"How do you get so many coupons?"
I am asked this question all the time, so here is the answer - from all kinds of places! :) It's true. The Sunday paper coupon inserts, internet printables, blinkie machines, peelie coupons, tearpads, gas stations, in-store flyers, catalina machines, friends, neighbors, family, .... I could literally go on and on!
I get the majority of my coupons from the Sunday paper coupon inserts, so let's talk about those. When I first started this crazy coupon addiction, I thought I needed to subscribe to get the Sunday paper delivered to my house. When I called to get a subscription, I was shocked by the amount they wanted! So, being the cheapo that I am, I started searching around for other alternatives. I funded my coupon habit through free inserts from the East Valley Tribune for a while in 2009, but when they changed their format, the free coupon inserts disappeared.
Then, I found out about La Voz newspapers on Pinching Your Pennies. It's a free hispanic newspaper that comes out once a week on Fridays and has a condensed version of the SS insert from the previous Sunday. They are distributed in front of Food City, Circle K, and lots of other businesses. DO NOT RANSACK THE LA VOZ NEWSPAPERS! These newspapers are for everyone, not one person. If you abuse this system, it will go away and you will ruin it for everyone. I have one spot near my work where I get my coupon inserts. I don't take the paper, I just take the inserts out. My supply spot has at least 50 papers and I always take 10 sets of inserts. As I mentioned earlier, they are condensed, so a lot of the hot coupons are not in there. That's why I also buy 5 sets off Ebay, but we'll save that for another day and another post.
Obviously, the more coupons you can add to your coupons stash, the better savings you'll see at the register! Stay tuned for more posts on coupon sources!
I was so inspired by your posts that I went out early this morning (and took my sister with me to teach her how to coupon shop) and hit up the stores. I was SO disappointed. The lady at albertsons wouldn't double my mac and cheese or tabasco. And then for the VERY FIRST time at Frys... the cashier would only double 3 like coupons- which I had 6 of a bunch of them and even 9 of others. I am so frustrated by all this...
ReplyDeleteAnon- I'm so sorry! That is disappointing, especially when you had a newbie with you. Why wouldn't she double the Kraft Mac & Cheese Q? Was it because of the overage? Did you have the DND Tabasco MQ or the Tabasco internet printable? Was Fry's willing to split the transactions so you could use all your Qs? Usually, they'll let me do that, but every so often, I get a real grump. Whenever things are not going as planned, I either have them take off the items or I completely abandon cart. Sometimes, I'll go fill my cart back up & go through another cashier's line and sail right through, no problems. Sorry you had trouble today! Hopefully it didn't scare your sister off :)
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to inform everybody that throught the month of May the scottsdale police department is having a diaper drive for adult and baby diapers. At cvs this week the depends are 6.99 get 6.99 ebs, so a great charitable item!
ReplyDeleteAnon- Awesome comment! Thanks so much for letting all of us know. I am always looking for new places to donate all of the free stuff we get, so I am really excited about the diaper drive! Thanks for the heads up- readers, be the awesome couponers I know you are and give back to the community!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see if I can find the La Voz newspaper now. FYI - your great mail day was different than mine this week. I did not get the Dollar General Ad with the sheet of coupons or the Red Plum. My Red Plum was just a different front and back cover with only Pizza Hut coupons. Our suburbs are right next to each other. Darn!
ReplyDeletethanks for the info KM on the newspapers.. I sent you an email last night about this.. and a few other questions did you get the email? It was from a Sarah that is me.. thanks again.. I am truly a newbie
ReplyDeleteWhile I would never have thought to look at La Voz...and am grateful you mentioned them, I wonder if you might rethink your policy of "just taking the inserts"? After all, haven't we all at one time or another picked up the paper and been disgruntled to find no coupons in it? (Admittedly, that's the paid paper, but the concept is the same). But...on a more visceral level--if you take the full paper, they see the paper is gone, they can increase their circulation, thus advertisers are more attracted to them...and more likely to put coupons IN (so it's a win-win). I understand not wanting to deal with more and more papers, but they aren't THAT large when ya drop them in the recycling bin!
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:47pm- Good luck finding the La Voz! And the "junk mail" we get varies wildly. Sometimes, I won't get the Red Plum and sometimes I won't. Hopefully, you start getting it soon! Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:02pm- I apologize, I have not logged into my email account this weekend, but I'll make sure to reply to you this morning. Welcome and don't be scared! You can do this! :)
Anon 6:05pm- Great points! I always thought the best thing was to leave the paper in case someone wanted it. I didn't think about the whole coupon issue. My La Voz pile is in a weird, kind of hidden spot and every week, I'm the only person who touches it, so I didn't feel bad about taking 20% of the inserts. But I think your comments are great advice. Thanks for the comment & for a different perspective! I will take the papers and hope for increased circulation and more coupons!
I was in albies the other night and I met a friend of yours! I cant remember her name it starts with a j>? anyways I had alot of fun talking to her and she helped me find the q for the mac and cheese -)
ReplyDeleteTeresa
I would love to learn more about buying inserts off of ebay. Right now I buy an occasional set of 20 (sometimes more) of a coupon I want... but I am always so skeptical of paying too much for coupons and having my OOP turn out not so great cause I paid for the coupons. I would love a mini tutorial on this!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I know someone who literally takes the entire stack and it's a serious stack of at least 150 papers. It riles me because I usual up to 3 papers and I have to drive out of my way to find the next set of La Voz. She offers a paper to me each week but I don't want to drive to her house for what I could've got down the street. Yes, she comes to my neighborhood and raids all the La Voz stands.
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