitled to.

Internet Printable Coupons

 Most stores these days are willing to accept Internet printed coupons, although some do have a few rules on acceptance (you can always find the stores coupon policy by the stores link under “find your stores” at the top of the page).   Most internet printable sites are okay…especially if you’re printing from directly from coupons.com, smartsource.com, redplum.com or couponnetwork.com.  These are all reputable sources for internet printable coupons.

Other Sources

You can also find coupons in, on and around the products themselves.  Manufacturers will sometimes print coupons on the packages both inside and out, or they’ll put them inside with the product or they’ll put them on the package like a sticker (these are called peelies).  Pretty cool, right?

Other places to find them are right in the stores.  SmartSource has little black boxes with blinking lights on them.  These hang around the stores and have coupons in them.  We call these blinkies.  Other coupons you might find in store are tearpads which are normally stacks of coupons found near the products themselves.  Yet another in-store source for coupons are what we call hang-tags.  You’ll find these hanging on products…mostly bottles like laundry detergent or soda, etc.

Some more coupons sources are magazines, Facebook, your doctor or dentist office, with your receipt at checkout (these are called catalina coupons) and in your mail box!

These aren’t the only places to find coupons but are place to start!  Let’s review…

You can find coupons -

#1 Sunday Newspaper

#2 Internet

#3 In and On packages

#4 Blinkies

#5 Tearpads

#6 Facebook

#7 At Checkout

#8 Dr. or Dentists Offices

#9 In the Mail