Where Does She Get Those Marvelous Toys?

Lately I have been sorting coupons on the train to and from work.  Its actually a nice relaxing exercise but, almost always, someone asks me about couponing.  Among the questions asked are often “Are you one of  THOSE people?”  “How do you keep track of all of it?”  “Where do you get them all?” and  “Does it really work?”

I have been doing this a bit less time than other people but I will try to answer each question with a post on this blog.  The first one I want to address with you is. “Where do you get all those coupons!?!?!”

I have two main sources for my coupons, the Internet and publications.  In addition, I occasionally trade coupons with a friend from my office.

(1) Publications.

Sunday Paper.  By far the best publication to get coupons is the insert in your Sunday news paper.  Now most areas are served by more than one paper and not all papers serving your area will have the same insert.  For example, my area is served by both the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune.  Often these paper’s get different inserts and sometimes the same inserts have different coupons.  In the past few weeks I have been buying both to be sure I get the full variety of coupons.

Magazines. Second to the Sunday paper are magazines.  Many magazines sport the occasional coupon but the best magazine for coupons I have found so far, is called “All You” which is sold in most Wal-Mart stores and has a website (HERE). 

(2) Internet.

The Internet seems to have overtaken paper publications as the best place to find coupons.  Coupons can be found on the web in virtually every corner (get it…”virtually”  I said there would humor folks…didn’t say it would be good humor). 

Independent sites.  There are third party sites like the one for All You Magazine which offer online coupons.  One of the best I have found is Coupons.com (HERE). 

Store sites. Store who offer coupons often post them on their websites.  Many stores, like Jewel (HERE) and Dominick’s (HERE) offer specific coupons with their rewards cards.  Other stores, like Target (HERE), simply offer their coupons to everyone.

Manufacturer Sites. Many manufacturers also post coupons directly on their sites. Sometimes these coupons are of higher value than the ones in the Sunday paper insert.  Here are a few manufacturers who post coupons on their websites:

Tyson  

Bayer Aspirin

Brita Filters

Woolite

Colgate

This Site.  There are other sites and facebook pages which talk about coupons.  Often items are spammed throughout the day.  Unfortunately, the demands of my “day job” won’t let me participate that actively.  BUT I will be making a daily and /or weekly post with coupons I find about the Internet so you can catch these offers too. A few I found in my travels today are:

Jello

Viva

Well those are currently my main streams of  coupons.  I note that there are sites out there that will sell you coupons (called “cutting services”) and I am honestly not sure how I feel about it.  For now I will just stick with the above.  Please chime in below if you know of a good source for coupons.

Happy shopping!
-K