When I was a kid growing up in the 80’s, one of the things I remember is that every Sunday morning my mom would sit around the kitchen table with three or four newspapers. She wasn’t trying to keep up with every iota of world news, though. No, she was looking for coupons. By the time it was all said and done, there would be a stack of grocery store coupons piled into a little wicker basket, and then we’d go shopping. I don’t know how much money we saved, but I do know that it was a lot, because my mom always ended the day with a smile on her face. She loved to save money.
Nowadays, you don’t have to rummage through every single newspaper to find grocery store coupons, but you can if that is still your preferred method. Flyers are distributed to my house at least twice a week, and I admit that I sit down and look through them for coupons, although not as obsessively as my mother once did. There’s still the Sunday newspaper, too, which offer a whole host of deals. Everything from ‘$2 Off a Purchase of Huggies,’ to a ‘Buy 2 Get 1 Free’ deal on pickles. Who doesn’t like pickles?
When it comes right down to it, though, grocery store coupons are divided into three categories. Manufacturer coupons, retailer coupons, and online printable coupons.
Manufacturer coupons are the ones you usually receive in the mail. You know the drill. A small sample of Pantene Pro V arrives and there’s a coupon attached to it for $1 off your next bottle. They can also be found in magazines, and direct mailers. The manufacturer of whatever product you’re saving on, usually pays the grocery store the face value of the coupon.
Retailer coupons are the ones that you find in flyers for a certain store. Wegmans might send out a flyer offering $0.50 off a can of tuna specific to their stores, meaning that you couldn’t cut it and take it to Wal-Mart. They are able to do this by the manufacturer offering them an allowance to cover the expense of the mailing and advertising fees. They on turn put those savings into grocery store coupons, staying competitive and giving you a good deal.
Online printable coupons are becoming more and more the norm these days, though. With the Internet, you don’t have to wait for Sunday mailers to show up. All you have to do is go online and look for some websites that offer the best deals in your area, or nationwide.
Look at Coupons.com for example. Talk about a gold mine of money saving grocery store coupons. Save on everything from coffee and Slim Fast to cooking oil and Pillsbury dough. There’s even a section to enter in your ZIP code so you can search for the best deals around where you live. How’s that for not only money saving, but also saving time as well? Awesome.
CoolSavings.com also has an array of grocery store coupons for you to choose from. The thing I like about these websites is that when you select a coupon, it adds it to a cart, just as if you were shopping on Amazon or any other online retailer. They go one step further, though. They just don’t show you the number of grocery store coupons you’ll be printing off, but they show you how much money you’ll be saving with all those coupons. It allows you to easily keep track of your budget, and perhaps try some products you wouldn’t normally have purchased. Not a bad deal, at all.
One last thing about the websites mentioned above. You will be required to download and install their software application to print your coupons. Don’t worry, it’s harmless, so feel free to go ahead and start saving.
With the economy the way it is, there’s never been a better time to start becoming a coupon clipper. When it comes to grocery store coupons, there’s lots of money to be saved, either from reading the newspapers every Sunday, or taking 30 minutes out of your day to look for great deals on the products you love online.
I used to look at coupon clipping as a sign of weakness, like maybe we weren’t as well off as other people, so my mom had to do everything she could to save money. Now I realize that we were well of because she worked so hard at saving money. Those savings could be put toward other things, like toys for me. I can’t argue with that, and now that I’m older, I still like to save that money and use it on toys. While the coupons haven’t changed much, the toys have, though. A 45″ plasma TV, anyone? Now that’s saving money.