Coupons, Coupons, Coupons

You either love them or you hate them. I personally am a fan of them and I hope that you will be too. In my eyes they are free, or at least cheap, money and it just takes a bit of my time to get them into my hands.
Coupons are everywhere. The most common place to get them is in your Sunday paper. Smart Source (SS) and Red Plum (RP)are the most common. Proctor & Gamble (P&G) come out about every 2-3 months. I have seen a Unilever pack come out once in the past six months. I have learned that the rule of thumb for newspaper coupons is that you buy one Sunday paper for each person in your home. If you are a family of four then you need four newspapers delivered to you on Sunday. Whichever newspaper you subscribe to will have a deal on additional Sunday only deliveries. Call yours and ask what the current price is and decide if this is what will work for you. I personally only have one newspaper delivered to my home. I take a sharpie and write the date on the front of my pack and then I file it away and not bother with it that day.

Coupons can be found at the stores as well. Companies will have them in front of their product as well as have the register print coupons that they think you would use in a near future purchase.

My favorite way to get my hands on coupons is online. The coupons arrive in mailbox all clipped and ready for me to take to the store. Ebay sells everything, including coupons. I have a link to Ebay as well as a new site Clippity Q. Ebay is great for getting a larger quantity of coupons for a single item. For instance, that is where i got my 20 $1.50 off coupons for Kraft salad dressing. Clippity Q sells her coupons in quantities of five. So if you don't need twenty bottles of salad dressing you can get five. You can purchase as many units of five as you like from her. She does have a minimum $3 purchase on her site. You do need to know which coupon pack your item was sent out in as well as the date, SS-5/3. I talk about this in the earlier Pinching Your Pennies post. She sold on Ebay for a long time and had a very high rating with them.
When you click on a set of coupons to look at on Ebay it will show the seller's screen name and their rating as well as the number of sells they have had. A seller's rating is determined by the feedback given by the purchasers of their product. I always check their rating to insure I am dealing with an honest person. If someone has less than a 100% rating I check to see the number of sales they have. If a person has a 99.4% rating and a couple of thousand sales then I would say they are a good seller. Also check the shipping fee to determine if it is a good deal. I typically only get the coupons that have a buy it now symbol next to the price. This insures I can get what I want and when I need it. The only time I participate in a bidding is if the bid is ending by Tuesday afternoon, then if I have won the bid I quickly get it paid for.
You will need to set up a Pay Pal account to pay for your coupons whether you order from Ebay or Clippity Q. Both Ebay and Pay Pal are tried and true safe sites to give your personal information to. I am banking on the fact that they will stay that way. Pay Pal will take the money from an account of your choice to pay the sellers that you have purchased from.
There is another important factor with ordering your coupons online. You have to purchase them as soon as possible to receive them before the sale ends. I check the pinching your pennies site on Monday nights to find the deals I can't pass up on and get my coupons ordered and paid for. I have always gotten my coupons on time. If by chance the store is out of the product before I get there to purchase it then I get a raincheck and pick up my items on the next trip.

How you get your coupons is a personal preference. For some clipping your own coupons is not something their interested in and some don't want to get online and order. Your way is the right way for you so go forward and save!