FAQ

I thought I would put together a list of some F.A.Q. I get asked. I will start out with some recent questions I’ve received and if you have a question you would like me to answer and post here, then click on “Contact” above and ask away!

Also, remember to watch my Videos where I answer some FAQ and show you examples of my binder, how I organize & more!

1-”Where do I find the coupon tabs that are in your binder? Thank you—Debi”

Here is a list of my personal categories that I use in my coupon binder. You may want to tweak them a little bit depending on your needs. You can also see my video HERE showing you my binder.

*Beverages
*Cereals/Breakfast
*Baking
*Boxed Items
*Canned Items
*Sauces/Condiments
*Snacks/Candy
*Dairy
*Meats
*Frozen
*Personal Care
*Baby/Pets
*Cleaning/Medicine

Also, Check out my post here about how to make a coupon binder and lots of readers tips!

2- “Hello I am new to using coupons I am looking at your target deals and it says use coupon from the 9/12 RP or 8/22 SS what do the RP and SS stand for and how do I find those coupons. Thanks so much LOVE YOUR SITE!!!!”

Whenever you see something like RP, P&G, SS, it is talking about the name if the insert from the Sunday paper. So if you buy the paper on Sundays (that’s where you’ll get your coupons, and the Dollar Store has them for $1) they will have inserts in them full of coupons. Every Sunday they will have a RP (Red Plum) and SS (Smart Source) and some Sundays they will have a P&G (Proctor and Gamble). So if a post says “9/12 RP”, it means the insert was from the Sunday paper on 9/12 in Red Plum.

3-” I started doing supercoupoining a few months ago, and am trying to figure out the best way to organize them. If you do a binder how do you find them by date also? Your blog lists them by date like 11/04/10 ss …so how would I find them in a binder system? thank you in advance for any help you may able be able to tell me. Have a great day. -Lina”

I actually use both systems. I use the bag system with the dates written on the front of the bag and organize them that way. Then you need to organize the bags. You can either organize them by the inserts so Red Plum would all go in one bin and Smart Source in another…OR you can organize them by date so like one month worth of coupons goes in one bin. It just depends how you want to do it. If you choose to do it by the insert, you can still find them easily when we use dates on blogs. So if we say 10/24 RP then you just need to go to your “Red Plum Bin” and find the bag labeled 10/24.

Also, with the binder what I do is just put my favorite coupons in it (the ones for items I use or will need to buy or want to buy). Now some people don’t want to deal with all the other coupons in the inserts so they just clip the ones they want and put them in their binder and then when coupon blogs refer to certain dates you wouldn’t go by that, you would just have to look in your category. So for example, if the coupon is for Gum 10/24 RP. You will ignore the date and just look in your “snacks and candy” category to get your coupon. I personally keep all the coupons that’s why I have to use both systems.

4- “Can you please tell me what some of the “coupon jargon” means?”

*P&G-Proctor and Gamble
*SP-Stockpile
*SS-Smart Source coupon insert
*PG-Proctor and Gamble coupon insert
*RP- Red Plum coupon insert
*Peelies-sticker like coupons found on products.
*ECB-Extra Care Bucks (CVS money)
*RR- Register Reward (Walgreens money)
*MQ-Manufacturers Coupon
*OOP-Out of Pocket Expense
*Q or CPN-Coupon
*YMMV-Your Mileage May Vary (A deal may work for someone else, but may not for you.)
*TMF-Try Me Free offer
*FAR-Free After Rebate
*CAT-Catalina coupon (Manufacturer coupons that print out from a machine at the register depending on what you buy.)
*B1G1F, B2G1F-”Buy one get one Free”, “Buy two get one Free”
*TEAR PAD- A pad of refund forms or coupons hanging on a shelf at the store.
*BLINKIE-A machine that spits out coupons.
*UPC-Universal product code (those black straight lines with numbers under them)
*POP-Proof of purchase (like a product label or UPC)
*DCRT-Dated cash register receipt
*GC-Gift Card

5- “When you have a manufactuer coupon and a store coupon should you give the cashier a certain one first?” – Julie

Good question! Yes, you would hand over the manufacturer coupon first and THEN the store coupon.

6- “What is the best way to shop at walgreens the managers have told me you can not use register reward to pay for other items that you would get register reward for. will you can but you dont get the register rewards from that purchase.”-Anonymous

That’s true about the RR at Walgreens and that’s a big reason I like Rite Aid better, because you can roll the register rewards. I would recommend doing separate transactions at Walgreens if you want to get multiple register rewards. Sometimes I will do item A first then item B in the second transaction that also has a RR and then use item A’s RR from the first transaction to pay for it. Then use the reward I get from item B on another transaction buying item A again… (Just keep going back and forth with 2 items) so you can spend the least amount out of pocket, in a way it’s like rolling them. Also, pay at the “cosmetics counter”. The cashier gets a bonus on any beauty products you get there (so it puts them in a better mood) and that way you don’t have a line behind you when you’re doing several transactions.

7- “Do you have a certain schedule you seem to follow to get the best deals? Like do you buy papers and clip on Sundays, shop certain stores on Monday etc.? Also how many papers do you usually buy each week?”

Here is what I do: Saturday night I figure out what stores I’m shopping and what deals I’m going to get which I will be doing in a minute! Since most of the time the coupons you are going to use are from previous weeks, I get them organized and put them together for the next day (Sunday). On Sunday morning I go get my newspapers and if I need to clip any coupons out of them I either do it in my car or go back home and do it. Usually there aren’t that many out of that Sunday’s paper so it’s easy enough to do it in the car. Then I go to my stores…usually Rite Aid first, Walgreens, Smiths, then Albertsons and occasionally Target. Some weeks I just go to Rite Aid, and Walgreens depending on what deals are out there.

When I get home I usually clip and organize my coupons (It’s actually pretty fast and you can watch my video to see how I do it.

I know it sounds like a lot and a long time but I’d say half of my Sunday I spend on my coupons and the other half with my family. Now you may want to get your newspapers Sunday and then go out Monday but where I live, a lot of hot, good deals will be gone if I wait until Monday…Plus, I figure I’m going to be out getting my newspapers anyway so why not get my shopping done.

I get between 5-10 newspapers depending on what coupons are going to be in them and if there are Albertson’s “twice the value” coupons in it or not.

8- “I was watching your video on how to set up the coupon binder and you mentioned that you can send expired coupons to a military base. I am a military wife, does that mean i can use any expired coupon at the Commissary?”

Stateside (within the continental United States) commissaries do not allow the use of expired coupons. Only overseas U.S. military commissaries can legally allow the use of expired coupons. After a coupon has been expired for six months or more, it is useless even at an overseas military commissary.


9- “What is shop at home? Can you explain that please! I am brand new to doing coupons and need all the help I can get Thanks” -Ann

Shop at home is a website that you go to before you shop online. You use their links and it will take you to the website you want to shop at. Then as long as you go through them first, you will get a certain amount of cash back. Each store has a different amount of cash back offered. I hope that makes sense…It’s definitely worth signing up for though because you will get a $5.00 sign up bonus and cash back on any purchases you make online! You can sign up HERE.

10- “I am still not seeing drastic results such as others. My question is how do I get things that we eat and that are on sale for less than 40dollars a week? Thanks in advance -Kelley”

My tip for you would be – stockpile! It does take some time to get your stockpile up but once you have a large stockpile then you can spend your grocery money on staples and things to put meals together. It’s kind of hard to explain but let’s say you want to make lasagna one night and you have a stockpile of tomoato sauce that was on sale a month ago, pasta, and cheese you froze from a sale a month ago (yes, you can freeze cheese). Well now when you go to make the Lasagna, you are only going to need to buy a couple things to put it together (that staples). That’s when you will start noticing your grocery bill go down! Like I said, it does take some time to build a good stockpile but every week there’s new sales which means more and different items to add to it which in return means LESS you have to buy at full price when you go to make your dinner meal.

11- “Can you please explain how you get 2 items for free when you use a B1G1 Free coupon with a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale?”

With B1G1 sales if you use a B1G1 COUPON then you don’t have to pay anything. It’s kind of confusing but basically the free item you are getting with the coupon covers the item you would have paid for. So say there’s a sale on cereal for B1G1 Free…you’re getting 2 cereals and since you have a coupon for a FREE one and the sale is for a FREE one then both end up being FREE.

12- “The Rite-aid circular has coupons with ‘Rite-aid’ printed on them but state manufacture coupon up at the top. Is this a store specific coupon or a manufacture coupon that I can use anywhere?? I see this quite often with Target as well. Sometimes the coupon will state “reedemable at walgreens”? – Irene”

Yes, that can be confusing….the Rite Aid ones can only be used at Rite Aid. The Target ones however, can sometimes be used at other stores. Sometimes it will say on the fine print. If they are in a circular ad, they can only be used at that store. Walgreens will have the same type in their circular ads.

Now as far as the “redeemable at” coupons, it all just depends on where you try to use them….some stores will let you use them and some will not.

13- “I have 4 kidos so a family of 6 here… I need all the help I can get. I watched you videos… Can you give me any other tips to get started? THANKS! Michelle

You will love using coupons, you can seriously save so much money and should never have to pay for toothpaste, body wash, shampoo, razors again….I remember when I first heard that when I was new to using coupons I thought that was crazy, but really it’s true. I would suggest going through the site and reading all the tabs where it says “Coupon 101″. You can actually click on the “coupon 101″ tab and there are a lot of my tips there. I would also recommend clicking on the “FAQ” tab where I’ve answered peoples questions.

BTW- My biggest tip for beginners, is to ease into it and not try to get EVERY deal, choose one day a week you want to go out and shop and make sure you are all prepared before going to the store. For example, figure out your shopping list/what coupons you are going to be using, etc….

14- “What if I cannot afford to buy or put together a coupon binder?”

You do not need a binder to save money…..You can clip your coupons and put them in ziplock bags (I still do this sometimes) and just write the dates on the front from whatever inserts are in it. That way when I post a deal and say 2/27 RP, you know to look in the bag that says 2/27 RP. Pull your coupons out and get an envelope for each store, then place the coupons you will be using for that shopping trip in your specific stores envelope.

15- “This past Sunday, in the paper that was delivered to my home, I had 2 RP and 2 SS inserts. I went to Walmart and purchased a couple more. When I got home and was ready to clip, there were no RP inserts!! So, my question is… Do the newspapers in all the stores not have the same inserts?!”

The papers in YOUR region or area should all have the same inserts (different regions can have slightly different inserts) but in your same city, you should have the same.

Now, with that being said, there have been a couple times when the $1 store doesn’t have any inserts (but most of the time they do). Also, one time I got a stack from the gas station that was behind the counter and the cashier had to actually clip the bundle and it was the strangest thing, half of them had inserts and half didn’t!! That doesn’t happen often at all but when it did happen to me I returned them. I’m not sure why it happens….

16 - “Question.. I’m I allowed to use a buy one get one free Gillette body wash and a 2 dollars off of 1 together?”

Yes (depending on your store, but yes for the most part)…you are using the $2 off coupon on the item you are purchasing. The buy 1 get 1 coupon applies itself to the “free” item.