Coupons- Not Just For Your Grandma Anymore

Discount coupons have gained in popularity during the last six months in the marketplace. Gone are the days of sitting at the table with the Sunday paper, planning meals for the week, using coupons for the most economical meal for the family- or have they?

With just a little legwork, you can purchase many common household items for pennies on the dollar, if not entirely free. The trick is discount layering; using manufacturer’s coupons combined with individual store rewards and coupons deals.

Begin shopping frugally in your Sunday and Wednesday newspapers. Valuable tools are the coupon books and advertisements found inside. Match up the manufacturer’s coupons with the sales and rebate offers at your local grocery and drug stores.

By far, Walgreens has the easiest and most comprehensive rebate program, so it’s is a great store to get your feet wet! As you are going through the weekly advertisements, you will notice in the ad that there might be a mention of “Register Rewards” or a “Free with Rebate” deal.

“Register Rewards” are instant refunds that print at the register when you buy an item or a certain mix of items. For the rebates, you can stop in the store or view the rebate catalog online to save yourself a trip and get one so you can plan your purchases ahead of time.

With the ad and rebate catalog in front of you, see if any coupons match up to the deals and rebates.

For example: Recently Walgreens had Revlon cosmetics as a free-with-rebate deal, but there was also a manufacturer’s coupon for a Revlon product that was in the paper recently. So not only was the item free, you also made a dollar or two on the coupon. But that’s not the best part. When you submit your rebate, Walgreens offers you the choice of receiving your purchase price back in a check or in a Walgreens gift card (essentially store credit). If you choose the gift card option, they give you a 10% bonus. By taking advantage of this too, they covered your sales tax and then some.

Rite Aid’s rebate program is similar to Walgreens, but it’s a lot more complicated. There are only certain days you can purchase products to receive the full rebate amount. You must read the rebate catalog carefully, since it’s really easy to make an error.

But they do accept manufacturer’s coupons like Walgreens, and they offer the 10% bonus as well. The key to discount layering is to read the fine print, and realize that not everything is a great deal!

CVS also has good deals on occasion, but their free products are refunded in the form of “Extra Care Bucks” that expire within a few weeks of issue. These are similar to Walgreens’ “Register Rewards.” It’s nice that you don’t have to wait for the gift card to arrive in the mail, but if you miss the expiration date, the money you originally spent is lost forever.

We here at www.Beattherecession.com will be continuing this in a series of articles, for coupon clippers everywhere! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to be informed of new articles and helpful tips and tricks for you to Beat The Recession.