I often get asked, “where do you find coupons?” Well, here’s my list of the top 1o places I look to find coupons. If you are interested in learning more about couponing, don’t forget to check out my “how to coupon” post here.
1) The newspaper:
The Sunday edition of the newspaper is where you will find the majority of your coupon books. If you sign up for coupon mailing lists, you might also receive newspaper coupons on Wednesday in the mail.
There are three major companies that do coupon inserts: RedPlum, SmartSource and P&G. RedPlum and Super Saver coupons are most often available (not always both at the same time), but the P&G one only comes out once a month. P&G inserts are the most sought after because they include coupons for products from P&G, such as Pantene, Cascade, Gain, Pampers, etc).
While it is awesome if you can get a Sunday paper free from a family member or neighbor, you may still have to buy a Sunday paper. Here’s a friendly tip: The Sunday paper is only $1 at Dollar Tree, as opposed to $1.50 or $1.75 in most stores.
2) Store circulars/ads:
Most stores have a weekly coupon circular. Target most often has several store coupons that you can combine with manufacturer coupon for even greater savings. Other stores that often carry coupons include Family Dollar, K-Mart, Walgreens and Rite-Aid, just to name a few.
3) Online coupon sites:
This is the big one. There are several coupon resources online, but most of them are just redirecting you to the same couponing sites. You can go to them directly: RedPlum, SmartSource and Catalina.
Another favorite site to look for coupons is Target. These are mostly Target store coupons though, not manufacturer coupons that can be used anywhere. I will write more on how to combine store coupons and manufacturer coupons (also called stacking) in another post.
Parents and Teachers know about BoxTops, do you? Participating companies place boxtops on their packaging and kids can bring those boxtops in to their school. The school can then exchange each box top with the manufacturers for $.10 each. I’ll write more on How to Double your BoxTops in another post.
By far, my favorite place to get online coupons is Coupons.com, because this site is easy to use and often has coupons on products I actually buy.
Finally, there is RetailMeNot. While this site does not have quite as many printable coupons as other sites, this is the best site to find promo codes and free shipping codes when buying stuff online.
The thing no one tells you but you should know: In order to print from these sites, you often have to install some printing software or Java. This software ensure that you ONLY PRINT TWO of each kind of coupon. I suggest running a “test print” on a coupon you don’t care about first, just to make sure everything is going to print ok. You only get TWO of each coupon, so make ’em count.
Read tomorrow’s post All About Online Coupons for more tips and tricks on printing coupons.
4) Directly from the manufacturer/email and mail subscriptions:
I have signed up for just about every mailing list and email list I can think of for products I use the most. Because the object of most manufacturers is to make money, not give you discounts, these lists are designed to collect more information on you so they can better market to you. I don’t mind this, but you should know what you are getting yourself into when you sign up for anything.
These companies WILL share your information with other companies and you WILL get lots of junk mail and junk email if you sign up for these lists. I suggest setting up a separate “couponing” email address that you use specifically for signing up for coupons. It will fill up with emails in no time, I promise!
5) Smartphone apps:
My favorite phone apps are the ones for JoAnn’s and Michael’s.You can use phone coupons, printed coupons from online and coupons clipped from the newspaper at these stores. For example, let’s say I have a coupon on my phone from JoAnn’s, another that I printed online and still another from the newspaper. I have three items in my cart. I can use one coupon for each item in the same transaction! Because the coupons are all from different sources, they will have their own, unique barcode. Thus, they can all be used in the same trip. I have gotten some pretty great deals at my favorite crafting stores by doing this.
Other popular coupon apps include one for coupons.com and groceryIQ (which is also using coupons from coupons.com).
6) Magazines:
I love magazine coupons! Manufacturers use targeted ads in magazines (they put diaper ads in parenting magazines, for example, or they put furniture polish ads in a home or decorating magazine). I know that when I pick up a magazine that appeals to me, I am likely to find coupons in it for products that I actually use, because the magazine has a targeted audience.
7) Catalina coupons:
I know what you are thinking, “What the heck are Catalina coupons?” I know it sounds foreign, but I bet you’ve come across these coupons more often than you think. These are the coupons that come out of a device at the register when you get your receipt. You often receive one because something that you have purchased let’s the register know that you might be interested in a specific coupon. For example, if you buy 5 boxes of cereal, you might receive a catalina coupon for cereal the next time you shop.
8) Blinkies and Peelies:
These are those coupons you find “blinking” in the aisles at your grocery store or that you “peel off ” of an item to use in the checkout line. I rarely find the peel off kind in the store, but I do sometimes find these kinds of coupons stuffed into the container once I open it up at home, such as in my cereal box or in an oatmeal container.
9) Social networking sites:
I can’t begin to tell you how many coupons I have received, simply by clicking the “like” button of a page. In fact, here is one to get you started $1 off Wisk.
Other great facebook resources for coupons include: CouponGeek, TheKrazyCouponLady, TotallyTarget, LikeACoupon and CouponPro. Oh, and my favorite: CouponLove. Since CouponLove lives here in the valley, her coupons are often more helpful than another coupon site based elsewhere in the company.
Don’t forget to LIKE the heavenlypenniesfanpage on facebook or follow heavenlypennies on twitter while you’re at it!
10) Fellow couponers:
I get a lot of information from others online and through social media. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! If you have a question, chances are someone else has the same question. I find most couponers to be very helpful and supportive of others. We are all looking for the same thing: to save a little money and help out our faily where we can. People like this are generally not the snotty types.
Sometimes I swap coupons with fellow couponers that I know. There are also places that you can go online to buy, sell or trade coupons, but I have not tried any of those so I can’t give you my experience in this area.
Please feel free to comment in the comments section at the bottom of this page if you have any questions or additional information you would like to add to this article.
Don’t forget to check heavenlypennies.com often for more money saving tips. My “how to coupon” post is here. Read tomorrow’s post All About Online Coupons for more tips and tricks on printing coupons.
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