Let's face it, that unemployment check doesn't cover much so stretching every dollar to its limit is huge. Plan to clip 6-10 coupon inserts a week. If you don't want to or cannot buy that many papers, ask your friends or neighbors to save their inserts for you. You can also get the inserts by stopping by a coffee shop or other place where people are reading the Sunday paper. Usually, the inserts get tossed in a recycle basket and the store won't mind if you take them -- just ask.
Internet coupons are another way to save big money. The companies that issue them usually limit the number you can print, so use them to supplement the ones you've clipped from the paper. You can also find online grocery coupons that are not in the paper, so always check.
Clipping multiple inserts is easy once you know how.
1. Sort the inserts into stacks so each stack has only one kind of insert.
2. Separate the pages in each stack so they are all facing the same way.
3. Cut the coupons from the stacks so you end up with 10 coupons each for the same item.
What the heck do you need that many coupons for?! Let's take a look.
Some grocery stores offer to double the value of coupons every so often. These "doublers" will be in the store ad in the Wednesday or Sunday paper, and you can also find them in the store. When doublers come out, it's time to go shopping!
First, get the store ad and your coupon book. As you're going through the store ad, check for coupons for any of the products that are on sale. Doublers are typically good for up to a $1 meaning that if you use a manufacturer's coupon valued at a $1 with a doubler, you will get $2 off that item.
Let's look at an example: You have doublers and also manufacturer's coupons for $1 off salad dressing. The salad dressing is on sale for $1.99. Can you guess what comes next? Free groceries! If you have six coupons for the salad dressing (from clipping multiple coupon inserts weekly) and use six doublers with those, you will end up with six free bottles of salad dressing. Yay!
This is also called stacking coupons which simply means that if you have a store coupon you can use it with a manufacturer's coupon on the same item. When you have built up a coupon stash by clipping multiple papers every week, you then wait for a sale. When you stack a sale, with a store in-ad coupon, with a manufacturer's coupon, you're saving some big bucks!
And buying multiple items, as in the salad dressing example above, means that when you run out of something, you don't have to run to the store to buy it at full price. Now that's smart savings! During anytime of unemployment, cover yourself by having a stockpile of food, personal and household items by using coupons.
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