Today Joyce from Saving My Cents shares her tips for saving money in the “Land Of No Doubles”!
About Joyce:
As a SAHM to 2 little boys, two little cats and one big golden retriever saving my SENSE will never happen, but saving my CENTS has to happen. Anyone who knows me knows my favorite saying is “I’m not cheap, I’m thrifty” and I hope with my website you can be too!
In the coupon world The Land of No Doubles is an area where no stores offer double coupon savings. You know, when you have a .25 cent face value coupon that gets rung up as .50 cents thanks to double savings! Many of us, especially here in Florida *gasp* do not have double coupons anywhere!!
So we have to come up with other ways to save beyond the face value of our coupons here in The land of No Doubles. The closest thing would be coupon stacking. For example, take a look at your local grocery store flyer, many stores will have their own coupons in those flyer’s. So you see a store coupon for $1 off 2 toothpastes, you happen to have a manufacturer coupon good for $1 off any of that same brand toothpaste, combine this to get $2 off 2 toothpastes instead of just the $1, if you have two of that $1 off toothpaste coupons (and since you are buying two) use both manufacturer coupons to get $3 off.
Walgreens has their own coupons in their flyer every Sunday and many times the products they list have matching manufacturer coupons. During buy one get one free sales you can really make out, some stores will only allow one coupon to be used, but some will also allow you to use 2 coupons, so say the toothpaste you have coupons for goes buy one get one free on sale, the toothpaste costs $3.49 regular, use the store coupon and the manufacturer coupons, you end up getting two tubes of toothpaste for .49 cents! Without coupons and sales you would have paid $7, with just the store coupon and the BOGO sale you would have paid $2.49, stack your coupons and pay next to nothing!
Another easy trick, and sometimes this works great without even stacking, is to read the coupon and see if it specifies a size. If it does not, then go ahead and buy the trial size, it may end up free. Using the toothpaste example, the store has trial size toothpaste at $1, use your $1 off 2, and your $1 off manufacturer coupon to get two completely free, or just use your $1 off manufacturer coupon to get it free! I know it sounds a bit confusing, but stacking or not, many times if a coupon does not specify size, you can walk away with trial size products totally free! Sure you could only pay .49 cents with stacking & coupons for 2 tubes of toothpaste instead of just getting a small trial size for free, but if you can get your hands on multiple coupons, whether buying them from a coupon service, asking friends and family to hold their coupons for you or trading for them, it would save you money to get 2 or 3 FREE trial sizes that would add up to the same amount in the tube you PAID for!
When looking for store coupons keep in mind that they are not always found in the store flyer’s. Check out the shelves, you may see store coupons hanging near a product, when you first walk into a store check out the area where they keep extra flyer’s, even ask at the customer service desk! If you can sign up for a store mailing list do that too, lots of stores will send out magazines and flyer’s that include store and manufacturer coupons. And do not forget about stores that accept competitor coupons, you may see a great price on that toothpaste at Store A, but the store coupon you have is for Store B, well find out if Store A will take the competitor coupon and if they will, go ahead and stack and enjoy your savings! And if you are lucky enough to have double coupons at your store, with stacking, I am jealous at the thought of how much you could save!
This post originally appeared on Saving My Cents on April 9th.
