Couponing Tip: Buying Sunday Newspapers for Cheaper Price

If you are thinking about couponing, you should start with buying Sunday newspapers for cheap.  I buy 4 newspapers every Sunday to get 4 stacks of coupon inserts.  Where I live, a local Sunday newspaper costs $1.75 normally at super markets and convenient stores.  Philadelphia Inquirer is the metropolitan newspaper (they stopped carrying the RedPlum coupon insert) and it costs $2.00.  If you are lucky enough to live in an area that delivers coupon inserts every week, I envy you!  I live in one of those unlucky areas!  And since I'm such a penny pincher, I don't like to spend that much on newspapers especially because the only reason I get them is for coupons.  If I paid regular price for those newspapers, I'd be paying $28 a month!  Sure, the coupons I get from the newspapers and then couponing to buy groceries pays off but I just like to save a little more.

So here are few things that you can do to buy them cheaper:

• Buy them at your nearest dollar store.  I'm not sure if all dollar stores carry newspapers but I know Dollar Tree does.  The local Sunday paper (The Intelligencer or The Courier Times in my area) comes with both SmartSource and RedPlum coupon inserts and they only cost $1.

• The obvious option would be getting them delivered every Sunday to your door by subscription.  Only reason I don't like to do this is because sometimes the coupon inserts can be missing and there is no way for you to check them before you buy them. Also, the special price is usually set for a certain time and after that period is over, they'll start charging you regular cost of the newspaper or more.

• Go to the super market or convenient store at the end of the day and ask if they can sell the newspapers for a cheaper price.  It's a hit or miss though, the stores may do it for you or may not, and by the end of the day they may be out of newspapers too.

I go to the Dollar Tree every Sunday morning to get 4 newspapers.  I think it's a great deal.  Do you know any other cheaper ways to get coupon inserts?  Let us know!

-Nerdy Mom

How To Take Advantage of Catalinas and Pay Less Out of Your Pocket

I paid $28.49 for all this.  Not the best I've done but I really needed some toilet paper and paper towels and ShopRite happened to have a pretty good deal going on this week through 6/2/12:

The Sparkle paper towels and Angel Soft toilet papers were on sale for $5.88 each.  Which is a nice deal.  But on top of that, according to the ad, if you spend $20 on these participating products you get $5 off on your next shopping trip.  At the cash register, there is a little machine usually near the receipt printer and when you make the qualifying purchases, a $5 coupon will print from that machine and the clerk should hand it over to you with the receipt.  In the couponing world those coupons are called "catalinas". 

So how can you take advantage of those catalinas and pay less out your pocket in your shopping trip?  The trick is to do 2 separate transactions.  All you need to do is kindly ask the clerk if you can do 2 separate transactions and they never have a problem to do so.  Here is what I did:

1st Transaction

2 Sparkle Paper Towels - $5.88 each (on sale with club card)

2 Angel Soft Toilet Papers - $5.88 each (on sale with club card)

8 YoCrunch - $0.60 each (on sale with club card)

1 Box Fudgesicles - $0.88 each (on sale with club card)

*Coupons Used:

1 $1.00 off for 2 Sparkle Paper Towels from previous Sunday paper

1 $1.00 off for 2 Angel Soft Paper Towels from previous Sunday paper

2 $0.65 off for 4 YoCrunch from www.couponnetwork.com (after they tripled the coupons I got all of them for free)

Total: $24.70 after tax + $5 catalina from spending $20 on participating products

2nd Transaction

1 20 lb ShopRite Long Grain Rice $8.79 (with club card)

*Coupons Used:

1 $5 catalina from 1st transaction

Total: $3.79

It's that easy.  I wish I had this kind of knowledge on grocery shopping a long time ago.  Oh well, better late than never!  I hope you found this post beneficial.  I'm such a nerd when it comes to saving money! :)

Happy saving!

-Nerdy Mom

How to BUY Drug Store Items for FREE!

Getting stuff for free is so easy with drugstores these days!  They actually advertise them like the picture on the left!  You will see this on the Walgreen's ad from this week on the last page.  So how does it work?  Let's say you are going to buy the Tecnu First Aid Gel.  The sale price is $7.  Then it says you'll get $7 Register Rewards good on next purchase.  You pay the $7 out of pocket at the register and  you will get a little long coupon with your receipt that looks like this:

You may not like the idea of having to pay out of your pocket first but, you can use that $7 register reward towards other items such as ANOTHER FREE ITEM!  Right below the first aid gel, you will see Youtheory Collagen Type 1 & 3 for $7 sale price.  It also says you get $7 Register Rewards good on next purchase.  You can use the $7 Register Reward that you got from the first aid gel and use it to buy the Collagen pills.  Guess what? You get ANOTHER Register Rewards for $7!  You won't have to pay a penny! (You can actually do 2 separate transactions for this in the same shopping trip) Now you can save that $7 Register Rewards for similar sales next week!  I save my Register Rewards and hunt for sales like this every week.  It's like getting to try all these items for free!

My total for the above items came out to $20.08 after coupons and before tax.  I used a $0.35 coupon for the toothpaste and used $0.55 for the shaving lotion.  I got $2 back from shaving lotion, $3 from toothpaste, $7 from first aid gel, and $7 from Youtheory Collagen.  So I got $19 total back in Register Rewards which means all this stuff was for $1.08!  You have to try this it's so much fun!  Oh, and remember to read the fine print on the Register Rewards - you can't use it on certain items such as dairy, lottery tickets, etc...  If you have any questions about couponing please don't hesitate to contact me!  Have fun free shopping!

-Nerdy Mom

Couponing Tip: How to use store coupons at other stores

click to zoom in

Have you ever gotten one of these?  Ever wondered how-or if -you can you use them?  I am here to put your fear of couponing away little by little!

First of all, they are exactly what they seem.  You get a certain amount off when you present these coupons at the cash register.  How do you get them?  By purchasing certain items that are running special promotions that are advertised in the ad flyer.  After you pay at the register, there is a separate little machine near the cash register that will print one of these coupons and the clerk should hand them over to you with the receipt.

What is the difference between these two coupons?  On the right side of the coupons they both say "SHOPRITE".  But near the expiration date, the coupon on top says "MANUFACTURER CPN" and one on the bottom says "STORE COUPON".  

So how can you use these Shoprite coupons at other super markets or stores?  The one that says "STORE COUPON" cannot be used anywhere else but Shoprite.  The bar code is specifically for Shoprite scanners.  Now the one that says "MANUFACTURER CPN" can be used at another super market.  Why?  Because manufacturer coupons are straight from the manufacturers(not from stores) and the super markets can send it out to the manufacturer to get the value of the coupon redeemed.

Check with your super market and ask if they take competitor's coupons.  Most will say yes, as long as it says "manufacturer coupon".  Some stores may have store policies that are more strict so my advice is just ask.  It never hurts to.  

You are a consumer and you are entitled to save money.

I go to both Giant and Shoprite frequently and always use Giant coupons at Shoprite and vice versa.  Whichever store that has the best deals that week, I take my coupons there.

-Nerdy Mom

P.S.  If you have any couponing questions please don't hesitate to ask!