Most of us receive more than our fair share of junk mail, right? Don't include those packets of manufacturer grocery coupons in the discard pile! Aside from your mailbox, there are a few other places you'll find these manufacturer coupons for food savings. If you subscribe to your local daily newspaper, watch for the grocery sale fliers, usually inserted in the Tuesday or Wednesday editions. If you don't subscribe to a newspaper, it's worth buying that edition that contains the sales fliers. Another resource for grocery coupons is your supermarket. Food companies are all vying with their competition for their fair share of the market, so they put their coupons right where their product is found in the grocery aisle, dispensed from brightly-colored plastic cases that stick out from the shelf adjacent to the product. You can take as many as you like. Yet another resource for these money-saving goodies may be found in groceries that have coupon exchange bins. It works like this: you buy a lot of soups, while another shopper prefers to make her own soups, but enjoys a variety of jams and jellies. She puts in her canned soup coupons, which you're free to take. You seldom buy jams and jellies, contributing those manufacturer grocery coupons to the coupon exchange bin. It's a win-win for everyone! Now, let's take a look at how to make the best use of these budget helpers.
When the economy was a bit more robust, we tended to regard coupons as more trouble than they were worth. Today, manufacturer grocery coupons are well worth taking a few minutes to sort through. It's just like getting cash in your mailbox. Now that's an incentive! Let's go through the process of quickly and effectively putting a little more cash in your wallet and realizing a significantly lower bill at the checkout. The trick to the biggest savings involves just a few simple 'rules'.
1. Don't be tempted to buy a product you seldom use just because you've got a coupon. For example, you may spot a coupon for breakfast cereal which may be redeemed for at the check stand. If you don't normally eat breakfast cereal (although you may think you should), chances are good it will go stale before you consume it. No savings there.
2. You've got a few manufacturer grocery coupons for a national brand can of peaches. You love peaches. The catch here? The price of these peaches, after using the coupon, is more than the regular price of the store brand you always buy. Here, you're actually spending more!
3. Here's another trick frequently used by some supermarket chains: they'll print manufacturer grocery coupons and include them in their weekly sales page, with a minor addition which goes something like this: 'this coupon only redeemable at XYZ (their) store'. Don't fall for this one. It simply isn't true. A manufacturer grocery coupon is issued by the manufacturer and may be redeemed at any store which sells their product. This bit of trickery is usually used because the particular store's regular retail price is substantially more than their competitor's price, which effectively devalues your savings.
4. Most manufacturer grocery coupons have an expiration date that's a few months down the road. Let's say you use butter only when you can afford it. You may find one of those dispensers with a coupon for 75 cents off each pound. You can freeze butter, so get several coupons you can use over time. Butter is one of those items that always seems to go up during the winter months, so this strategy can really help you trim that budget. Coffee is another such product.
5. Keep your manufacturer grocery coupons organized in a section of your wallet or coupon saver wallet, using a 'tickler' strategy. This way, you'll have those coupons set to expire soon at the front, so you won't miss those valuable savings.
Armed with these tips and your manufacturer grocery coupons, you'll find that you'll save a lot of money on every shopping trip! Now that's welcome news!
