For many people using coupons when you grocery shop is an easy way to save money. If you are not couponing yet, now is a great time to get started. Saving money is appealing to everyone, especially when it is on items you would purchase anyway. If you are interested in couponing but aren’t sure where to start there are resources that can help you.

Couponing Terms

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When you first start couponing it seems very overwhelming, at least for me it was. An excellent place to start is learning all the couponing terms.

Doubling­: This is when a store doubles the value of the coupon you are using.

Purchase:­ This is when you are buying an individual item, not a whole order.

Transaction:­ This term refers to the whole order you are buying not just a single item

Rebate­: This is when you fill out a form you will mail in to get money back for the item. Most times the form is from the manufacturer, and once you fill out the form and mail it in (sometimes you need the product code from the item you purchased and the receipt), they will send you a check in the mail for the amount.

Catalina:­ This is when you purchase items, and besides your receipt, you will receive coupons for a later date or a coupon for a certain amount of money or a percentage off of your next purchase, and it may even be on just one particular item at that store.

Inserts:­ The small packets that come inside newspapers are filled with only coupons.

Where to Look For Coupons

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When looking for coupons there are several options, knowing where to look will save you a great deal of time.

Newspapers: The local newspaper, especially the Sunday paper, is a great place to look. Most newspapers have inserts (see term above). The grocery store coupon deals in the supplements come from companies such as Procter & Gamble, Smart Source, and Red Plum. Many people throw these inserts away. A great way to gain more coupons is to ask friends and family who do not use the coupons to save these packets for you.

Mail: Red Plum sends a small packet in the mail; it comes with the grocery store sale ads for the week. In most areas, this is on Tuesday or Wednesday. This is an excellent opportunity to compare store sale ads with the grocery store coupons deals at the same time.

Grocery Store Coupon Apps: Technology makes it so much easier to coupon these days. There are several smartphone apps available to consumers. Most of these apps are simple to use and are free to download and use. Some more popular apps are for places where you already shop. You can also see sale items for multiple stores in the app so you can compare sales and coupons. This helps you to find the best prices on items you buy.

Favado: This is a grocery store coupon app that tells you what is on sale at local stores going to purchase, anyway. My favorite part of this app is that it allows you to create a tab for your favorite items or items you are regularly buying. It is a very accurate app, and the best part is it is free to download and use.

Ibotta: This grocery store coupon app allows you to earn cash back on your purchases. Ibotta sponsors most popular grocery stores and retail stores. How this works is when you buy a product that Ibotta sponsors you will earn cash back to use. The money you made is paid to PayPal and can even be earned by using coupons when you grocery shop. Just for signing up you will receive a $10 bonus. All you have to do to receive this bonus is within your first 30 days you have to redeem ten purchases with over .25 cent rebates. This app is free to download and use. I use this app, and I love it!

Target Cartwheel: This app can be used for grocery store coupon deals, and household products and clothing items. Basically, anything Target carries. It is free to use and to download onto your phone. You will receive new items weekly every Sunday. Once you receive the new items or percentages off in specific departments, you have the option to add which deals you want to your list. Another feature I love about this app is that when you go to the store, there is a tab you can scan a product you are thinking about purchasing. This is helpful because I don’t want to look through the entire list of sale items, I can scan the product, and it tells me if it is on sale or not. This app is simple to use.

Online: This is another way technology makes it easy for you to use coupons when you grocery shop. Coupon websites do most of the work for you, especially the ones that match sales with coupons. Most websites allow you to print off a coupon for an item two times. You need to find the coupon for the item you want to purchase and print it off. An excellent site for this is Coupons.com, they have an extensive database of online coupons, and it is relatively simple to use. Another resource online is to sign up for store emails, by signing up you will not only receive the sale ads, but it will bring coupons straight to your Inbox.

Grocery Stores: Some places to look for these coupon deals are at the entrance of the store,  near the entrance there may be a stand setup you can tear off coupons.

Another place to look in the store is in the aisles. There are small devices that dispense specific coupons near the products that they are used for. Also, at my local Walmart on certain days of the week, they have a person who represents a particular brand or product. This person allows the customers to sample the product and they hand out coupons for this product.

Helpful Tips

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A few more tips to make sure you are successful at using coupons when you grocery shop is to only use coupons for products you need. If you are using coupons just to use them, then you will not be saving any money. Staying organized is vital to being successful. You can use a binder, or in my case, I use a small envelope to keep track of my coupons. Something else to keep an eye on is the expiration dates on the coupons. Lastly, it is helpful if you learn your stores’ policies on using coupons when you grocery shop. Every store has different rules and procedures for how coupons are applied.

There are so many ways to save money on products; you need to figure out which one works best for you. By adding a few small additions to your grocery routine, you can save money with little effort and maximize your rewards. Couponing, like anything, takes time, take it slow, and over time you will see considerable savings just as I have.