Just some very basic concepts for beginners.

1. Couponing Basics 101
Easy ways to save money and
increase your buying power for
every budget.

2. Ways to Save
• Store Sales Advertisements
• Manufacturers Coupons
• Peelies/Blinkies/Tear Pads
• Store Loyalty Cards
• Store Coupons
• Price Match Guarantees

3. Other Ways to Save
• Rain checks
• Catalina Coupons
• Printable Coupons
• Green Bag Tag

4. Coupons
• Coupons are discounts that are issued by
the manufacturer in an effort to advertise
and promote their products.
• Coupons are not “just for poor people”.
Using coupons shows that the person is
intelligent and deals wisely with their
money.

5. Why Coupon?
• ”An average coupon user saves
approximately 12% per year on their
grocery spending, which translates to
roughly $12 per week for the average
household.

6. Why Coupon?
• An organized coupon user will spend
about 30 minutes per week managing their
coupon savings, which is the equivalent of
earning at least $24 an hour (after taxes)
for pretty easy work
• An organized couponer can save
$100’s - $1000’s of dollars per year.”

7. Coupons are like money
=

8. Don’t be a Money Trasher!

9. Price Matching
• Some stores price match each others
advertised prices. (The price needs to be
in the advertisement, and you must bring it
with you.)
• Each store is different, but my favorite is
Walmart because they price match most
stores. They even price match grocery
stores such as Stater Bros, Vons, Ralphs,
etc…

10. Price Matching
• Target will price match if the store
promotion does not require you to be a
savings club member. They won’t price
match CVS, but will price match
Walgreens, or Superior because currently
they don’t have a savings club.

11. Price Matching
• Electronics stores price match electronics
• Staples/Office Depot/OfficeMax price
match other office supply sales, even for a
Walmart/Target/CVS Advertisements.

12. Discounts for Prescriptions
• Most stores want you to fill prescriptions there.
They offer coupons for $25 gift certificates on a
new or transferred prescription.
• Make sure you ask your store if they will accept
a prescription coupon from a competitor. Often
they do. Such as CVS.
• Each store has the ability to accept a price
match or not. Hence some CVS wont, but down
the street, some will.

13. Most Stores allow you to use one manufacturers coupon per item. In addition
many stores have store coupons which can be used in conjunction with a
manufacturers coupon to increase your savings.
Two weeks ago Tide was on sale for $5.49 each. There
was a manufacturer’s coupon for $2 off the purchase of 2.
Also there was a CVS Coupon for $4 off any $8 Tide
purchase.
$5.49
+ $5.49
$10.98
- $4.00 CVS CRT (coupon)
- $2.00 Manufacturer’s Coupon
$4.98
In addition the promotion was that if you bought $30 of specially marked items
you got a $10 gas card. Buy buying these products I had made $10.98 towards
the $30 necessary.
If I distribute the savings over the deal, it means I really
paid around less than $2 for two of the tides!!
Also the mail in Rebate for PG products was $5 if you bought $25 worth of products. So
Essentially Pennies!!!

14. The easiest way to save is to
sign up for online coupons that go
directly to your store card
• Load the coupons to your card before you
go to the store. Make sure you check
reciepts to make sure they came off, if not
let the cashier know.
• Vons, Ralphs
• Text Alerts, and smart phone coupons
• Additional Savings from SavingsStar

15. Where to get coupons
• Sunday Papers and Saturday
Preview
– LA Times Best coupons
– OC Register – sometimes high
value coupons missing
– Press Enterprise – sometime a little
cheaper
***Always remember to check your
paper for Coupons before you buy
it! Sometimes they don’t have them
or are removed.***

16. Anatomy of a Coupon

17. • Online Printable Manufacturer Coupon sites
– Coupons.com
– Redplum.com
– Couponnetwork.com
– Smartsource.com
– Grocery store websites
– Individual manufacturers websites such as
bettycrocker.com, kelloggs.com, robitussin.com,
aleve.com, scjohnson.com

18. Where to get Store Coupons
– Grocery Store Advertisements
– Target.com
– CVS.com
– In Store Flyers
– Tuesday mail out circulars

19. Newspapers
• Usually contain 2-3 sets of coupons by 4 main
companies:
– Smartsource
– Redplum
– Procter and Gamble
– Vlaasis
Coupons sections don’t come out on long weekends.
List of upcoming and current coupons at
taylortownpreview.com or other sites
Label is always on the front spine of the first page

20. How to read a deal posting
$5 ECB wyb 2 of these Jergens Natural Glow, Frizz-Ease or Biore
products (excludes clearance) Limit 1
John Frieda Frizz-Ease 1.69-12oz, Biore cleanser 5-6.77oz or Jergens Natural
Glow (no prices)
John Frieda Frizz-Ease Frizz Eliminators, Stylers or Finishers, excludes trial
$5 on 2 (9/15/12) SS 8/19/12 <--- use only if store turns ad on early
Biore Free Cleanser up to $7 wyb any Pore Strip (9/30/12) SS 8/12/12

21. Common Abbreviations
• SS – means the coupon is out of the smartsource ad
• RP – means redplum
• VS – means Valassis
• PG – Procter & Gamble
• Q – means Coupon
• BM – means Brick and Mortar (real store vs. online)
• ECB – means Extra Care Bucks (rewards)
• CRT – means Cash Register Tape coupon
• Catalina – special coupons that print out at registers that
are from Catalina corp, a company that makes coupons
for different stores.

22. CVS Extra Bucks
• Sign up for all 3 of
these:
– Beauty Club,
– Diabetes Club
– Online Offers
• Beauty Club will save
you an additional
$5/$50 that prints out 3
days after purchase.

23. CVS Extra Bucks
• Check your online
account for special
discounts that don’t
print at your store.
• Scan your card at the
Red Scanner every
time you go in. Scan it
twice, or until the
machine says “no more
coupons today”

24. Sign up for Double Rewards Now!
• You get 2% cash back as extra bucks for
every $1 spent. (there are exeptions to this)
• You get $1 for every 2 prescriptions filled.
• Everything is given quarterly as Extra
bucks to be used in the store.
• You can use ECB’s for everything except
gift cards, prescriptions, alcohol, stamps.

25. Target
• Go to target.com and print out target store
coupons. You can use them in conjunction
with a manufacturer coupon to reduce the
price.

26. Rite Aid
• Sign up for ad perks to get the most
rewards, sometimes they give you a
coupon if you watch a video for the
product.
• Up Rewards print out at the end of the
transaction.
• Single check rebates must be mailed in.

27. Walgreens
• One Coupon per item so need a filler
sometimes.
• They print as Catalina Coupons that
expire in a week or so.
• Can’t use a Catalina from a deal you
earned to buy the same product in order to
get another catalina. But you can roll your
money over.

28. Taxes
• Taxable items are anything other than food.
• Riverside and OC have only 7.75% sales tax vs.
LA County which is 8.75% sales tax.
• In CA you pay tax on your precoupon amounts.
• When doing a deal at CVS anything that is a
store coupon that shows on the receipt as CVS
coupon will reduce the tax amount. Ex. Like a
sale. It includes Extra bucks. If it rings up as a
CVS Manufacturers coupon ex. a printed cvs
coupon then it does not reduce your tax and you
will pay tax on the full price of the item you are
buying.

29. Always be polite to Cashiers, even
the ones who are not well trained in
their store policies. Check your
coupon, and if you really feel that
you are correct, ask a manager to
make sure, or save it for next time.
Another cashier another day may
know better.

31. then again…

32. Game Plan
1. Purchase a Sunday Paper/Sunday Preview
$2.00 or $2.50 (its an investment, but sign up
for a Sunday subscription its cheaper.)
- LA Times has better coupons
2. Don’t throw away coupons you don’t think you
will use. Put it in a file or basket, you may use
them later to make a deal work.
3. Get a system in place
4. Sign up for store clubs

33. Don’t Forget
• Coupons cannot be photo copied. It’s fraud and
punishable.
• Check the expiry date of the coupon.
• Make sure you have fulfilled all conditions.
• Only one Manufacturer Coupon and one Store
Coupon per item.
• Some Coupons limit how many “like” coupons per
customer or transaction.
• Did you buy the right size/style variety of the
product?
• Pictures may be incomplete, so always go by the
wording of a coupon.
• Get your coupons from reputable sites as I’ve
suggested.

34. Pay attention to online blogs
sometimes they do all the work
figuring out a deal for you.
• Couponmom.com
• Slickdeals.net
• Fatwallet.com
• Tip: Read deals carefully, if you see something written online that seems
wrong, check with others and find out the individual stores policy. At times
people who don’t know post stuff to, and we want to save, but do so
honorably and within the rules.