Session Two- Matching Coupons to Sales Ads

This can be one of the most profitable things you will do with couponing once you get the hang of it. It may seem hard at first, but just like anything you do in life, it will get easier as you practice! This is what I call The Bargain Shopper Ladies Method to matching sales ads. I have included in these paragraphs my baby steps to this process. Read through them as I hold your hand!

1. Get sales ads.- Grocery stores usually run a sales ad from Wednesday-Tuesday. You should get grocery store sales ads in the mail on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday during the week. Mine usually come on Wednesday but not always. If you don't get them in the mail they can usually be found in the Wednesday newspaper and you can also go to your favorite store and get one yourself. Mega chain store ads- These stores, such as Target, Walgreens, CVS and Wal-Mart can be found in the Sunday paper or you can get one in the store yourself. The larger chains that are not just grocery focused run their sale ads from Sunday to Saturday.

2. Circle items in the sale ads.- It can be very overwhelming to see a sales ad. Let me teach you a very simple method to doing this yourself. Pick up your favorite store's ad. Mine changes weekly. It's usually Safeway (Tom Thumb) or Target. It used to be CVS. Take the ad and a highlighter and circle all the products that your family buys. You might circle six things on every page, you might only circle one. Also check for special promotions listed in the ad such as, If you purchase 3 Post Cereals, you will get a Catalina coupon for a FREE gallon of milk. These promotions are usually listed on the front page or in the middle of the ads in a highlighted box explaining the promotion.

3. Take your circled items and find coupons to match. Does a coupon exist for the items that you need? There is a website where you can find this information out on your computer. Go to http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ . Kudos to the makers of this invaluable resource! Sign up to join the site so you can access their unique coupon database. Go to the top where there is a link for coupon resources. Use the drop down arrow to access the coupon database. Here you can search for any item to see if there is currently a coupon for it. Type in French's mustard. The database will show you a list of coupons that are out for the item if there are any, the date the coupon came out, the value of the coupon and when the coupon expires. SS means that it came from the Smart Source insert in the newspaper. If you don't have time to cut coupons you can keep your inserts in a folder, labeled by date it came out and you can find coupons this way. This is something that I personally do every week along with the envelope method. If you don't have time to cut coupons, you can also go to http://www.thecouponclippers.com/ and order them.
Make a list of the items that are on sale that have coupons available. You can then go and cut these out, find them in your organizer if they are already cut or order them online. If something is a great sale and there is not a coupon for it, write that item on your list anyway. You need it and it is probably a good deal even though it won't be free or cost you a few cents.

4. Find an ad to coupon matching list online. This paragraph is for the busy people! There is a free ad matching list resource on-line at http://www.couponmom.com/ . Here the Coupon Mom has grocery lists to different stores under the title, grocery lists by state. If you look under your state you can find various stores. Tip: Look under other states for more stores that might not be listed under your state.
You can also pay someone else to match ads for you. After getting and ad and trying this method yourself, you might say "I don' t have time to get the ads or look through them." That is okay. There is another option designed just for you.
There are two sites that I recommend. A very well known site is http://www.grocerygame.com/ . This company does all the ad matching for you and charges you a fee to join their lists and access their information. Their list is a little more indepth than the one on couponmom.com . You can print the lists that you need and save a lot of time. It will run you around $10-20 a month. Another site that is great for the Texas area is http://www.iwantfreegroceries.com/ . Their program is unique because you can access all the stores with a membership where at the Grocery Game, you must pay for each individual store of your choice. When you consider the savings it could be worth it. You can usually try these sites for $1 or for free to see if you like them. If you end up using the list and saving over $50 on your groceries then I would say that it was worth your time. I am too frugal and currently do ad matching myself. I like to match my coupons to the ads at Safeway or Tom Thumb and to the coupons online at Target. After I match these two ads I check http://www.couponmom.com/ as well. I usually find more sales than are listed on the couponmom sheet and I am always glad that I scanned the ads first.
Task 2- Get a grocery ad and circle the items on sale that your family uses the most. Go online and see what coupons are available. Find a few of the coupons in your organizer or order them online. If this was extremely difficult for you, sign up for a $1 or free trial to an ad matching service. If you don't end up using the lists very much before the trial is over, then stick to the free web site http://www.couponmom.com/ .