Sunday morning I drive to Sheetz or Martins and buy 4 newspapers - Times News, Washington Post, The Sun, and The Sunday. Before paying for them I flip through real quick to make sure each has at least one coupon booklet. Coupons are not distributed at holidays! Eventually you may want to consider subscribing to several copies of each newspaper and cutting your cost while having them delivered to your doorstep.
I pull all the coupon booklets from each paper, but only the sales papers from the Times News. Throw away the sales papers from the out-of-town papers because the prices are not the same and will not apply to our local stores.
I clip every single coupon, and it does take time. Luckily when I work weekends, it's typically slow and I get alot done while being paid to sit at my desk. Now there is an alternative to clipping every single coupon... Keep your booklets organized by Company (i.e. Smart Source, P&G Savers, Red Plum) and mark each booklet with the date of that Sunday. There are thousands of websites available now that will tell you exactly which booklet has which coupon to use on which sale item. Both methods work great, but I prefer clipping all my coupons simply because I like to be familiar with what I have. Because I've clipped every coupon, I can look at the sales papers or browse store clearance sections and know what coupons I have to match.
After filing away all the coupons I've clipped from the papers, I grab the sales papers and start browsing. You must have a member card for each store to get the sale prices. It's free and absolutely worth the 60 seconds to fill out a form with your name and address. Rite Aid and CVS will print coupons with certain items to use on your next transaction.
Here is a page from Rite Aid's paper this past week. At the top you can see where I circled Bounce, Downy, and Arm & Hammer are on sale for $4.99. When you purchase one of these products, a $1 +UP reward will print out with your receipt, so "it's like paying" $3.99 for the Bounce, Downy, or Arm & Hammer. Now if you have a coupon for $1 off this Arm & Hammer product, that means you pay $3.99, get $1 +UP, so "it's like paying" $2.99. The next row shows Soft Scrub on sale 2/$5 and you receive a $1 +UP when you buy 2. If you buy 1, you receive the sale price but not the +UP. Now say you had some $1 off coupons for Soft Scrub. Buy two and use a coupon on each making the out of pocket price 2/$3, receive your $1 +UP, and "it's like paying" 2/$2. You must read the small print when items offer a +UP reward. Sometimes the +UPs are limited to 1 or 2 offers per household. This means for each Rite Aid member, only so many +UPs will be rewarded for that sale item. Other times there is no limit mentioned, which means if you buy 10 of an item offering +UPs, you'll receive +UPs for all 10. If there is a limit of 2 +UPs and you still buy 10, you'll receive the sale price on all 10 items but only receive 2 of the +UP rewards.
Next is a page from the CVS paper this past week. At the top, Dove Body Wash is on sale 2/$12. You receive a $4 Extra Buck reward when you buy 2. Again, if you buy 1, you still receive the sale price, but no Extra Buck reward. Beside the Dove are the razors, on sale for $6.99 and offering a $3 Extra Buck reward so "it's like getting it for $3.99." These sales are good, but they'll be even better if you have coupons to go with them! Now below the Dove you will see L'Oreal products on sale. When you purchase at least $25 of these products, you will receive $6 Extra Bucks. Notice there is a limit of 1 per household, so if you purchase $50 worth, you will still only receive one reward of $6. Now here's where it gets good. CVS looks at the total cost before using coupons, so if you buy 5 cleansers for $30 and you have $2 off coupons for each one, you're only paying $20 for the cleansers, but because your total before coupons was $30, you still receive the $6 Extra buck.
Manufacturers issue coupons hoping you'll buy that product that week. But you know better than that! You know to save those coupons until that item goes on sale, which may be that same week, or it may be a month later, but you save a substantial amount of money using your coupons on sale items compared to when the item is not on sale.
So as I'm browsing the sale papers, I make a list for each store of the product and the price that I want to buy. I then go through my coupons and write down how much my coupons deduct from the cost so I know what I'm actually paying for these items. Sometimes the sale paper will only say 50% off, but doesn't mention the price, so you'll have to decide to keep that product on your list or not after you see the price in the store.
With these register rewards you are allowed to use them on your very next transaction, so here's my list from this last Rite Aid trip I made...
Transaction A) 8 Stayfree Maxi 16-24 ct = $20
use 8 $1 coupons - $8
use $10 +UP - $10 (I earned these from the week before)
total paid $2+tax... earn $8 +UP
Transaction B) 6 L'Oreal Vive Pro Hair Care = $15
use 6 $1 coupons - $6
use $8 +UP (from A) - $8
total paid $1+tax... earn $6 +UP
Transaction C) 4 BIC Flex 3 or 4 or Hybrid = $19.96
use 3 $3 cpns & 1 $2 cpn - $11
use $6 +UP (from B) - $ 6
total paid $2.96+tax... earn $4 +UP
Transaction D) 4 Old Spice Fresh Collections Body Wash = $11.96
use 4 BOGO coupons - $ 6.98
use $4 +UP (from C) - $ 4
total paid 98cents... earn $4 +UP
So rather than put everything in 1 transaction and paying a whole lot more out of pocket, I decided to break it up in 4 smaller transactions so I could use the +UPs earned to keep my out of pocket costs down. In the end I paid a little over $9 out of pocket, saved over $102, and walked out with $4 +UPs to spend next time.
Think of the +UPs like a gift certificate. It's money you paid to the store, but if you spend it on items that give you more gift certificates, it stretches your pennies further and further. You can spend the +UPs however you like, but I like to spend them on items that earn me more +UPs so I can keep shopping =)
The +UPs typically expire 2 weeks after you earn them, and you cannot use them if they're going to bring your subtotal below zero. So let's say you have a $5+UP to use. Your subtotal is $3, your tax is $2 (because you're still paying tax on things you get for free) and your total is $5, you cannot use the $5 +UP because your subtotal is only $3. If you want to use the $5+UP you should buy a candy bar or two to bring your subtotal to $5, but then you still have to pay the $2 tax out of pocket.
BOGOF - Buy One Get One Free
BOGO50% - Buy One Get One 50% Off
ECB - Extra Care Bucks CVS rewards
+UP - Rite Aid rewards
WYB - When You Buy (ex - get $6EB wyb $25 L'Oreal)
MM - Money Maker (when your coupons & the store sale bring the cost below zero - you make money!)
SS - Smart Source
RP - Red Plum
PG - Proctor & Gamble
K - Kellogg Insert
GM - General Mills Insert
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