Places to get coupons:
Newspaper - The Sunday paper (or Saturday if your area doesn't have a Sunday delivery) has the coupon inserts. This is where the majority of coupons come from. There are many types of inserts: P&G (proctor and gamble), Smart Source, Red Plum, General Mills, and PepsiCo are the major ones. Red Plum and Smart Source are typically every week and P&G is usually once a month. General Mills and PepsiCo are just every now and then. Whenever I do a coupon match up, I put the insert name (Smart Source, Red Plum etc) and the date that the coupon insert was in the paper. Again, the newspaper is where the majority of the coupons people use come from.
Websites/Printable Coupons - There are several websites that you can print coupons from. Many companies will offer coupons on their website and/or facebook page. P&G never offers printable coupons, except for the very rare Pampers coupons occasionally. You will never find a Gillette printable or Tide printable for example. Most printable coupons are limited to 2 prints per computer. Some are even a limit of 1 per computer. The only exception are PDF coupons. The main coupon printing sites are:
PDF Coupons - These are very rare. This type of coupon will be up on a company's website or Facebook page and you can actually download it to your computer. Then, you are able to print the coupon as many times as you would like to use it. Again, these are VERY rare.
Peelie Coupons - These are found in stores on the products themselves.
Tearpad Coupons - These are also found in stores. They are usually a pad of coupons that are stuck on the shelf near the product, or on a display near the product.
Tearpad Coupons - These are also found in stores. They are usually a pad of coupons that are stuck on the shelf near the product, or on a display near the product.
Store Coupons - Many stores offer coupons that are actually "store" coupons vs. manufacturer coupons. The good thing about store coupons, you can "stack" them with a manufacturer coupon for extra savings. Target offers store coupons (you can print some online at Target.com also), CVS has store coupons, Walgreens has store coupons, and many other stores also offer them.
E-Coupons - Some stores offer coupons that can be downloaded directly to your store loyalty card. There is no need to take in a paper coupon, you can simply download the coupon to your card and it will come off at the register after you buy the item. Kroger/Payless and Marsh are both stores that do this. You can NOT combine an E-Coupon with a paper coupon. For example - You have an E-coupon downloaded onto your card for $1 off Secret Deodorant. You can not use that E-coupon AND a manufacturer paper coupon for Secret Deodorant together. The only exception is SavingStar. That will be a separate section.
Saving Star - Saving Star is something you have to sign up for. It is a company that offers E-Coupons, but they are done differently than the typical E-coupon. You still choose which ones you want to use. However, the coupon does NOT come off at the register, so you can still use manufacturer paper coupons at the same time. Saving Star E-Coupons do NOT lower your out of pocket amount at the register. Once you have completed a purchase, it will take a little while (with CVS, it is about 48 hours), but Saving Star will put the amount of the coupon into your Saving Star account. Here's an example:
Cheerios - $1.99 at CVS
Use $.50 off coupon AT CVS
Pay $1.49
You also had a $.50 Saving Star coupon. In approximately 48 hours, that $.50 will show up in your Saving Star account. Once your account is at $5 or more, you can withdraw the money. There are several options of how to withdraw it - gift cards, direct deposit into your checking account, deposit into a paypal account, etc
COUPON WORDING
Saving Star - Saving Star is something you have to sign up for. It is a company that offers E-Coupons, but they are done differently than the typical E-coupon. You still choose which ones you want to use. However, the coupon does NOT come off at the register, so you can still use manufacturer paper coupons at the same time. Saving Star E-Coupons do NOT lower your out of pocket amount at the register. Once you have completed a purchase, it will take a little while (with CVS, it is about 48 hours), but Saving Star will put the amount of the coupon into your Saving Star account. Here's an example:
Cheerios - $1.99 at CVS
Use $.50 off coupon AT CVS
Pay $1.49
You also had a $.50 Saving Star coupon. In approximately 48 hours, that $.50 will show up in your Saving Star account. Once your account is at $5 or more, you can withdraw the money. There are several options of how to withdraw it - gift cards, direct deposit into your checking account, deposit into a paypal account, etc
COUPON WORDING
Coupons are getting more restrictive all the time. Sometimes the wording on them can be a little difficult to understand. Here are some common restrictions currently -
- Unilever coupons (Suave/Dove/Axe/etc) all have a restriction of no more than 2 like coupons per transaction. If you are wanting to buy 4 Suave (as an example) and use 4 of the same Suave coupon, you would have to separate it into 2 different transactions to follow the wording on the coupon.
- P&G coupons (Tide, Gillette, Pampers, Dawn) all have a restriction of no more than 4 like coupons per day per household. Now, technically this means that you can not use anymore than 4 of the same coupon within 24 hours. I really don't know how they can monitor this very well, to be honest. What would happen if someone went to Walmart and used 4 Tide and then to CVS and used 4 Tide coupons. I think this restriction is very difficult to do. Also, I sometimes buy for more than one household at a time. I buy items for my parents, etc. I do recommend never using more than 4 at a time though... that way the store doesn't get in any trouble with the manufacturer.
- Carefree/Stayfree coupons - These now have a restriction of ONE PER PERSON, NO MORE THAN 4 LIKE COUPONS IN A TRANSACTION. That gets extremely confusing. This means, if you have a $1 off 1 Stayfree and a $.50 off 1 Stayfree, these two could be used together, but you could not use more than 1 of each type of coupon.
- Unilever coupons (Suave/Dove/Axe/etc) all have a restriction of no more than 2 like coupons per transaction. If you are wanting to buy 4 Suave (as an example) and use 4 of the same Suave coupon, you would have to separate it into 2 different transactions to follow the wording on the coupon.
- P&G coupons (Tide, Gillette, Pampers, Dawn) all have a restriction of no more than 4 like coupons per day per household. Now, technically this means that you can not use anymore than 4 of the same coupon within 24 hours. I really don't know how they can monitor this very well, to be honest. What would happen if someone went to Walmart and used 4 Tide and then to CVS and used 4 Tide coupons. I think this restriction is very difficult to do. Also, I sometimes buy for more than one household at a time. I buy items for my parents, etc. I do recommend never using more than 4 at a time though... that way the store doesn't get in any trouble with the manufacturer.
- Carefree/Stayfree coupons - These now have a restriction of ONE PER PERSON, NO MORE THAN 4 LIKE COUPONS IN A TRANSACTION. That gets extremely confusing. This means, if you have a $1 off 1 Stayfree and a $.50 off 1 Stayfree, these two could be used together, but you could not use more than 1 of each type of coupon.
Price Matching at Walmart
Not all Walmart stores follow the same policy exactly. The above link is the basic policy and each store should follow THAT. However, some stores do offer more than what this policy covers. For example - some stores do NOT price match CVS with the after Extra Care Bucks price. Some do, some don't. You would have to ask your specific store to see if they do or not. Same with Walgreens, some will match the after Register Rewards price, some will not. In both cases, when the store DOES price match the after price, it has to have a FINAL PRICE listed.
Buy One Get One Free Sales - To be honest, this kind of confuses me on why all Walmart stores do not price match these the same. The policy states that a price must be listed in the ad with the buy one get one free sale. For example - Buy 1 at $1.99 and get 1 free. If the ad just states - Buy one get one free and there is no price listed, according to the policy, Walmart should not price match. Some stores do though.
And here is why -
At the registers, the price match and coupon policies are hung up. It also has instructions for the cashiers on how to ring up certain price matches. It specifically states that if the ad price of the other store is HIGHER than Walmart's price, the cashier is to give the customer the Walmart price. So, if the price match is Purex Laundry Detergent at Target and it's buy 1 at $3.99 and get 1 free .. Walmart's price on Purex is $2.97. The cashier is supposed to give you the $2.97 price and get 1 free. With that being the policy, I'm not really sure why the price is needed in the ad. BUT - the policy says it is supposed to be there, so the store can deny the price match if the price is not listed.
At the registers, the price match and coupon policies are hung up. It also has instructions for the cashiers on how to ring up certain price matches. It specifically states that if the ad price of the other store is HIGHER than Walmart's price, the cashier is to give the customer the Walmart price. So, if the price match is Purex Laundry Detergent at Target and it's buy 1 at $3.99 and get 1 free .. Walmart's price on Purex is $2.97. The cashier is supposed to give you the $2.97 price and get 1 free. With that being the policy, I'm not really sure why the price is needed in the ad. BUT - the policy says it is supposed to be there, so the store can deny the price match if the price is not listed.
YOU CAN NOT PRICE MATCH MORE THAN ONE STORE ON THE SAME ITEM
If Marsh has Purex for $1.99 and CVS has Purex for buy one, get one free - you CAN NOT price match it at $1.99 and buy one get one free. That also goes for instore coupons. Some Walmart stores will accept a competitor coupon. They simply take it as a price match. Therefore, you can not price match the item AGAIN. You either use the competitor coupon as a price match or you price match, you can not do both.
I hope this helps!
I hope this helps!
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