You now know where to find coupons. Next is the opportunity to learn how to use coupon match websites to find the best deal and start to organize your coupons.
What are Coupon Match Websites?
Coupon Match websites do the work for you and match coupons to a store’s weekly ads to save you the most money. There are many different coupon match websites however, currently living in Washington, the one I use the most is TheKrazyCouponLady.com.
Note: Moving around with the military, I have found that different states and regions have unique coupon match sites. For example, SouthernSavers.com was excellent when I used to live in Florida. Be sure to search the internet to see if your region of the country may have more specific websites.
How to Use a Coupon Match Website
I am going to use TheKrazyCouponLady.com website as an example as it is nationwide and very indicative of most coupon match websites.
The first step when entering TheKrazyCouponLady.com site is to click on the store you plan to shop at that week. There you will find the coupon deals for the grocery ad date listed. Each deal will list the product name, sale price, coupon amount, where to find the coupon and the estimated final price. The product name, sale price, coupon amount and final price are self-explanatory however where to find the coupon requires some explanation…
When the deal states, for example – coupons.com, or another website – this means that the coupon can be found at that website and is printable. However, most often the deal will state, for example – RP 10/23 (exp 1/31/12), this is short for – the coupon can be found in the Red Plum newspaper insert (RP) from the newspaper dated 10/23 and that the coupon will expire 1/31/12.
Abbreviations when listing deals include:
GM = General Mills (Newspaper insert)
K = Kellogg’s (Newspaper Insert)
P&G = Proctor & Gamble (Newspaper Insert)
RP= Red Plum (Newspaper Insert)
SS= Smart Source (Newspaper Insert)
WYB= When You Buy
You now know how to look up and find coupon matches, but now you need to actually be able to find the coupon.
How to Organize Your Coupons
There are multiple coupon organizational methods but personally, I don’t like to have to search for coupons and I don’t want to have to clip coupons before I am ready to use them. That is why the system I use consists of checking the coupon match websites to find a coupon match and then using the following simple organization system to find the coupons.
Supplies: 3-ring binder Clear Sheet protectors Sharpie Marker Stick on Tabs (or post-it notes)Steps:
- Pull out all of the coupon newspaper inserts in your Sunday newspaper
- Stick all of the inserts into one clear sheet protector
- Use stick on tabs (or post-it notes) and the sharpie marker to label that sheet protector with the ad date – If you cannot remember the ad date it is written in very small print on the spine of the ad.
- Place sheet protector packet in 3-ring binder
Now when the website states — RP 10/23 (exp 1/31/12) – all you have to do is go to your binder, find the 10/23 packet, pull out the Red Plum (RP) insert and find the stated coupon!
Next week, I will go over actually doing your weekly shopping. I hope you are on your way to saving money!
Amanda Ellerbe writes and teaches about family finances, frugal living and nurturing children. She is also a military wife, and stay at home Mom, of a 2 year old with baby #2 due in March. If you ever have any questions or comments please feel free to reach her at: [email protected].
