Small Town Coupon Blues

My friend Chris mentioned that he didn't have a lot of stores around him to shop in.  That's ok.  You can still save money on your grocery bill.

The big thing is to get coupons.  I usually go every Sunday to the Dollar Tree and pick up one paper for each member of my family plus one.  That means I spend 5-6 bucks every Sunday.  When we get home, I pull out the coupons from the Red Plum insert, or the Smart Source insert, which are usually the two I find in my papers.  The rest of the papers go on the burn pile, or get recycled, and every once in a while I actually read them first.  :)

Your Sunday paper probably comes with at least one of these coupon inserts, as they are nationally distributed.  If not, go directly to the websites themselves and print the coupons out that you need.  RedPlum.com and SmartSource.com are two of my favorite  The links are on the right side of this page.  And the important thing is, these are legitimate web sites to print your coupons from.  (I will get into the no no's of couponing soon.)  Suffice to say, these two sites will ask you to install a coupon printing software on your computer.  Allow it.

 This software helps the manufacturer make sure that the coupons are being printed according to their policy, and that helps to keep printed coupons legal.  Which makes them okay to use.  Usually they will only allow you a print limit of 2 of the same coupon.  Please, don't try to just scan/copy the coupons.  This is illegal, and will eventually lead to stores not accepting internet printed coupons.  We don't want that to happen.  So do things the right way.

Next, give your store a call and ask them what their coupon policy is.  You can usually find it online too.  Print this policy up and cary it with you when you are heading out to the store.  You're going to want to make sure that you know what the store's policy is, even if the cashiers don't.  It isn't often that you'll find this to be an issue, but you're going to want to be prepared if it does happen.

The great thing about coupons is that the manufacturer is paying the store for the face value of the coupon plus a handling fee of around 8 cents.  So grocery stores like getting coupons.  Even the smallest store should accept them, you just have to ask.