If you could only offer one piece of advice...

[Spoildbby1]

Originally Posted by Castingbread Great advice! Good control, too! I tried to rep you but it would not link up. I'll try again after posting! Amazing how such a little bit can really add to your stockpile!! Way to go!!

Thanks, I was not happy about only having $5. DH didn't think I would be getting anything for awhile. I spent 5 days trying to figure it out! We are very competitive and I was going to win this one way or the other!

[EricaD]

Originally Posted by borntoshop Make a list of the top 5 or 10 things you are in need of. Find coupons and weekly deals to make them cheap or free. Trade, trade, trade. Buy, buy, buy. You now have your first stockpile! (Remember, some people's stockpile is 1 or 2 of an item, while others is more.) Move on to the next item on your list. Rinse, repeat.

Okay...I know several things I need (Toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, dish detergent, baby wipes). What is the easiest/best way to find coupons or deals on these items? I am all about stockpiling...I just don't have time to search the thread for each store to find the best deal.

[thickbluebug]

Me too Erica!
I do a search for what deal I am in need of on the home page.
It shows me all the forums that has the key word.
Then I find the stores I shop at.
Then when I pull up one of the results, I go to search this forum - mainly when that forum has bunches of pages.
I put in my key word again. It saves a bunch of time in the big forums!

I love the feature and I use it every time I go to a popular forum like target, wags, post your brags, gimme my money back, and cvs.
I pop my word in the search box, like today it was mayo. So I clicked and went to wags to get more info on the deal.

For coupons I go to the coupon data base to see what is available. Then search that item to see who has it for trade.
Sometimes I go straight to search and hunt what I need and bypass the coupon database.

Originally Posted by EricaD Okay...I know several things I need (Toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, dish detergent, baby wipes). What is the easiest/best way to find coupons or deals on these items? I am all about stockpiling...I just don't have time to search the thread for each store to find the best deal.

[EricaD]

Perfect!! Thanks for the advice!!

[tmsmalley]

And a bump...

Tess

[kenzeeanderson]

Thanks everyone, for the great advice. My husband has been making fun of me the past few days as I have gotten interested in finding lots of coupons and things... but someday he will thank me huh?! Just wanted to say thanks

[faintimage]

My advise is to not worry about what anyone thinks and have fun shopping. You will have plenty of stockpile soon enough that you can be proud of. You'll want to share and give away so much of your extras, like never before. Have fun with the cashiers and managers too, and you will likely make new friends with them. Your dh will be so happy and proud too, especially when you are bringing loads of items he likes for next to nothing!

[Clipper]

When checking out DO NOT hand over all your coupons at once to the cashier. Deal them out in small, manageable like groupings. That way if a problem arise they just can't shuffle around the offending coupons and pretend they did their job correctly. When I check out they don't get the next batch of coupons until I see they've successfully imputted the ones I've already given them. It saves a lot of headaches.

[essentia]

Originally Posted by mrsbradley Don't be afraid to buy more than 1 paper, more than 1 All You magazine, etc. when they have good coupons.

Dovetailing with that, think buying one or more papers or magazines as an investment, similar to U.S. Treasury Bills or Savings Bonds. As long as the price of the paper itself is less than the face value of all the usable coupons inside, it's a good investment.

Also, keep an eye for good discounts on newspapers and magazines.

Newspaper deals

• If you buy single papers rather than subscribe, get into the habit of checking that your copy has all the inserts it should, *before* heading to the checkout stand. (If someone should ask what you're doing, remain calm and politely say that you're verifying nothing's missing, which is 100% accurate.)

• Some newspapers permit sales of their Sunday editions in Dollar type stores. Call your paper's circulation department to find out.

• A few newspapers discount their early Sunday editions when purchased from vending boxes on the street the day before (usually beginning around midday Saturday until the wee hours of Sunday morning).

• A few newspapers permit discounted sales of Sunday editions in stores and newsstands a day or so after publication.

• If your paper has consistently good inserts, consider a Sunday-only subscription. Ask whether there's a discount for getting multiple copies.
  
  
• When papers run subscription specials -- daily or Sunday-only -- take them up on the offer and cancel before the rate goes up. Newspapers are really hurting for paid readers and they'll do just about anything short of giving their product away for free to keep you as a subscriber.

• If you're a Sunday only subscriber, consider buying the Tuesday or Wednesday paper in addition just for the grocery store ads. Skim all the ads (and the newspaper's own foodie section if it has ones) for extra manufacturers Qs. Even if you're a Safeway-only shopper (for example), you could be missing out on valuable Qs running in the Albertsons or Thirftway or QFC ads. Just the past few weeks or so, my local Tuesday paper had ads containing MQs for $1 off Foster Farms chicken, Glad B3G1F, and $5 wby a Hormel entree + Country Crock side dish + Fresh Express salad.

Magazine deals

• The coupons in All You justify purchasing multiple copies to begin with, but November and December issues give you even more incentive. The December issue has a .50c Q on your next purchase of All You good through end of January, and the November issue had 4 (or maybe 5) x .50c off coupons good through January 23rd.

• Check the yellow pages under used book sellers for merchants that also advertised for used magazines. If there's a hot Q in a national magazine like Cosmo or Red Book, you might be able to pick up several copies for $1 or less.

• There's still residual value in the Qs not usable to you; your rejects can be gold for retrading purposes.

Above all, keep your eyes peeled and keep it fun. Don't stress too much over missing a good or even great deal. Deals are like buses, there's always another one coming around the corner.

[newatthis]

Originally Posted by wannabefree You must learn to think differently than you used to about buying stuff "you don't need"!!! Dh used to say, "ahhh we don't need any more spaghetti sauce" so I wouldn't buy any more if he was with me then sure enough....we'd run out before another good deal came along. He pretty much keeps quiet now unless he's bragging to other people about what a 'financial genius my wife is!!!'

Now my husband see the error of his ways- he used to say this b/c he thought we would never use them- but ohh the uses we come up with! Now, he encourages me to get as many as possible now after seeing how it feels to run out and have to buy some at an "ok" price!

Originally Posted by Lori63 Take all your coupons with you. I used to make a list and just take coupons for what was on the list-missed alot of deals that way. Now I put the ones on my list in a separate envie, but take the others along, too.

This is the reason I carry my binder in the store EVERY SINGLE time! You never know what will be marked down but not advertised, on clearance, something you missed in the ad, etc...

Originally Posted by MariaT KEEP ALL YOUR COUPONS! I gave away the Kraft buy 3 get free cheese or something like that figuring I would never use it. Low & behold Kool Aid is a Kraft product so I could have use it after all by buying three little kool aid packets. So KEEP/CUT/DON'T TOSS anything until it has expired!

Don't ya feel stupid after doing that? I've done this before and then realized that I gave away such a good deal. It makes you want to do this:

Originally Posted by duffgirl Well, I am still pretty new, I have only been doing this a couple of months, but I wasted a lot of money my first go-rounds because I wasn't being patient enough. So, I guess my advice is learn when to be patient! If you have 10 rolls of paper towels at home, learn to wait for the better sale to stock up. Don't tell yourself, "this deal will never come again", because they always do! Pay attention to what you are doing, don't get in a coupon frenzy. :)

The best signature line that I have read on here is a quote from a Kenny Rogers song (I don't know whose siggy it was either)
"You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run" This is so true- as beginners, lots of people think that you need to use them b/c you have them or b/c its an ok deal. Lo and behold, there will come an AWESOME deal and your coupons are gone b/c you used them at the wrong time. Don't get so excited that you run out and buy the first 'deal' that you see. Give it some deal, and almost always you'll find yourself saying "I'm so glad that I waited to use these!"


There ya are folks- my best advice!