Monday, June 25, 2012

Inside the Mind of a Coupon Hunter

In today's economy, a lot of people are interested in getting involved with coupon cutting as a way to save money. If your familiar with how coupon hunting works, you must have a certain mind-set in order to be successful. If you can successfully emulate the mind-set of good coupon hunters, you'll be able to save a bundle on many of the things you buy. Here are a few things that you might hear if you were inside the mind of a coupon hunter.

Are There Any Sales I Can Combine This With?

One of the tried and true methods of saving money with coupons is to combine them with store promotions and sales. By doing this, you can get money from the manufacturer, and save money just from the sale price. For example, if you have a manufacturer's coupon for $1.00 off a tube of toothpaste, and the regular price of the toothpaste is $2.00, you could save a dollar. However, if you wait until the store is doing a promotion where you can get a tube for $1.50, then with your coupon, you could get the toothpaste for only $.50. In the coupon hunting world, timing is everything.

Are You Going to Use That Paper?

If you want to be successful at coupon hunting, you're going to need to get your hands on as many coupons as possible. Some of them you be able to use, and some of them aren't really worth your time. However, if you find a good deal, you're going to need several copies of the newspaper or the source of the coupon to be able to maximize your savings. Many coupon hunters regularly ask their friends and family members for copies of their Sunday paper, so that they can get multiple copies of the best coupons. In many cases, these coupons can be combined to net even more savings for the shopper.

Let Me Check the File

Most successful coupon hunters have some kind of system in place to help them organize their coupons, and access them when they need them. Anytime an avid coupon user needs to make a purchase, they will check their file to see if they have a coupon for it. In many cases, they will have a large filing system at home, and a smaller file that they take with them to the store. With a little careful planning, they can choose the coupons out of their large file that go with the items on their shopping list. Then they take the coupons to the store and use them to save quite a bit of money overall.

Double Up

Many grocery stores offer double and triple coupons on a regular basis. This is an ideal situation for coupon hunters, because they can multiply the savings that they were going to realize from their coupons. With a double coupon offer, the amount of the savings is multiplied by two. For example, if you have a $2.00 off coupon, you can actually get $4.00 off your purchase. This can be a huge source of savings if you time your purchases right. If you are going to be a successful coupon hunter, you have to know the policies of all of the various grocery stores in your area to make it work.


My name is Nisha, I represent a site called http://www.freestuff.co.uk. I love to write about money saving tips and advice.

10 comments:

Kerri Olkjer said...

Great tips! I need to get back to being better about coupons.

Annie said...

this is such a helpful post! I always wondered what are the first few things that go on in a couponer's head. I need to try and coupon, I really do!

Cassie said...

Wonderful tips. Thanks for sharing. I am horrible at couponing but I try.

The Rebel Chick said...

I always use my coupons when something is already on sale - I especially love using coupons when they are buy one get one free!

Andrea Kruse said...

Thanks for the tip! I am a hesitant couponer... I do love them, but am not aggressive enough in finding them. In our small town we get the most horrible glares when I try to use more than one or two coupons. I am determined to become more savvy though and will try your tips.

Anonymous said...

Great tips! I try and use coupons when I can.

Unknown said...

I am horrible at couponing.

Emily - faliLV said...

I am not a good coupon-er - I don't have the patience or time.

Sippy Cup Mom said...

Such great tips! I need to get better at couponing!

Ki Ip said...

thank you for this!! will attempt these! :D