Reader Question... Stacking Coupons???

Reader Question...

How do you stack coupons and
what stores can do you do this at?

I often forget when I mention some things, that 2 short years ago I had no idea what this meant either! Stacking coupons simply means that you use 1 manufacturer coupon (like in the Sunday Paper) and 1 store coupon on the same product.

How can you tell the difference??

A manufacturers coupon will usually say "manufacturers coupon" by the expiration date and the bar code will usually start with the #5 (clear on the left of the bar code)
A Store coupon usually says "Store coupon" by the expiration date and the bar code starts with a 1 or another number other than 5

The rule is that you can only use 1 manufacturer coupon per item. But in addition to that you can also use 1 store coupon on the same item.

Example...
So take for instance Meijer. Recently they had their Betty Crocker Frosting on sale for $1.49 I used a manufacturers coupon for .50/1 (which they doubled) and then I also used a $1./2 Mealbox coupon (which is Meijer's store coupon). Combining the Sale, Manufacturer Coupon, and the Store Coupon made this item completely FREE!!! (I of course got 2 in order to be able to use the $1./2 Mealbox coupon)

Stores that I know of that have
Store coupons are...

Kroger -- I often get mailers (booklets) that have a mixture of store coupons and manufacturers coupons

Meijer -- use Mealbox coupons here, as I previously mentioned

CVS -- Print store coupons at the scanner or often at the end of your receipt

Walgreens -- Sometimes have flyers at the store with store coupons in it. They also have coupons in their weekly flyer.

KMart -- occasionally has printables

Target -- I don't have one close (sniff) but I always hear of SWEET deals going on at Target when you combine their awesome store coupons with manufacturers coupons.
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That's all I can think of at the moment...
If you know of another store let us all know!!!
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Hopefully that helps shed a little light on this
sometimes confusing subject!!!

If you have a question, Feel free to email me or
leave it in a comment! I'll gladly address it if I can!
Have a great week!

How I Organize My Coupons...

If you're new to couponing or just don't like your
method of organizing your coupons here's what I do...
It works great for me!!

I use a binder like you see here.
Then I got the sheets that hold baseball cards. The ones that have 9 pockets in each sheet. You can get these pretty cheap here on Amazon. I slide the coupons in the slots so that I can see what it is and the exp. date. I also slip them in backwards too so that I can put 18 coupons in one sheet.

These sheets are put in the binder by category.
If a category gets full it's easy to slip another page in anywhere!

If you use the envelope method I'm sure you hate constantly going through the pile to see if you have a coupon. I did too, especially at the store. It takes a little longer to file your coupons away after clipping, but it's so much easier to find a coupon later when I'm scanning the ads or in the store!

In addition to the baseball holder sheets I also have an area in the front of my binder where I do use the envelope method. These are the categories that I typically only use if something is a moneymaker or free. I never have to go through these envelopes in the middle of the store because these are the items that I rarely shop for if ever.

These categories for me are...
**Medicine**
also includes vitamins and cough drops.
I only buy medicine when planned and I have already pulled my coupons at home. Plus there are typically so many of these type of coupons that to put them in the baseball card holders would be a lot of very unnecessary work and take up alot of space.

**Scented**
This inclues anything smelly -- usually Glade and Airwick

**Baby**
I don't need diapers anymore-- however if they're a really good deal I still might want to get them for gifts so I like to keep the coupons. I also like to keep baby wipes around for messy hands and camping so it's nice to have those coupons handy.

**Laundry**
I use the Laundry ball so I haven't gotten soap in months. If it's nearly free however I want to have the option to get it so I keep the coupons.

**Miscellaneous **
This category is huge -- things like batteries, monthly items, tape, coffee, pens, bug spray, hair color, storage containers, ect. Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else but I want the coupon.

Doing this envelope method along with the binder really saves space on items I rarely need but you just never know what is going to be a moneymaker!!!!
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So this is what works for me!
Hopefully it will give you an idea or two for your coupons!!!

Couponing Questions

I've had several questions as comments so I thought I would address them today!

First Question-- Why don't I ever mention Aldi? Do you shop there??

Aldi is a great store and I used to shop there several times per month. I would shop at Aldi and then once per month I would go to Walmart and get everything that Aldi didn't carry. This lowered my budget to about $400. Typically I would still go over putting it closer to $450.
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Then last year around Feb. I found "Couponing". As I started using coupons stacked with store sales at Meijer and Kroger I found the need to visit Aldi lessened. I remember going there and thinking I just got that cheaper and that and that.
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Now I maybe go there every 6 weeks or so just to fill a couple gaps. I typically spend less than $20. when I go. My current budget stands at around $200./month (give or take) That is substantially lower than before and I find I have more food around than I used to.
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My opinion-- Try "couponing" -- that is using coupons along with sales. Stockpiling and menu planning. You can read more about that here. If that doesn't work for you and you prefer not to use coupons then Aldi is the store for you!
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Where can you use coupons, When can you use them, and how do you know a stores coupon policy?

Most stores tell you all this info in there flyer or on their website. If not simply asking at the customer service counter should give you the info. or give them a quick call.
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My Kroger takes MQ and Internet Printables everyday. They triple up to .50 cents, however only 2 like coupons will triple in any one transaction. Find out all the coupon info. experience is going to be a good way to find this out. You'll learn as you go!
Most stores take coupons -- CVS, Walgreens, Rite aid, Meijer, Kroger, most local grocery stores, even Dollar General. Just check with the stores in your area to find the best stores to shop at.
Questions to ask..
1. Do you take manufacturer coupons?
2. Do you take internet printables?
3. Do you double or triple coupons?
4. If so how many "like" coupons will you double or triple?
5. Do you have any "store"coupons. (Like Meijer has the Mealbox)
6. If they don't regularly double, do they have special events where they do?
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What does "Limit one coupon per purchase" , "One per transaction", and "Limit one per customer" mean on the coupon?


This is really not tricky, although a lot of cashiers don't even know what this means and will try to tell you false meanings and make it tricky.

"Limit one coupon per purchase" simply means that you can only use one coupon for each item you're buying. For instance I buy a bag of chips I am "purchasing" this item therefore I can only use 1 coupon to buy that. Which is really common sense and that's why almost every coupons says this. Just to make sure you don't buy 1 bag and use 5 of the same coupon.
It does not mean that you can only use 1 coupon for your entire order.
If a cashier tries to pull this on you simply tell them "fine" then you'd like to purchase each item separately. This will usually get the point across.
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"One per transaction" is entirely different it means you can only use 1 of that exact coupon per transaction or order. The Meal Box coupons used to say this, meaning if I bought 2 bags of chips I could only use 1 coupon even though I'm buying 2 bags. (they've since changed that rule).

"Limit one per person" -- I have to admit I don't see this one much on coupons. I guess it would mean that I can only use 1 of that coupon ever. I also have to be honest, I don't always read all the fine print on every coupon. I've never had a coupon that I know of that I could only use one per person???
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What do things like MM and MQ mean?
- Catalina -- coupon that prints out of a machine at checkout. Usually after you pay.
- OOP-- out of pocket
- YMMV-- Your Miles May Vary (your experience may be different)
- MQ -- Manufacturers coupon
- Q-- Coupon
- MB -- Mealbox coupon for Meijer only
- Blinkie-- coupon out of little machine
- BOGO or B1G1 -- buy one get one free
- Peelie-- MQ found on product package
- RR -- Register Reward-- like a catalina only at Walgreens
- SS -- Smart Source coupon insert
- ECB -- Extra Care Bucks -- only at CVS
- RP-- Red Plum coupon insert
- FAR -- Free after Rebate
- P&G-- Proctor and Gamble insert
-CRT -- Cash Register Tape
- EXP-- Expire
-MIR-- Mail in Rebate
-OYNO-- On Your Next Order
- MM -- Money Maker
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I think the best way to learn sometimes is to jump in and get your feet wet. Go slow and start at one or two stores.
Another great way, of course, is to ask more questions! (Which by the way I love)!! It's hard to know what to post and how to help if you don't ask!!
So go ahead, let's hear it.
If you're a couponer and see something I have wrong or missed please also feel free to chime in!

Buy Ahead Method...

Money Saving Mom has a great post here that explains the buy ahead method.

This is exactly what I do too!

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I thought I would mention it in case any of you were wondering how I feed my family each week with such an odd assortment of food!

Couponing Outline

"Couponing" Class

My sister is teaching a class on "couponing" this month. She asked me to come and teach the first class on the basics of "couponing". Here are the outlines I prepared. I thought I'd share them with all of you.

Just click on the picture to see it full size.

Page 1

Page 2

If you're interested check it out...

I'd like to know if you'd like to hear me go into more detail on my blog???

If you are leave a comment and let me know which part or parts you'd like to read more about!

((I didn't mention CVS or Walgreens because she's covering that in the next class.))
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If you're already a couponer and see something I'm missing...
let me know that too. I'll throw it into my outline!
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Thanks so much for previewing it for me!!! Wish me luck tonight...

At least this is something I can talk for hours about!

A new grocery budget challenge...

I'm taking my grocery budget a step further... So what am I talking about? Well currently I spend around $55. per week for groceries. That includes everything (except hamburger).
Just recently we were able to get 50# of hamburger for $1.99/lb. from a local butcher so we stocked our freezer with that. I'm curious how long that will last. (I figure we use about 1 1/2 lb./week which would be around $3.)

Anyway I am now going to do an experiment and skip 1 week of groceries each month. Why you might wonder?? Well because I am continually getting more food than we eat in a week. So my stock just keeps building. It will also save me a morning each month to do something else, it saves gas, and of course will save another $45. or more per month.

I'm sure I will still have to get milk so I'm allowing myself up to $10. on the off week to get that. Depending on CVS deals I may not need all of that.

This will make my new monthly budget for groceries around $175.00 (55.+55.+55.+10.=$175.) I'm curious to see how long I can do this and if my stock will begin to go down.

I was reluctant to do this because I wasn't sure if I can do the coupon matchups and then not go and get the great deals. But in thinking about it there will always be more deals and if I don't go get more boxes of cereal or more toothpaste...I think we'll live!!

So this week I will NOT be going to get the deals, I will not be grocery shopping at all!! Which will work great since I'm potty training my 2 yr old this week. Be sure to check that post out tomorrow!

So there you have it, My new challenge! If you do something like this I'd love to hear about it. I'll keep you posted as to how this new challenge is going each month when I skip a week!

BTW if you were wondering, Yes this was inspired by Money saving mom and how she takes time off every so often to use what's on hand. thanks Crystal, I think this will be good for me!

"Big City" Coupon Inserts

Did you know coupon inserts differ greatly from region to region. Probably so, but did you know that the biggest difference is from a normal size paper to the Big City papers. If you're lucky enough to live close enough to these big cities to get a great paper then this post won't really apply to you...

But for those of us that live far enough away from the big cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, ect... this might be just the thing you're looking for. If you find yourselves looking at the Taylor Town Preview getting all excited only to find maybe 20% of those coupons actually in the paper you bought, then keep reading!!! There is hope...

Inserts differ greatly, I compared my coupons from our local paper to a big city paper and the results might surprise you. In last weeks local Red Plum paper there were 8 coupons. (yes pathetic). BUT In the Big City Red Plum there were 36 coupon. That's over 4 times as many.

Same thing for the Smartsource...In the local smartsource there were 30 coupons. Not bad... BUT in the Big City Smartsource there were 63. Over double....

Wow!! I've been blessed with being able to get the Chicago paper in my area, that was until the first of this year when it disappeared...Apparently they stopped delivering to this area entirely, with no plans to deliver again. Yes I was a little (lot) mad. How dare they not bring me my big paper!!! HAHA

So I've been looking into other options since I can't imagine couponing with only our puny local inserts. I've looked into mail subscriptions but they don't send coupons with that (even tho they said they did and I waited 2 weeks). So that was a bust...

Last week I remembered when I first started couponing coming across "coupons & things by dede" They sell cut coupons but they also sell whole inserts. I was excited!!!

So I tried it and it worked great!!
You might think it's a little costly but for me it's well worth it. It's really only a little more than our Chicago paper was($3.) I ordered 2 Smartsource and 2 Redplum from last weeks paper and paid $7.34 including shipping. I ordered Monday night and they came promptly on Friday!

I was excited to at least have a way of getting these great inserts. So if you're sick and tired of not getting the coupons everyone else is getting, then you can consider this option too. YOU CAN GO HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

If anyone has another idea for obtaining these wonderful inserts, please by all means LET US KNOW!!!! I'D LOVE TO HAVE MORE OPTIONS!!

SO WHAT INSERTS DO YOU GET??? THE WONDERFUL BIG CITY INSERTS...OR THE PATHETIC SMALL TOWN INSERTS???

"Couponing" part 2

If you missed part one you can see it here! Yes I'm finally getting to part two!

So how do you "Coupon"? I'm sure there are many ways people do this, you really just need to start and give it at least 3 months to see how it works for you! I do believe that everyone can save a lot of money off their monthly budget with couponing. Even up to half off!

The best I can do is tell you how I do it. Then you can go from there and tweak it to fit your style.

First you have to start buying Sunday newspapers. I buy 4 each week. I buy 2 Chicago papers and 2 local papers. You will find that the "Big City" papers have more coupons in their inserts. It will take you several months to get your coupons built up but you can begin right away saving some money.

I have the two local papers delivered to my house. One subscription is 7.00 and the other is 6.00 for the month. Then I also spend $5./2 Chicago papers each week. So each week I spend about $8.25 for the 4 papers. This might sound like a lot but I have cut my grocery bill by over $200. per month. So it's well worth it for me!!

Second you need to clip all coupon in the inserts and file them away. Yes I clip almost all coupons. There are very few exceptions. Then find some way that fits you to file your coupons. There are many methods to doing this. I use a binder that has baseball card holder pages in it. Then I file them by category so I can quickly flip through the binder to find any coupon.
I will try to do a post about filing coupons sometime in the near future!!

Next you need to begin planning menus and stick with it. (You can see some of our menus here) As you build your stock it's best to make your menus around what you already have on hand. That way the majority of your budget can be spent on items that are on sale and you have a coupon for.

Then each week I spend a few hours (this can take a lot less time but I enjoy looking for the deals) looking at ads for the four stores (Meijer, CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger). I just look for items that I will use or can use that I also have a coupon for. Then I will buy multiples of that item so it will last for a while. It's amazing for the 8mo. I've been doing this that there is always several items each week very cheap or free. While I'm looking at the ads I just pull the coupons out of my binder and make a groc. list all at the same time.

There are several places that even do the research work for us!! Two big ones I check often are hotcouponworld and moneysavingmom

Then all that's left is actually doing the grocery shopping!!! It usually takes me about 2 hours to visit 3-4 stores. I'm not in any stores for very long since I'm not filling my cart completely up! That isn't much more time than it used to take me to go to Walmart and Aldis!

So for our family of 6, I have kept our grocery budget to $55. per week or $220. per month. This includes EVERYTHING except the Sunday papers. I used to spend around $450./month, I went over a lot and could only buy exactly what we needed (no stock)! It works best for me to simply get the $55. out in cash, that way that's all I can spend.

It's still amazing to me to see how our stockpile has grown and how our freezer has filled on this small budget.

If you have any question or if something doesn't make sense, please leave a comment or email me. You won't be bothering me! I'd love to help you save a lot of money on groceries!!

"Couponing" What does it really mean??

8 months ago I would have told you couponing was silly. I mean how is it worth it to buy a Sunday paper for 1.75, Take all the time to clip them, then use a couple of coupons to take my $115. weekly Walmart bill down a whole $2.25 cents to 112.75 I couldn't figure out how that was worth it at all!! 8 months ago I bought almost all my groceries at Aldis, but this was my "coupon" thinking and Aldis didn't take coupons even if I wanted to use them. If this is what you think couponing is then keep reading....THIS IS NOT COUPONING!!!

Here is my story in a nut shell and then hopefully soon in part 2 I will tell you how to get started saving up to half of your grocery bill!!


It all started when Shannon (my Sis in Law) told me about Money Saving Mom. This is how my whole couponing mind set changed completely. I started slowly and began to look at CVS. I thought "what you want me to buy stuff at CVS"?? That's the kind of store I only stepped into when it was an emergency or to get a script filled. But I began to understand the ECB (extracare bucks). I tried a couple transactions and it worked unbelieveably well. Within a few weeks I had free or really cheap toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner and tons of other stuff. I was officially hooked!!

I kept reading online and researching and began to get 4 Sunday papers and clipping all the coupons. I started shopping at Kroger, Meijer, and Walgreens along with CVS of course. I still had to continue shopping Aldis for a few months to get things that weren't on sale that I needed. This continued for several months and I began to need less and less at Aldis because I was getting a stockpile.

I set myself a weekly budget and would try to use most of the budget to buy items that were on sale and I had a coupon for. It worked awesome. I was getting twice as many groceries for about half the money.

I also began to see my cupboards fill up. I never had much stock of anything before and my freezer was maybe a fourth full. Before I couldn't stay in budget only buying the things we needed for the week let alone stocking up on something else.

So What does couponing look like today 8 months later??? How much do I spend????How much do I have stocked up in my pantry today???How do you begin doing this????
Stay tuned to part 2...hopefully soon!!