Coupons - Sources

There are many sources for coupons, but the best source is the Sunday paper.  The coupon inserts will vary depending on where you live. We live in the Atlanta area, so we have access to the AJC, which has some of the best inserts in the southeast. The larger the city, the better the inserts.  You may also be able to purchase the newspapers in "bundles".  This will be two papers banded together, costing a lot less than the purchase of two single papers.  The AJC bundles cost $3.00, while the single papers cost $2.50 each.  For our family, I purchase two bundles, for a total of four papers per week.  The coupon inserts will be from RedPlum and/or SmartSource, and once a month you will receive an insert from P & G.  You may also find inserts from specific stores that can be "stacked" with manufacturers coupons for additional savings. (More on stacking in a later post.)

Many coupons can be printed online.  Coupons.com is an excellent source for printable coupons.  RedPlum, and SmartSource, have printable sites as well.  You will need to download a coupon printer in order to print the coupons. This is a free download which you will be prompted to download when you first print a coupon.  By default, you can only print two coupons per item, per computer.  I only print coupons from these sites and directly from the manufacturer's site.  There are many fraudulent coupons floating around on the internet, so please be very careful. 

"Blinkies" are the little machines that you see on grocery store aisles that give you coupons.  Usually, the product will not be on sale at the time, but grab your coupons anyway for future sale items. 

Store coupon booklets can often be found on the turnstiles in the front of the store, or check with the customer service desk to see if there are any available.  Our Publix store keeps them at the customer service desk, or occasionally, you will find them on a display scattered throughout the store.

Magazines will have a few coupons, but I have found that it is not worth the cost of the magazine to get them.  The exception to that rule is the "ALL YOU" magazine found only at Wal-Mart.  It is full of coupons and you will be able to recoup the cost of the magazine by the money you will save from the coupons. 

Train yourself to always be on the look-out for coupons.  You might also talk with friends and family members to see if they will save their coupons for you, especially if they do not use the coupons from the newspaper.  If several of your friends use coupons, consider a system whereby you can swap coupons among yourselves. 

Happy savings!