How to Start Couponing for Beginners | Couponing 101

hey you guys welcome to my channel I'm Starr and today I am going to be doing a video on how to coupon for beginners please excuse the lighting in here as you can see we are reporting live from my garage so we got garage lighting but it really doesn't matter it's really about the information that I'm gonna be sharing with you guys today so today I'm going to be starting what I'm calling my couponing 101 series where I'm giving you guys all of the fundamentals all of the basics all of the things that you need to get started in the game of couponing I have been couponing for nine years at this point over the years who Pawnee has been such a blessing to my life there's been times where couponing has really like kept the lights on so I want to share what I've learned so you guys have a one-stop shop a place where you can have everything that you need to learn how to get into this so if you've just started couponing or you've never done this before and you want to get into it this is the video for you so we're gonna do this video in two parts we're gonna start off where we are now where I'm gonna share a lot about the basics and then after that I'm gonna take you guys up into my office and we're actually gonna get online and I will show you how I would plan out my very first couponing trip so let's get started so the first thing I want to talk about is what couponing is because I think that's where a lot of people kind of go wrong is they never really understand what couponing is in the first place so couponing is when you match up a sale price on an item to your coupon to get that item for it's what it's called it's rock-bottom price so a rock-bottom price is going to be the lowest price that you can possibly buy an item that's what US couponers want we don't want to pay over for what we should be paying we want to get that rock-bottom price so that means you're looking for that sale price that clearance price along with hopefully a very good high value coupon you match those two up and you get a rock-bottom price so couponing is not going into the store making your groceries you have your coupons picking stuff up off the shelf and randomly whether it's one sale or not matching up those coupons and going to the register that is called hustling backwards that will not get you where you want to go that will not get you a good stockpile if you're doing it that way so what does that look like in real life so if I want to for instance buy this toothpaste okay so this toothpaste for me I know that the rock-bottom price on that toothpaste is free I should not be paying for that toothpaste the reason I know that is because I'm a Kroger shopper at Kroger they have mega events every few weeks so you know that sales go in cycles and that toothpaste is gonna be on sale for a dollar in 99 cents P&G who was also the manufacturer who produces that toothpaste also releases coupons that are $2 off that sale and that coupon come around all the time so when I put that two dollar off coupon with that $1.99 price I get that toothpaste for free on a very regular basis that is a rock-bottom price so what that means for me is this let's say Colgate has a sale for 249 on their toothpaste at another grocery store at Publix for instance and I have a two dollar off coupon then I could go to Publix if I just need toothpaste and pay 49 cents each that's still not a bad deal but that's not the rock-bottom price that's not what I would build a stockpile on so that's the difference between couponing and just shopping with coupons couponing is about securing the item for the lowest price possible so now let's talk about coupons themselves because there are different types of coupons or different places that you can get coupons I think it's very important to have a good understanding about coupons before you start couponing so with coupons I think the most popular type of coupons are the coupons that you will find in your paper that's what I call insert coupons so there are multiple types of insert coupons that you will find in your Sunday paper the first type of sir coupon is called now it's called a RetailMeNot coupon and this is also it was formerly called a red plum coupon insert so this is one type that you will find and your Sunday paper there's a smart source coupon insert and then you also have again that Procter & Gamble or that P&G coupon insert and this Procter & Gamble comes out once a month so it's always gonna have a monthly date on it versus these these will come out every week in your Sunday paper with the exception of holidays coupons do not come out on most major holidays so don't buy your coupon inserts during that week something else that's important to note about these Sunday paper coupon inserts is that for your smart source and your RetailMeNot they're going to always be dated on the spine you'll be able to find a date with that coupon i'm insert came out you want to always look at that day keep track of that day because that will help you be able to pull your coupons when you're preparing for a coupon trip and then also organize your coupons and then discarding of them when you want to get rid of them if you have them organized by the date that's on this spine it will just make your life so much easier the next type of coupon that I want to talk about is Internet printable coupons so these coupons look like this most times hopefully you guys can see that these are Internet printable coupons that you can print I print the majority of mine from coupons.com but you can also print them from manufacturer website so you can go to the PNG website where if you're looking for a dove coupon you can go for the dove website whoever produces that item it's always a good idea to check their website for coupons there's also smart source calm that where you can go and print coupons and a number of different other you know apps and websites but you can get internet printable coupons and so these coupons are great because they are free something that you want to note as a new coupon or is there usually limits to how many times you can print these coupons so the limit for coupons com is usually two prints per your device at so like if I'm printing from my mobile phone I can print two prints from the mobile app I can get another two prints if I open up my web browser on my mobile phone then I can get another two prints if I go online on my computer and print so if you need multiples of these coupons you may have to kind of finagle and use multiple devices to get as many as you need but do not make copies of these coupons each one of them has an individual code attached to that coupon so if you make copies of these coupons then those codes will all be the same and the store will know that you photocopied them so make sure that you just use different devices if you need additional prints I also want to make sure that you guys are comfortable reading the verbage that is on your coupon because that is very important that's an issue that will come up at the registers because a lot of times cashiers don't know how to read or understand the verbage on your coupon so I pulled one of the coupons that were in the Sunday paper just so we can read the verbage together and really good understanding of what this means so this coupon says this coupon is good only on the purchase of the products indicated limit one coupon per items purchase limit of for like coupons in the same day so what does that mean so first off the limit one coupon per items purchase that's where you will get a lot of cashiers who will tell you where it says limit one coupon per purchase that means you can only use one coupon that's not what that means what that means is if I'm going to buy one toothpaste then I can use one coupon but if I want to buy two toothpaste then I can use two coupons for every one that I purchased I can use a coupon so if I'm buying three toothpaste I can use three coupons now that coupon also said that a limit for per day so that means your maximum is going to be four so you can get up to four of the toothpaste as long as you have four coupons and it's all good but that will come up again and again so I want to make sure that you guys all understand what that means and the last type of coupon I want to talk about and probably my favorite type of coupon at this point is what's called a digital coupons you'll see people like me people like Gregg that dude couponing with Tony we will post what's call all digital deals so digital coupons are coupons that you can either load to your phone number your store loyalty card your app if you have an app associated with that store like Target does you load these manufacturer coupons or store coupons to your app or your phone number then you take that phone number that app that loyalty card to the register put that in and then all of your coupons will come out for that reason I love digital coupons because you don't have to clip anything and it kind of all the work is done for you now there is a drawback with digital coupons most digital coupons not all but most digital coupons are limit one per phone number or app or whatever you're using for instance so like if I'm going in and I'm buying tide I may load a digital coupon for three dollars off tied to my CBS app for instance but let's say the deal is where I need to buy for tied if I'm using digital coupons I'm gonna be three coupons short so I'm still going to have to use some of my paper coupons but if you only need one then digital coupons are great or you'll have some instances where you may want to create more than one digital coupon account so you can do multiple transactions however you want to do that but I think that digital coupons are great for newbies and people starting out because they will never overwhelm you you can keep your transaction small and you don't have to do all the nitty gritty clipping and organizing and all of that you load your coupons and you go straight to the store savings are applied and you get to keep it moving if you take nothing else from this video I want you to please understand that in order to be successful in couponing you do have to be organized I can't tell you how many times over the years that I have gone into the store thought I was about to do a deal and then couldn't figure out what my coupons were and then it just all goes to the list you have to know where your coupons are you have to be organized so there are different ways that you can organize your coupons I'm about to talk about a couple different ways or a few different ways that you can use to start out it's gonna vary by person on what we're for you so what I would recommend for newbies is the accordion file method so this is just a little accordion little file where you can clip your coupons and label the inside and then put your coupons in there based on the type date category however you want to organize it however works for you but you can just toss this in your bag have it on you at all times and it's just a very very easy method it will take you 30 minutes however long to clip your coupons on Sunday and then file them away but you'll have all of your coupons on you at all time and it just kind of makes life easy the next method I want to talk about is the binder method so this is my old coupon binder this is a very intense method of organizing your coupons it's very time intensive it's very highly organized so you will be on point with the binder method but it's not really something that I would recommend until you're kind of elevated in your coupon game because this will overwhelm you it does require a lot of time each Sunday to clip and organize these coupons you get a binder and then you get you some baseball card inserts you cut them and you file them away based on the category then you carry this big binder with you into the store I really wouldn't recommend this for a new couponer but some people love it so if you think that this is the way for you then definitely try it and see how it works out the last met that I'm going to talk about is what I like to call the clip as you go method now this may be cause something else for real but that's what I call it is the clip is you go method so you take your inserts you're gonna label these based on the date that they came out again which you can find on your spine label them I usually put them in a stack like criss cross so that they're separated by which Sunday that they came out I'll put little post-it notes on the top that may say like 123 19 smart stores 123 19 RetailMeNot and then you can just clip them as needed when you're creating your to go to the sorb and that's kind of the perfect segue into what we're going to do next everything that I'm going to show you moving forward is actually online I'm going to show you how you would actually prep put this information all together and go to the store okay you guys so now we are locked on to my computer and I'm going to show you how I would prep myself once I got all my coupons together to do my very first couponing trip so I would recommend that you actually pick like two stores that you want to start shopping it just just so you don't overwhelm yourself I would probably pick a grocery store or a big-box store like Target or Walmart and then I would also pick one drugstore because they're really good for like personal care items and household care items I came to Southern Cyprus calm because I feel like southern savers it's one of the best resources out there to really learn how to coupon when I started couponing all those years ago this site was the site that really held me down it really taught me the ins and outs because that was before Instagram and all these other resources that we have Southern Cyprus was pretty much it for me and it was like a one-stop shop to really get me on board with couponing there are a couple of features of this site that I want you guys to familiarize yourself with when you're getting started this learn to coupon link here is so like it's so vital so much good information in here earlier in the video when I was talking about that's rock-bottom price that stock up price she has a list of buy prices here that you can download and have with you because I understand that as a new coupon or you may not even understand what the rock-bottom price is for item and what a stock that price is so until you've learned that intuitively I think it's a tremendous resource to have a list that you can just have with you she also breaks down more information about sales cycles how to organize your coupons and then also I think which is super duper important is your store policies and she has those broken out here too when you are couponing or you really want to know that stores coupon policy inside and out I would actually print my stores coupon policies and have them with me and to I learn them inside and out just so you know what you're doing and you feel more comfortable when you're at the register another feature that's super duper important is a coupon database that's something that you can find over here in our multiple sites multiple sites have coupon databases you can just google coupon database to find one but there are gonna be times when you want to buy a specific product that may not be on your standard list and you want to know if there's a coupon out there I remember I just cut my finger a couple days ago and I was looking to buy some neosporin and I didn't have any of my stuff out so I really had to just like rush to the coupon database and I typed in neosporin and when you start typing it in it'll come up and so then I was able to see what coupons were available out here for neosporin swell let me know that there's a couple digital coupons available one at Kroger one at Walgreens there's also a printable coupon here that's available and then there's also one and my smart source dated for February third so again if you have those inserts dated you will know you can just go to your smart source February third and there is a 75% off coupon here I would probably just go with this printable version because it is a higher value and a dollar off one but a coupon database is gonna let you know all of the coupons that are available for that specific product so this is a very very important thing to get ahold of so now I'm back out on the main site and I'm going to prep like I'm going to do a grocery store trip so she has a lot of grocery stores listed here so you can just find the one that you shop at a lot she also has Target and Walmart listed here as well I'd like to shop at Publix with coupons they are a great coupon friendly store to get started with so so here on the Publix as she hasn't broken down with all of the buy one get ones which they do every single week if you shop at Publix you know and then under each sales item she actually has a fare upon available she has where that coupon is listed or you can have a link to a printable coupon if that is available for that item what I love about this site as well if she puts these little acorns next to certain deals to let you know that that is a stock up price so again that is one of those items that you can really stock up on to add to your stockpile you can stock enough to the next sale will come the other things that won't have that acorn next to them or a decent deal it's a sale price you can use a coupon for it but it may not be that rock-bottom price for that item so if I was going through this list and I'm looking for different things that I need like let's say I wanted to buy some New York Texas toast here I could just check that off on my list and then she lets me know that these are the two printable coupons that are available I can click that link to print that coupon and then at the end of this list all the way down to the bottom as you're checking off your items you can actually print off this list with the coupon match-ups and take that with you to the store so that you can be organized and have everything all together another thing that I would do if I was prepping a grocery trip is I would check that store's digital coupons section so let's go over to the Publix digital coupon site I am logged on and these are all of the coupons that I have clipped to my account something important that I want you to note not only about Publix but stores like Kroger as well is oftentimes they offer free digital coupons which are products that you can actually load to your shoppers card or your phone number for free so like currently I have a couple free items on here I can get these green wise organic snack bars for absolutely free and then also I can get this yogurt this 2 pack of your play yogurt for free as well and then there's also a number of other high value coupons that I have low to my card like these Herbal Essences I know that they are currently on clearance at a lot of public stores so I've added that to my car just in case I see those while I'm shopping I can use that digital coupon and get those for free or almost free now let's say I was prepping to go to a drugstore like CVS a new sale start at CVS tomorrow I could actually click on CBS here on the southern Sabres site go to weekly ad and then she will have the deals broken out for CBS very similar to how Publix was broken out she has a little 8 horns next to the deals that I really want to pay attention to so I can go down that I would also want to go through the sales flyer for CBS so here I just switched over to a site called I heart cbs.com this is a very important site to me when it comes to shopping at a store like CBS there is also I heart right a.com and our heart wax comm for Walgreens and Rite Aid as well but what I love about these sites is not only do they have the sales Flyers loaded so that you can go through she also breaks down the freebie deals for that week so tomorrow it looks like Colgate optic white will be free at CBS I can prep she has the coupons listed here and then she also has additional extra care bug deals broken out so if I was getting ready to go to CVS I would go through this list to make sure that I have everything that she has listed here another really good feature is that she also has preview ads so the sales ads for upcoming weeks are also loaded on this site when you're a new couponer it is very important to look at sales ads for the week ahead because you get additional time to prep your coupons and get everything together if you want to buy additional coupons because a certain deal is coming up then you have a whole week to do that which is invaluable in the coupon game the very last thing that I would do whether I was prepping to go to a grocery store or a drugstore is I would check online whether you use your apps or you use the computer I would check online for different rebates cash back rebate for my products that I plan on buying so if you I'm have I bottle if you've ever heard of it I bought it I bought it as a cash back offer rebate system and it's a mobile app and you can also do it on your computer where you will get cash back for various items after you upload your receipt once you get home from the store so let's say I was buying this tic tac gum for instance I can go into the store use it's a coupon for this tic tac gum at CBS or Publix and get it for free or almost free anyway and then I could come back home I took upload my receipt to ibotta and they would pay me an additional dollar 50 in cash back for that tic tac gum so it's additional cash back and when I say cash I do mean cash so you will get it in a PayPal refunding back to you so it's very very important that you also check different rebate apps for cash back as well so there's ibotta there's also saving Starcom there's also checkout 51 so look at all of the different cashback apps I'm gonna have links to the cashback apps in the description box below but that's also a major key to make sure that you don't leave money on the table another thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about before you go to the store is range x-ray chips are so important there will be times where you get all of your coupons together you get your shopping list together and you get to the store and the Shelf is clear especially if you're shopping for rock-bottom price items if you don't get to the store in that first or second day of the sale there is a chance that that item could be sold out I do not want you guys to just leave the store at that point please go to customer service and get a green check so at CVS like if you were shopping at a drugstore for instance CVS Ranchettes do not expire so I have brain checks going back at this point - probably 2010 2011 when I look at my rain checks from week over week I mean it's really I go through them - Matt come up with my coupons just to make sure that this is not a good week to redeem and raincheck but they will keep that sale price good for you for as long as you have that rain check at CBS so if you go and here buy your toothpaste and you get there as the dollar ninety-nine you have your two dollar coupons already they don't have any go get a rain check and come back at a different time know that stores rain check policy that you're shopping at just like you know their coupon policy Publix for instance they have a great rain check policy because if you look at it it will tell you that Publix will also accept manufacturer coupons that were valid on the day of your rain check so meaning is your coupon expires today today is the last day of the sale if you get a rain check they will still take your coupon even though it is expired that's why rain checks are so important so make sure that you guys familiarize yourself with rain checks as well because that definitely is a major key so guys this is where I'm going to wrap this video I don't want it to be too long but again this is going to be a series so if you have a question about couponing but I didn't answer in this beginners video just leave it in the description box below and I'm glad to make additional videos going into different topics so that you can learn more about the topic that you are interested in or if you have a specific store that you really want me to talk about the ins and outs of and I'm glad to cover that as well so just let me know what you want to know more about in the description box and as always I thank you guys so much for watching please remember to like this video subscribe to my channel for more videos and I hope you guys have an amazing day bye-bye

Channel: couponwithStar

Views: 1,373,131

Keywords: extreme couponing, couponing, how to coupon, where to find coupons, couponing 101, couponing for beginners, couponing for beginners 2019

Id: wCjhE480lnE

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 10 2019