I just read a great article from The Wall Street Journal titled “Doing the Math on Coupons”. It was published in 2010 but I hadn’t read it prior to today, so I wanted to share because it’s still a good read. It’s nothing we haven’t talked about many times here on Super Coupon Girl, but it’s refreshing to see a publication like WSJ pointing out the same financial logic behind clipping coupons that people like myself have been extolling for years!

Thanks to Life Blessons for pointing me to this article!

It’s ironic that I’m writing an article about saving money on pet food, because I don’t have any pets. So how would I know anything about feeding Fido on a budget? The interesting thing is, I’ve actually ended up purchasing a lot of cat and dog food over the years, either because it was free with coupons and I wanted to give it to my friends and family who have pets, or because I was actually making a profit on it through overage. That’s right, not only have I gotten cat and dog food for free, I’ve made money off it! So how can you start saving on products for your furry friends? Here are my top 7 tips:

1. Use coupons.

This may seem obvious, but it’s worth reiterating. I have gotten bags upon bags of catfood completely free thanks to coupons from the Sunday newspaper. Pet food manufacturers often run promotions where they offer coupons for totally free items. One example of this is a promotion that Friskies ran in 2008 for their “Party Mix” cat treats. They offered a coupon in the paper for a totally free bag, and since I had multiple copies of the newspaper inserts, I ended up getting many bags of these cat treats completely free. This scenario has played out many times for me, as cat food manufacturers in particular seem keen to offer free product coupons in the newspaper.

So how do you get your hands on multiple coupon inserts?

You can ask your friends to save them for you, trade coupons, or even try recycle bin diving!

You should also look for promotional offers on brand websites.

Brands are using social media like never before to reach their audience and gain new customers. One effective way in which they do this is to offer a coupon for a totally free product on their website or Facebook page. You may want to look up your favorite pet food brands online and add them to your social networks so that you can stay up-to-date on new offers. You should also check coupon blogs and keep your eyes peeled for pet offers – I have a category on this blog specifically for free coupon offers, and I post pet food deals whenever I find them. Two of the most recent offers include a “Try-Me-Free” rebate for Purina Pet Gear Training Pads, good through October 31st, 2011, and this offer for a coupon good for one free can of Purina Pro Plan cat food, which is still available. (I got mine in the mail the other day, and I’m giving it to my girlfriend who has cats!)

And don’t overlook printable coupons.

Not too long after the Friskies Party Mix deal, there was a printable coupon offer good for $3.50 off any Purina Cat Chow. Because they were good on any size or variety of Purina cat food, I was allowed to use these on the lower priced bags, resulting in overage – so it actually helped pay for the other groceries in my transaction! Bear in mind, overage policies vary from store to store, so as with everything relating to coupons, you should do your homework and look up the store’s coupon policy on their website or ask a manager before shopping to save yourself any confusion or hassle.

I ended up with a ton of free cat food thanks to sales like these. So what on earth did I do with all this cat chow if I don’t have any kitties? I put all of the cat food into a large box and gave it to my friend who owns several cats. She was thrilled – and so were her cats!

$26.21 worth of groceries & cat food bought for $2.87 after coupons

2. Don’t stop at pet food coupons.

Perhaps your cat or dog requires a special kind of food for health reasons. Or maybe there just aren’t any good coupons for the brands carried at your stores. Now what?

The great thing about coupons is that they can still help you save money on key items, even if you have special circumstances or the item you want doesn’t have many coupons. For starters, if you use coupons to save money on necessities like toothbrushes, toilet paper, or cleaning supplies, it gives you that much more money in your budget for Fido’s food. You can also use the overage concept I outlined above if you have coupons for other items in your transaction that will result in overage, and use the extra to help offset the cost of your pet food.

Another coupon to look out for are “Catalinas”.

Catalinas are a coupon that are generated at the register during checkout when you buy a specific item; sometimes these will be money off coupons that are valid towards your next purchase at that store. These particular catalina coupons can be used on almost anything except alcohol or cigarettes. I wrote a series of catalina articles here that you can read for detailed information on how to find and use these coupons. I’ve used coupons from the Sunday newspaper to get Glade Plug-Ins totally free, which then generated catalinas for money off my next order. I bought more Glade Plug-Ins in subsequent transactions, and then used those catalinas to get a whopping $70 off my order of produce, cheese, eggs, and more. Keep an eye peeled for these type of deals, and if you find one, use the catalinas to pay for your cat food! (And what do you do with a dozen Glade Plug-Ins? donate them or sell them at a garage sale!)

3. Sign up for samples.

There are lots free sample offers out there for cat or dog food, and it can be a great way to supplement your pet food stash. I sign up for these whenever I find them, so I can pass them on to my friends and family. One recent free sample I signed up for was a full-size bag of puppy food mailed straight to my door. That’s nothing to sneeze at! You can find samples on sites like StartSampling.com and MoneySavingMom.com.

4. Enter giveaways.

When it comes to saving money, the more creative you can be, the more money you can save! I’m also a sweepstakes enthusiast, and I often enter pet giveaways so I can win gifts for my pet-owning friends. Pet giveaways tend to get lower entries because they’re such a niche product, and low entries mean better odds of winning. I won two pet giveaways in August alone! I have a number of articles on how to get started entering & winning giveaways on my sweepstakes blog, Contest Corner, which you can find here.

5. Keep an eye peeled for online deals.

Online retailers often carry pet food, so watch out for special sales and discounts. One of my favorite resources for finding deals online is SlickDeals.net; I would also recommend RetailMeNot.com to look up coupon codes for online retailers. And if you end up shopping online, make sure you check to see if you can get cashback on your order first!

Here’s a few sites to check for pet food sales:

• Wag.com is a new pet supplies store owned by the creators of Soap.com and Diapers.com. You can get 10% off your first order by using this coupon code: SUPE8183.

• Amazon.com has a whole section for pet supplies, and sometimes has special coupons and discounts available. Be sure to check out programs like Amazon Mom and Amazon Student, as they each come with a free trial of Amazon Prime, which will score you free shipping on most orders. Also consider signing up for rewards programs like Swagbucks and MyPoints, which you can use to earn Amazon gift cards by searching the web, taking surveys, and more. Then, use the gift cards you earn to pay for dog food!

6. Write to companies and sign up for mailing lists.

Do a Google search for the pet food brands you use, and use their website’s contact form to drop them a line and let them know you enjoy their brand and would like to be added to any mailing lists that they may have. Companies love hearing from their customers, and will often mail out special coupons to thank you for your business, or add you to their customer database to receive future mailings and offers. This can be a source of big savings – I’ve gotten coupons for everything from free organic produce to free sugar by writing to companies, so it’s worth taking a moment to email your favorite dog food manufacturer to see if they have any coupons on offer!

7. Start a pet blog!

If you enjoy reading blogs, perhaps you should consider starting one yourself. Companies love to promote their products through social media outlets because it’s an inexpensive and effective method of advertising. This means that bloggers often receive complimentary product samples from companies who’d like to be featured on their webpage. If this intrigues you, perhaps you should set up a blog for cat or dog lovers with the aim of reviewing pet products! You can check out The Motherload’s article on how to become a product reviewer for further information; Mama of 3 Munchkins also has a great listing of 37 different resources for budding product reviewers.

Pet lovers: How do YOU save money on food for your cat or dog?

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, many of you are planning feasts and figuring out how to make the most of your holiday budget. So I thought it would be timely to mention a guest post I wrote back in 2008 for My Precious Pennies called “Entertaining on a Budget”, for those of you who may have missed it the first time around. In this article, I share my tips on how to cut your expenses when hosting holiday gatherings. Click here to read it!

Most people dread being added to mailing lists, but I’m just the opposite: Whenever anyone asks if I would like to be added to their promotional database, I’m all ears. Mailing lists are a great way for companies to share coupons, samples, and free offers with their customers – so if you play your cards right, it can really benefit you.

Earlier in the week, Earthbound Farms sent out a message to those of us on their email list, seeking 30 consumers to receive free salad in order to test out a new method of packaging and then provide feedback via a brief survey. I took a few seconds to email them back with my interest, and was notified that they’d be shipping me some salad directly via FedEx. On Friday, I received the box above with two lovely packages of organic salad mix; and that’s not all. They also enclosed these coupons:

After I took this photo, I found two more coupons for .75 cents off in the box!

Note the two coupons for completely FREE produce! It was well worth a few minutes of my time to receive these normally-expensive groceries for nothing.

Sign me up!

By being a part of corporate mailing lists, you will be the first to hear about new offers and promotions. Advertisers may send you coupons, free sample offers or product testing opportunities, so it can be a valuable resource. I recommend setting up a separate email account specifically for such offers, so that your primary account won’t be overloaded.

What About Snail Mail?

Receiving promotions via US mail is actually my preferred method. I know some people are (understandably!) completely fed up with all the catalogs and other mailings they receive, but it’s never been an issue for me. I love these type of lists, because I’ve received unusual, high-value coupons this way. Anything I don’t need goes directly to the recycling bin. The only piece of contact information I never give out? My phone number! I can’t think of a situation where a junk call could ever be useful, so when I register for promotional lists, I use the number of a pay-as-you-go cell phone that I keep for emergencies. I rarely turn it on, so I don’t care if they call it!

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Of course, you have to be smart about how you approach mailing lists so that it doesn’t become counter-productive. I actually ignore my own advice about a separate email account, because I find that when I keep mailing lists separate from my primary email, I end up just ignoring the secondary account and never look through it. I register my primary email address with the mailing lists I’m interested in, and it worked well for some time – I was able to keep up with what came in and benefit from it. Over time, my inbox became more and more crowded; and for me, manufacturer mailing lists actually comprised a minority of the emails I was receiving. Most of the overcrowding was due to the dozens of mailing lists I had registered for in order to enter contests, as well as email inquiries that I receive about my blogs. As a result, I went through this week and did a mass unsubscribe of lists that were no longer serving a purpose to me. Remember, your time is your most valuable resource – so if you’re spending hours sifting through junk mail, it’s not worth it. It’s important to find a happy medium and make your mail work for you.

What’s your approach to mailing lists, readers?

If you’re on a very tight budget, it make seem impossible to make a difference in the world with no extra money to spare. But, much in the same way that you can use your frugal skills to reduce your spending and come up with clever solutions to financial problems, you can use those same skills to give back, even if your budget allows no wiggle room whatsoever. Here are 3 ways you can help others without spending a dime:

1. Click to donate. The Hunger Site is an innovative site that uses advertiser funding to benefit those in need. By clicking on the “Click to give” button once per day, you are taken to a page of advertisers that sponsor the site; the revenue from these advertisers is then donated directly to charity. As of this writing, The Hunger Site has given 745,818,023 cups of food since June 1999. They have several partner sites – The Rainforest Site, The Breast Cancer Site, The Child Health Site, The Animal Rescue Site, and The Literacy Site, which also which run off the same premise. By making a few clicks per day, you can donate a cup of food, 11.4 square feet of rainforest habitat, a free mammogram, and so on.

Many other sites utilize this concept to raise money for worthy causes also. Freerice.com is a unique, fun word game that uses sponsor advertising to fund 10 grains of rice donated through the World Food Programme for each answer you get right.

Also, I recently teamed up with P&G over on Contest Corner for their GIVE HEALTH program. If you click here and then click the donate button on my widget, P&G will donate one day’s worth of clean water to a person in need. If you’re a blogger, you can also apply to be a P&G GIVE HEALTH Blogger by clicking here.

I know there are many great sites like these that I’m missing, so please feel free to leave me links to your favorites in the comments!

2. Share your stockpile. You may not have any cash to spare, but if you clip coupons, you’ve probably hit some good sales where you were able to stock up on items for free. Food banks always need donations – and if you don’t have any extra food, remember that many food banks will also take toiletries and cleaning supplies. Shelters for the homeless, victims of domestic violence, and other similar organizations can also use these donations.

3. Volunteer. Donating your time costs nothing out of pocket, and can make a big difference. Perhaps you want to do something with a local organization – sites like Volunteer Match can help you find the right opportunity. Or maybe you’d like to do something creative and raise awareness and funds through your social networks or blog. It could even be something as simple as taking a casserole over to a neighbor who’s having a hard time.

In the past, I’ve felt limited by lack of time or extra money – if I couldn’t spend 30 hours volunteering or donate huge chunks of money to charity, it felt pointless. But making a difference isn’t about being in a special position – if all you have is 5 minutes to lend a hand, it means something. When I think about the scale of the world’s problems, I often feel like nothing I do could make enough of an impact. Then I remember that you can give a child one year worth of clean water for less than the price of a movie ticket, and feed someone with a simple click. I cannot change the world, but I can change one person’s world.

I know there are lots of other unique, creative ways to give back on a budget – and I would love to hear them, so please feel free to share in the comments!