How To Save Money Using Coupons –5 Effective Tips And Tricks

Nothing makes someone happier than saving money while shopping. All over the world people take advantage of coupons, sales, and discounts to save some extra. According to statistics, 85% of Americans use coupons while they shop. Though the number is quite high, 75% expect discounts/offers. The remaining 10% are part-timers who use coupons if they come across some good deals.

Using coupons is one of the effective ways to save those extra bucks. Shoppers using consumer packaged goods (CPG) coupons alone save $30 to $50 a week. This translates to saving up to $2600 a year. That’s a huge sum considering that you have earned it without much effort.

Today, using coupons has become much effortless. With the internet taking over the center stage in almost all the activities; personal or commercial, statistics show that only one percent of the population use coupons. In the US, in 2019, coupons worth $470 billion were distributed by consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers. However, $465 billion worth of coupons were left unused. This presents a huge opportunity for you to tap into the coupons’ market and save the most out of it.

Mentioned below are tips and tricks to help you make effective buying decisions using coupons and effortlessly save money.

1. Know Your Shopping Behavior

Before you even get into collecting, organizing and using coupons, it is important to learn a bit more about what kind of a shopper you are. After observing and learning about shopping behavior, you could fall into one of the three types,

• Casual Couponers are the people who use coupons when it’s convenient or when they come across a good deal.
• Extreme Couponers are those people who are just like others but they take it a notch higher. Whenever an opportunity presents itself, they combine multiple coupons and buy in bulk to save money.
• This segment includes people who, to save money, opt for generic brands rather than going for top-end brands.

2. Stack Up On Coupons

Once you get to know what kind of shopper you are, you will find a variety of coupons to suit your behavior which you could collect and use. It is all about the quantity. So, collect as many coupons as possible and stack them. Getting multiple coupons for the same item allows you to buy in bulk.Sit with a newspaper in front of you and collect as many coupons as possible. Also, you can save a lot more than you spent on the newspapers.

It is now 2019, and the online e-commerce industry is at its peak. Don’t miss out on this opportunity as online coupons are free and will save you a lot of money for the things you had planned to buy. There are many aggregator websites for coupons for specific products or multiple products. It proves to be the best resource to find household items, groceries, sports, water filters coupons, etc. for different brands. Searching for relevant coupons online will take very little time and effort and give you better results.

The most important factor about online coupons is that you can search for coupons then and there and proceed to buy online. You need not worry about remembering or setting alerts for various offers and deals or the sources from where you get coupons.

3. Let That Store Loyalty Go

Many brands in the market offer loyalty credits or points once you register. They offer loyalty points, member discounts, exclusive member offers, etc. This strategy results in retaining its customer base, encouraging repeat purchases, increasing customer lifetime value, etc.

Though you are tempted to opt for this option, it could restrict you to choose from a wide variety of options. You are always free to visit more stores and choose from different options for higher-value products.

To put it simply, no rule asks you to stay loyal to a store when it helps you save money.

4. Research A Bit about Store Policies

Knowledge of store policies could go a long way. Stores have policies set to suit their businesses and aid in a smooth and hassle-free process. It is important to know, how the coupons work and how to make proper use of the coupons?

Before you stack, target stores that allow coupon-stacking or coupon-doubling. Since, not all stores allow coupon-stacking, collect coupons that the target store accepts. It is also advisable to keep options open by stacking up coupons for multiple stores.

Using coupons needs a bit of basic mathematics but is easy to follow and get in a habit. If you have multiple coupons, you can hand over the coupons in a specific order to maximize your savings. For example, if you have a coupon for $5 off of a $30 purchase, use that first. If not, other coupons will bring down the total value to less than $30 by discounting. Thus, the first coupon will be of no use.

One more trick is to use manufacturers’ coupons which you could generally find in the newspapers and store coupons available on the website. Using these together during a sale could get you the product for much less price or even for free.

5. Get Organized and Keep Updated

As you keep stacking up coupons and get excited to use it, one should organize them to keep things smooth when a sale goes live. An expired coupon will serve you no good, so, it is advisable to organize them according to expiration dates and stores. However, the most important thing here is carrying the right coupons when you are on your shopping adventure for the right store.

Coupon collection efforts will go to waste if you reached the store post the end of the sale. Keep an eye out in advance for any new or upcoming offers/coupons for the stores or websites you frequent. Having this knowledge beforehand will give you enough time to collect those relevant extra coupons and come up with a strategy to use them to give maximum benefits.

One more way to keep updated is by registering for email updates by various stores. To go the extra mile to save more, you can request coupons to the manufacturers if no coupons are available on their websites. This trick won’t work every week, but when done at the right time could fetch you good coupons. This also gets you on their mailing list.

To Wrap Things Up

If you keep an eye out towards the market and think about it consciously, making use of the coupons is a way for you to amass huge amounts. Out of the one percent population that uses coupons, most of them are well to do financially. Psychological studies suggest that people refrain from using coupons because it makes them look frugal in front of others. Nevertheless, learning about the tricks mentioned above will give you a head start to start using those coupons and save big money.