Saturday, February 6, 2010

Where do you get your coupons?

After the lady at Whole Foods asked me where I got all my coupons, I thought it'd make a nice post. So where do you find coupons?

* This is the obvious one-- the Sunday paper inserts. This one kills me because I used to work at the Press Herald and I'd end up with the back of my car full of Sunday Telegrams that I'd recycle... and I didn't even take a second glance at all those pretty, pretty inserts. So befriend your newspaper folks~ and maybe they'll give you extra inserts! Or at least find out where they recycle all their extra newspapers, and then follow them discreetly and pounce.

* Some stores, like Shaws, Whole Foods, and Babies R Us put out their own coupons.

* On the back of Hannaford receipts, or catalinas that you get when you buy other products at the grocery store.

* Recyclebank. This is pretty cool, but unfortunately Maine isn't participating currently. However, just by signing up you can get 100 points which can be redeemed for some cool coupons. (For awhile they had $2 off Cascadian Farms organic products which was great). You can also recycle your old computers or cell phones and earn points that way. They also are affiliated with Kashless which is like Freecycle. You can earn points for posting free items you no longer need, and for saving searches for things you're looking for. Pretty cool.

* Trading. If you'd told me a few months back that I'd be undertaking such ventures as trading coupons, I'd probably have thought you were nuts. But it's true. This is actually a great way to get coupons-- you can trade with friends or family, or you could join a great site like Afullcup.com and join an organized trading group. Or you could help revitalize this local group.

* Events. Hannaford has a Heart Health promotion going on this month, and they're promising coupons at these events. When I attended Dash of Diva last fall, I thought I'd died and gone to coupon heaven at the Hannaford booth. Plus it was so crowded no one seemed to notice I was helping myself to quite a few coupons. Go here to find the dates and times for a Hannaford near you.

* Rite Aid has a cool program called Video Values where you watch ads for their products and you earn coupons. I haven't gotten too excited about most of the coupons, but when you watch 20 you get a $5 off $20 at Rite Aid coupon. Even if you don't shop at Rite Aid, this could be a great way to shave some money off those fancy blue Portland trash bags that we all have to buy, or milk, or other staples. Or, you could just go here and get a $5 off $25.

* The Interwebs. Check out coupons.com, , RedPlum, SmartSource, , http://www.mambosprouts.com/, Target coupons for starters. Also many products' websites have coupons on them.

* Write a complimentary email to companies whose products you use frequently. Or, write a complaint. Oftentimes either will get you some free coupons. And if not, at least you might have made someone smile with your compliment. Or made them sob under their desk with your complaint.

How about you? Have you found other interesting ways to garner coupons?

3 comments:

  1. magazines! The give & take shelf at the library is a good source for free magazines. There's usually high value coupons in the family ones.
    Great post!

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  2. I agree with Teresa, magazines are a great place. I also find that if I scour the websites of the products that I love I can find coupons that way.

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  3. Magazines, of course! Good call, ladies.

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