for Wisconsin shoppers

[kristinnm]

I see there are a lot of Wisconsin folks in this forum, so I hope it's ok to post this question here?

Where do you get your extra coupons??

I buy the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wausau paper on Sunday (I'm in Antigo), but those are $2 each. Once I see the weekly ad for Copp's I often see one or two coupons I'd like more than one of (like the recent buy 6 Nature Valley granola get $3 off + free milk & egg catalina sale and I only had one coupon.) I don't want to spend another $4 on newspapers for 2 coupons, clipping sites want you to buy a minimum (and I didn't need 20 of them) and they often don't even have the one I want and I'm completely lost when it comes to the trading system on HCW.

What do you all do to get extra coupons? Any advice would be appreciated!

[JLL]

I at least 50% of my q's from tearpads at grocery stores and gas stations. (Never pay at the pump-I've found up to 8 tearpad q's in one visit to a gas station). I'm in SE Wisconsin and find lots of q's at Woodman's, as well as Sentry and a few PNS's I frequent during the week.

[kristinnm]

I forgot about tearpads! I don't recall seeing many at my local Copp's store, though. I'll have to watch for them now!

[OurPlaceHere]

I agree, tearpads are a great way to get coupons for free! And I think they can be some of the best coupons too. I will buy multiples of the Saturday edition of the Waukesha Freeman ($.75) if I know there will be good coupons that week (there are preview sites around). MOST of the coupons I use are printables though!

[CQintraining]

Friends and family save their coupon sections for me. Senior living centers. My aunt lives in one and gets me multiple copies of the RP and P&G that come in the mail. A friend's friend works at one and collects SS from the news papers in their recycle bins, though she is hit or miss. Sometimes my PnS has them by the service desk, or the counter where they put out the weekly instore ad.

[kristinnm]

MOST of the coupons I use are printables though!

Thanks! Do you mean the printable ones on coupons.com, redplum.com and smartsource.com? I never seem to find much on those. :(

Friends and family save their coupon sections for me. Senior living centers. My aunt lives in one and gets me multiple copies of the RP and P&G that come in the mail. A friend's friend works at one and collects SS from the news papers in their recycle bins, though she is hit or miss. Sometimes my PnS has them by the service desk, or the counter where they put out the weekly instore ad.

I need friends like your's! I asked my mom in Milwaukee but she doesn't get the paper anymore! I just moved here in late 2009 so I don't know anyone really and those I do know don't get the paper either! lol

There is a senior center about 4 blocks away, but I don't know anyone there though.

[PurrMinn]

Like others have said, I always looks for tearpads and other Qs when I'm out and about (mostly at the grocery store). I also collect Catalinas as much as I can - I use the Self Check-Outs and sometimes people just leave them there...

I don't use printables much, because I can't bring myself to buy ink! I mostly use insert Qs, my mom usually gets 1-2 copies each week from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and sometimes a co-worker of mine gives me her inserts from the Oshkosh Northwestern (has the same Qs as the Wausau paper). The MJS doesn't get the Red Plum insert, but otherwise has fairly decent Qs.

Then from there, I trade for a lot of coupons - here on HCW. I check the Coupon Database (link is in the bar of grey tabs across the top of this page). I search for items that I know I buy on a regular basis and then add those Qs to my wish list. I also will post in the trading forum if there are any that I need soon. Then I trade Qs that I don't need for ones that I do - so everyone wins! I also offer Box Tops for Education or Campbell's Labels for Education in return for the Qs I am ISO, since I don't have any kids yet and don't really know any that collect those items. Since I don't print IPs myself, I sometimes will trade for them if there is a hot one out that I know I could use.

I know ebay or clipping services can get expensive since you may need to buy a lot, but here on HCW there are many traders who have a ton of inserts and are more than happy to send an envie with a wide variety of Qs that you need for a fairly decent price.

Even if you don't think you'll do trading here, I would still suggest joining the Traders in Training group so you can get your feet in the water. You can always give it a try and if it doesn't work out for you (which I doubt! ), you can stop at any time.

[kristinnm]

Thanks, Amy! I'm definitely going to join the traders group! Maybe it'll make more sense to me once I have access - those long posts of needs and haves are confusing right now!

I was thinking maybe using a flyer service could work out if I limit my spending to the same as 2 newspapers would cost. I can't see buying more than 5 of each. The problem is finding which service carries the same flyers I would have in my newspaper. Very often I can't find one that matches mine (it always seems to have every coupon except the one I really want! LOL!) Even the SS flyers between the MJS and Wausau paper are different. Wausau actually has the P & G when it comes out and the RP insert, as well. But there always seems to be one in the WJS I want that isn't in the Wausau! Augh!! LOL (The Antigo paper doesn't have ANY coupons.)

Question to anyone: Do you know which clipping/full flyer services carry the Wisconsin area flyers/coupons?

[PurrMinn]

Thanks, Amy! I'm definitely going to join the traders group! Maybe it'll make more sense to me once I have access - those long posts of needs and haves are confusing right now!

I was thinking maybe using a flyer service could work out if I limit my spending to the same as 2 newspapers would cost. I can't see buying more than 5 of each. The problem is finding which service carries the same flyers I would have in my newspaper. Very often I can't find one that matches mine (it always seems to have every coupon except the one I really want! LOL!) Even the SS flyers between the MJS and Wausau paper are different. Wausau actually has the P & G when it comes out and the RP insert, as well. But there always seems to be one in the WJS I want that isn't in the Wausau! Augh!! LOL (The Antigo paper doesn't have ANY coupons.)

Question to anyone: Do you know which clipping/full flyer services carry the Wisconsin area flyers/coupons?

I'm glad to hear that you're going to give trading a shot! I agree that the have lists and wish lists can be a bit much to take in, but you also are able to just post a short list in the actual trade forum of specific items that you are looking for or that you have up for trade. That's how I do most of my trading just to keep things simple. I do look at someone's have list or wish list when they say they have x (which I want) and that they want wish list items. Then I take a look at their wish list and see what I can offer them. If they want something that I'm offering, then I can look at their have list and see what I might like in return.

I don't really know anything about the clipping/flyer services so I can't really answer that, but I will tell you that often other regions get different (sometimes better) values of Qs than we get here. For example, I know you said you used a $0.50/2 Nature Valley Q yesterday - in the database it also lists a $1/2 value Q from that same insert (but must be from a different region). You may not be able to find the exact same inserts that we get locally, but you might be able to get some that have similar or a few better Qs. At least at this point in time (hopefully in the future too!) you can use coupons from other regions here and ones distributed here can be used elsewhere, unless the individual coupon lists restrictions of course.

[kristinnm]

Thanks once again, Amy!

Do traders expect large amounts of coupons to trade? I only get 2 papers a week, so I usually only have one or two coupon copies, but I usually only want a few copies of one or two coupons, too.