Many of you have asked me about the online coupon sites I occasionally link to on The Happy Housewife. For me, coupons printed from the internet are a great way to increase your weekly savings at the store. I only print and cut the coupons I will use, when I find them online. Many times I end up passing along most of the coupons I receive in the Sunday paper because they are not products we normally buy.
Here are few tips for navigating the online coupon sites.
- Create a “coupon” email address. Some of the sites require you to register before printing coupons. I don’t think this is a big deal, but I have created a secondary email address for these types of websites. It allows me to track the junk mail a bit easier and it doesn’t clog up my inbox with coupons and offers, causing me to miss an important email from family. There are many sites that allow you to set up a free email account, but gmail is my personal favorite.
- Use scratch paper to print your coupons. I use old school papers and junk mail to print my internet coupons.
- If you find a coupon for something you might use in the future, print it now. Many of the online coupons only stay online for a few weeks. The coupons usually don’t expire for a month or two so print the good high value ones in case you find a good deal later on!
- Decide how much time you are willing to spend looking for online coupons. Personally I don’t like to spend hours filling out surveys or clicking through 800 links in order to save a few dollars. I don’t mind registering with my email, but that is about it.
When I link to an online coupon, almost always I will have printed it out myself, so I know exactly what is required to print the coupon. I will not link to an internet coupon that involves a maze of web pages and sign ups, unless it is something I really, really think is worthwhile.
Online coupon resources.
- Manufacturers websites: You can find some high dollar value coupons on manufacturers websites. If I know something is going on sale at the Commissary I will search for the product’s website in hopes there is an online coupon available.
- Coupons.com: This is probably my favorite online coupon source. You can print from the widget in my sidebar that rotates with the most current coupons. Signing up is simple and I don’t get a ton of junk email from them. The coupons are pretty good and it is easy to print only the ones you want. The coupons change every month.
- Cool Savings: I like Cool Savings but I like Coupons.com better. Sometimes I think I have to wade through too much junk to get to what I want. But sometimes it is worth it for some great coupons.
- Afullcup.com: Marcy at Stretching a Buck turned me on to this site. I use this site to search for specific coupons. Every once in a while the coupon I find is a dud, but the majority of the time I am able to find and print out what I am looking for.
- About once a month there are also coupon offers that come out from Better Crocker, General Mills, and Kraft. You can sign up for the newsletter and receive a coupon book. There is a little more junk mail involved with these offers, but if you have a separate email address it helps. Also the coupons are usually high value so it might be worth it.
So I am curious, do you use online coupon sites? Do you feel they are more trouble than they are worth. What are some of your favorite ways to get online coupons?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I used online coupons once. And well, the only reason I am not right now, is because I am out of ink in the printer. LOVED IT! I went in and printed all the ones we would use. I saved about 20 bucks on my grocery bill. My grocery budget is beyond tight. I spend LESS than 300 a MONTH for all 4 of us. It takes those coupons and finagling to get that lol.The more I saved the kids got to pick out something.
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I always print off coupons if it is for a product that I use or want to try.
There are 2 savings blogs that I follow and they link to either Manufacturer coupons or freebies which is always nice.
I am lucky enough to live near a grocery store that doubles coupons on Wednesdays so that is obviously my day to shop! I try to match my coupons to the sales ad too which creates even more savings.
One of my recent trips I ended up spending $45 but saved over $90, that was a great trip in my mind.
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I love using internet coupons but I don’t understand why we have to download a coupon printer? I am always worried that it will have a virus, so I only print coupons when I am in the computer lab at school!
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We also use scratch paper to print. I hate the thought of using fresh new paper for something I’m going to cut up and they’re going to throw away.
Also online, Pillsbury and Box Tops 4 Education often have extra sets of the General Mills coupons to print.
A handy tip for those super great (limit 2) coupons, you can often get a couple extra prints by seeking out grocery stores that have coupons.com printables on their sites. Von’s, I think, and Plumb’s (and many others).
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I use both paper and online coupons….love them and i use them with sale paper some are worth it some are not….
couponbug.com
smartsource.com
valuepak.com
are a few i use….i only do this maybe 2 times a month and print any i think i might use with a months time….
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I use MyPoints.com to get online coupons- it uses coupons.com, but you also get points added to your MyPoints account when you use them! I use the MyPoints to get free giftcards.
My problem is that I can’t print any coupons at work, which is where I do most of my internet browsing, since I can’t download the coupon printer. At home, our printer is in my daughter’s closet, so it’s pretty inconvenient. Plus my computer and printer have a feud going on with each other and my computer shutsdown when I try and print something off the internet- result no internet coupons.
boo! But- when I do get it to work, I love the great savings you can get with internet coupons.
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I would love to use online coupons but can’t we are in a publix dominated area and they refuse to take them, so the local wal-mart, k-mart ect have decided to follow suit and now also refuse to take them
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I like couponmom.com. I mostly use coupons that come in the sunday morning paper. Smartsource.com is pretty cool as well. I have found that you can save money by shopping sales at CVS. I wrote a blog post about it earlier this week.
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I’m an Internet Coupon Junkie, I guess you could say. I will print up most of the Internet coupons I run across. I will only use a small portion of what I prit & clip; however, I will give out large stacks of my unused coupons to friends and family who need them.
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When I first read this I started to leave a comment. But there comes a point when a comment turns into a blog post of it’s own. So, I just blogged about my new love of couponing at my site (along with a short list of sites I’ve registered with).
I started with SouthernSavers.com only a few weeks ago, which lead me to Coupons.com & SmartSource.com. In three weeks, I have saved about $200 & my cupboards are fuller than they’ve ever been.
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I also live couponmom.com–it is so well organized and easy to use!
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If I see a coupon for something I use, I print it out. I go to certain coupon sites like coupons.com mostly.
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I use online and paper coupons. Plus, Kroger family stores have e-coupons you can download to your customer card. These can be combined with paper coupons for additional savings.
http://www.pgesaver.com
http://www.shortcuts.com
You can also download e-coupons from UPromise and the savings will go into your account with them (must have a card linked up, like CVS, Kroger, etc). http://www.upromise.com
My grocery bill has been cut in half since I started using coupons 4+ years ago. I went from $600 a month to $300 a month and we have added 2 children to our family since then.
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Janet,
I’m sorry to hear you can’t use IP coupons at Publix. The ones here in TN accept them so it must be a regional thing. For a while, Kroger would not take them but finally changed that. Ingles here won’t take them and they are a pain about doubling so I just skip that store. I heart Publix, BTW…they are the best store around!
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Very cool blog!!!
Found you through the BlogFrog Community Leaders. I look forward to getting to know everyone better!
~Brenda
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I Google the store/company I’m going to be buying something from right before making the purchase to see if there are any coupon codes available. It works especially well for Walgreens photo coupons and while it can take up to 30 minutes to find, I dig for Blurb.com coupons so I can save money on printing blog books.
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