Couponing - How I get the most bang for my buck

With the internet, couponing has never been easier.  There are tons of sites out there that can help you get started or just help you amp up your stock pile or pantry.  There is so much out there, how do you decide what to do?  Here is my breakdown of the more common ways to save money and better yet earn money!

Money Making Websites
There are literally thousands of "money making" websites on the internet.  A simple internet search will turn up page after page of them.  Some of them are scams; others rely on pyramid schemes.  Many ask for bank account, credit card information or start up fees which most people are reluctant to fork over with plenty of good reason.  I choose to avoid any sites that asks me for more information than I am comfortable giving out.  I chose to narrow down all the "money-making opportunities" to just one site.  Having more than one website to check into or do things can be counter productive.

The only site that I use to make money is one I found a few years ago and I swear by it.  I was searching for a way to make money from home to supplement my income and stumbled across this website: Inbox Dollars

Let me be clear this website is by no means going to make you enough money to make up for even a small part time job.  But I do get the equivalent of one week of groceries for free a month if I'm diligent.  I usually request a check of my earnings every few months and I cash it and take it directly to the grocery store with me so I have great judge of how much it helps.  What does the site do? It's basically all internet based, money-making opportunities combined into one.  I use it most frequently to print my coupons.  This site PAYS YOU TO COUPON!  How does it work?  You log into your account, you select the coupons you want to print and hit print.  When you redeem any coupon at a grocery store, the store sends them to the manufacturer address listed on the coupon. That's how the store receives payment. With coupons from Inbox Dollars there is a unique printed border around your coupons that allows them to know that the coupon was specifically redeemed by you.  When Inbox Dollars receives them you then are issued a credit of 10 cents for each coupon.  This process is obviously not instantaneous.  From the time you redeem it can take up to a month to see the credit on your account.  After you have reached the minimum credit amount on their site you can have a check mailed to you.  I have done it several times over the nearly 4 years I've used the website.  They don't require any bank account or credit card information (which I like) because they don't offer any direct deposit options.

Besides making money on the coupons I already would have printed anyway there are several other ways I make money on the site.  Internet searches is one.  Basically I use their search engine on their website to search for the stuff I'd already be searching.  You can also install a seachbar on your internet browser to make it easier.  I receive payment for each search.  It isn't much but they start to add up.  And why not get paid for the stuff I'm already doing everyday?  The next way is by checking my email.  Inbox Dollars send me 3-5 emails a day and I open them.  They send you to a link to a website to view.  Then you receive payment for that as well.  Those are the main easy ways I make money there.  If you have more time there are plenty plenty more ways there.

E-bates/Rebates
Rebates are another way you can save money while shopping.  Rebates are a very popular way to get you to try out a product.  Manufacturers sometimes use rebates to give you a product for FREE or next to free while making it easier to make sure that customers are not buying in bulk.  So you can look out for rebate offers in magazines, inside packaging of items you've already purchased and in with your regular sources for coupons.    There are also internet based websites like ebates.com for example that offer you a percentage of your money back for purchases you make online. Inbox dollars does that as well and that's what I use because they give you cash, many other sites give you giftcards and as I previously mentioned I like to keep the amount of different sites I use to a minimum.  The less places I have to log into the more likely I am to use them.  So here's how it works:  Let's say you want to buy some jeans.  Simply log into your inbox dollars, ebates account, or whatever rebate site you use.  Then you click on your favorite online retailer, for example Target. Inbox Dollars/Ebates will then send you to Target's regular website where you can make your purchases.  You pay normally and then within 30 days you will receive a credit in your inbox or ebates account for a percentage of your order before tax.  The percentages vary by company that you shop with and sometimes you may see promotions offering higher rebates as well.

Coupon Sites

As for strictly using coupons there are many sites that I go to.  Smartsource.com & Redplum.com will basically offer the same coupons that you would get in an insert in your newspaper plus some online only ones.  Coupons.com has probably the most coupons on one website.  The inbox dollars website mentioned above also uses the coupons from coupons.com just with a unique printed border.  Here's some guidlines I live by when printing coupons from online sites.  You can print usually more than once from the sites in most cases it is usually up to 3-5 times.  You can also print from different computers in your home an additional 3-5 times on each computer.  When you are printing my suggestion is to make sure you are using paper & toner wisely.  Paper and  toner especially can be very expensive so you want to limit your printing of coupons to the ones you are absolutely certain you will use.  Also all the sites I have mentioned above print 3 coupons per page.  So I always make sure when I am selecting the coupons I want to print I choose in multiples of three.  If I have chosen 8 coupons, usually I will just pick another coupon that I am sure I could use maybe another day or trade with someone.

E-coupons & Apps

In most cases Apps & Ecoupons can be used in conjunction with regular manufacturer coupons.  Many stores like ShopRite & Target have their own apps you can download to your mobile device or access on the internet through a computer.  Within these apps are many things and each is different, but I will focus on the important part, the e-coupons.  The apps allow you to select coupons that will automatically come off your order at check out when you use your member loyalty card.  These can be used in conjunction with your manufacturer coupons in most cases.  For example, you are going to buy some mustard.  You can clip the 50 cents off coupon from your newspaper insert, OR you printed it online.  Then you select the  50 cent off e-coupon in your app.  You check out and and the ecoupon comes off automatically. Then you can still hand them your paper coupon and they will take that off as well.  So instead of saving 50 cents you've saved $1.

There are also other apps that you can stack on top of the above mentioned scenario.  Checkout 51, Ibotta and SavingStar are some to name a few.  Most coupon or savings apps work in 1 of 2 ways.  They either ask you to submit a receipt as proof of your purchase or you enter your member loyalty card ahead of time and they view your purchases through there.  Checkout51 and Ibotta have you select the items you want to purchase, you purchase them and then submit your receipt.  Withing 24-48 hours someone reviews it and as long as you have purchased the correct items you receive a credit in your account.  Each app is different but you can either have money deposited into a paypal account, or put your earnings toward a gift card.  Some apps have "social" components where you can post or tweet about an item and you get extra money.  The second way these apps work is by you entering your member loyalty card information.  You create an account with SavingStar and register your member loyalty cards with wherever you have them.  You then browse the rebates they have available.  You select the ones you will buy and make the purchases.  Within a few days your account is credited with the amount offered.  Again different apps work differently but the premise is still the same, you receive a check, a deposit in paypal, or use the money or points in your account toward a gift card.  Again you can you all these apps at the same time you are using coupons.  Many times an item will overlap.  Meaning you will have a manufacturer coupon and it will also have an e-coupon or app rebate that coincides.

The savings really start to stack up.  However, as with anything that makes you money or in this case saves you money it takes time and effort and there is a learning curve.  Here are some important things to remember when couponing to help you save money.

Tips and Guidelines to stay on track
- Find a way to stay organized.  There are many methods and I will list some in my other posts.  But find one that works for you.  Set aside a time you will do your meal planning and couponing.
- Don't bite off more than you can chew.  I'm a huge fan of keeping things as simple as possible.  Time wasted means money wasted.  If you are using 6 different Apps, printing coupons from multiple sites, while trying to read emails and take surveys for money on two others you are going to wind up making pennies on each and it will take you forever to reach their minimum amount to receive payment.
- Plan ahead.  When I shop the sales, especially produce, meats or other quickly perishable items I plan my meals around them.  I mostly only plan my evening meals since we generally eat leftovers for lunch.  And most breakfast items are non-perishable or I always have on hand like milk, eggs etc.  Buying a bunch of food you'll eventually throw out because you bought too much doesn't help save you any money. I also try to make sure I have my coupons printed and organized.  A very precise list of what I need to buy and how many.  And last but not least I make sure I have all the ingredient at home or will be buying what I need to make all the meals for that week.  Several trips to the grocery store because I thought I had something I needed but didn't means wasted gas driving back and forth to the store.
- Think ahead.  How much storage do you have?  If you buy 5 boxes of hamburgers because you're getting an awesome deal.  Great.  Until you realize you have no room for anything else in your tiny freezer, you don't want to eat hamburgers everyday and your not excited about shoveling snow off your BBQ grill.  Things like paper towels, toilet paper, laundry products and cleaning products are great to stock up on.  You will use them and the almost never expire.
- Don't buy what you won't use.  Be cognizant of expiration dates.  How many cans of soup are you going to eat by the end of summer when they expire?  You really don't (or shouldn't on that new diet) eat 3 cartons of ice cream.  Then don't just buy it because it's cheap or free.  You know you like pasta but you may not want to eat it every night.  A good rule of thumb is to keep no more than 3-6 months worth of an item in your pantry/stockpile that your family can use.  There are exceptions to this of course but my point is to be realistic.  Maybe you want to overstock a bit because you know financially you will have some tough times ahead. Maybe you have an entire basement full of empty shelves and you could use 100 bottles of laundry detergent.

I hope this helps get you started on making and saving some money towards your groceries and other purchases.  There are many many apps and websites out there.  But this is what I have found to be useful and what I know works for me.  Happy Savings!