What Do I Make My Binder Out Of?

This size and construction of your binder depends solely on how many coupons you want to have with you when you shop. I routinely carry about 400 different ones. I find that the binder method works well for me even at that level.

People have been known to use baseball card pages in their binders – but others find these sections too small. I prefer the long thin binders used to hold photos. Cheap photo albums can be found at the dollar store. They have them from tiny picture sized ones (one picture a page) all the way up to full paged sized ones (three to six pictures a page). Again, the size you choose will depend on the number of coupons you want to carry.

How do I group the coupons?

By using tabs found in your office supply store you can easily make sections in any configuration you find useful. Baking goods, canned goods, pet items, children’s items, etc. are common categories. Tabbed sections let you quickly and easily flip to the section containing your desired coupon. After all, you can’t use it if you can’t find it!

Note – I have a section called “Use First” where I put the coupons I want to use the next time I shop regardless of the sales. These are usually store incentive coupons (like “X free with any 10$ purchase”) and free item or BOGO coupons. Any high priority coupon can be put there, as well as really good coupons waiting for the next sale!

Compile Your Binder:

1) Get the binder. If your binder does not give you the option to add additional pages later make sure it is big enough to last you for quite a while.

2) Get sticky tabs from an office supply store.

3) Put several pages in each section aligning the tabs next to each other down the side.

4) Put coupons in the slots in one of several ways: Alphabetically, by expiration date, or just randomly. Random insertion works well only to a certain point at which time an attempt to alphabetize or otherwise order them would be helpful!

5) Take your coupon binder with you to the store even if you think you won’t need it! If you see an unadvertised sale you won’t kick yourself knowing you had coupons for that item sitting at home!

There are two basic types of coupons we will concern ourselves with right now – store coupons and manufacturers coupons.

Store Coupons – These can come out weekly or monthly and are usuable only in a specific grocery store chain. Some have pages that you redeem during specific weeks only to keep you coming back several weeks in a row to do your shopping. They are a type of “loyalty” coupon designed to get you in the habit of shopping at their store – getting you used to their layout – and familiarizing you with their in store features. Nothing says you can’t shop at more than one store – or all of them – each week! So keep those coupons!

Manufacturers Coupons – These are good on specific products and can be used anywhere the item is sold – provided they accept coupons! If my dollar store took coupons I could clean up, but alas, they don’t! The coupon will list the particular item, or type of item it is valid on. Be sure to read the details very carefully. if it says only valid on cherry flavor Fruity Ding Dongs don’t bring strawberry to the register or you will be disappointed!

WHERE DO I FIND COUPONS?

You know how when you get pregnant all you see are pregnant women? Or once you decide on the perfect model of new car you see everyone with the same one? Coupons work the same way! Once you start thinking about coupons you will start to see them everywhere!

Store coupons can be found in the sale inserts found in the grocery store or delivered with your Sunday newspaper.

Several of the places you can find manufacturers coupons are:

- In womens magazines

- In the mail

- In or on the boxes or packaging of products you already use

- By emailing manufactures and asking for them

- By signing up for manufacturers newsletters

- By printing them online

- By trading with friends

- By joining a coupon train

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE COUPONS ONCE I HAVE THEM?

File Folder or Binder – If you want to start easy you can simply take two file folders, one for store sale flyers and one for Sunday Paper inserts, and file them away as they arrive. Look them over and circle any interesting items making a note of when the sale ends. Tuck in a pair of scissors and clip when you use them! Equally nice is doing the same thing but slipping the pages into page protecters and inserting them in a binder. The only drawback is that the pages of sale flyers are not always a good shape for the pages, but they can be trimmed of excess items you are not interested in and made to fit! Just take your binder with you when you go to shop!

The Recipe Card Box – A tried and true method! Using dividers that categorize your coupons you can easily slip in your clipped favorites behind easily managable sections for instant retrieval. Once you go shopping it is as easy as flipping to the correct tab and finding the coupon you desire. The only drawback is that once you get a bit advanced you may need too many categories or desire a bit more detailed segregation than the box system can provide – but it is a great way to begin! This is where most people like to start.

Easy to Elaborate Binder Method – I have seen garantuan systems that use base ball card pages to hold multiples of each coupon. When filled with 9 coupons per page/per side they they make finding the correct coupons a breeze and enable you to power shop with the best of them! The only drawbacks are the time involved (this one is better left for level three!) and the more detailed system is not as easy to use (again, better left to the level three people!) and they are expensive (like $20+!). Considering I can have up to 400 coupons on hand to use at any given time I would need a binder with at least 25-30 pages to start!

A final word - Start at at a level that you feel comfortable with. Don’t get all excited and set up a system that is so complicated that you are doomed to failure. You can expand your system as time allows. the important thing is to START!

First the time it takes. I take about an hour each Sunday afternoon to go through he Sunday paper and cut out the coupons I want (and those I want to trade), sort them, slip them into the coupon binder and remove the expired ones.

I also send a few minutes throughout the week here and there finding and printing online printables, cutting coupons off food boxes or from things I get in the mail. I usually don’t cut the printables out as I print them. I slip them into a pocket in my binder and cut when I’m making my list for the week.

I spend about an hour, maybe a little more making my shopping list. The more coupons you have and the more stores you’re looking to shop the more time it will take. I’m going to focus on the grocery stores for this post to simplify things.

To begin I gather everything I’ll need. I like the computer a lot but for lists I like to use real paper and a pen. So I gather paper, pen, calculator, the sales fliers of the stores I may visit and the binder.

The first thing I do is go through the store’s sales fliers and write down what I feel are the best sales for me. I divide this list by store and leave room to the side of each item. When writing the sales I make sure to note the brand, the size and quantity, the variety included in the sale and the price after the sale is applied. If there is a BOGO sale I’ll write the before and after price.

Ingles
Post kid’s cereal 10-14 oz 2/$4 = $2.00 each
Haas Avocados – 2/$3 = $1.50 each
3lb bag Green Giant rose potatoes – $1.98 each

I do this for each store.

I keep in mind the coupons I know I have and if I see one of those things on sale I definitely write that one down. If two stores have the same item on sale I choose whichever is the best deal. This could be the closet store or the one that doubles coupons.

With this list and the coupons I know I have in mind. I check the pantry and the fridge to see what i have in stock and what I might need more of and plan a menu. After I’ve decide which meals to make for the week I write any extra ingredients at the bottom of my grocery sales list so I’ll remember to look for coupons for them too.

Now is the time to go through the coupons and find those that match the sales. This is where I’m really glad I switched to the binder method. It’s so much easier for me to see what I have and go through it.

The first page in my binder is ‘Soup’. I have a coupon for 50 cents off 2 Campbell’s Select Harvest soups. Ingles has them on sale for $1.22 each and they’ll double that coupon so it will be $1.00 off 2. I write this beside the item on my grocery sales list.

Ingles
Campbell’s Select Harvest Soup – BOGO – $1.22 each – 50/2 coupon (doubled) = $1.44 for 2 X3

I have three of these coupons so the X3 at the end of the line reminds me to take advantage of this deal 3 times.

Now I circle this deal on my grocery sales list so I’ll know I’ve already checked it. I slide those 3 coupons into the ‘This Trip” sheet protector. If I don’t find a coupon to go with the sale or the deal isn’t good enough and I want to save the coupon for another time I mark through that item on the grocery sales list. I also mark through if another store has a better deal. Now I just repeat that until I’ve gone through the list and stack of coupons. Keeping the grocery fliers close in case I need to check the details of a certain sale item.

When my grocery deals list and my coupons are all matched up I write out a grocery list (wow I do make lots of lists) I divide it by store as well and try to write it in order by the store’s layout, produce, deli, bakery, etc. Once that’s done I can head to the store!

Stores, and I’m going to focus on grocery stores from here out to simplify things, have sales to get you in the door. They figure they can absorb a little loss on a few products if it gets you in the door where they can entice you to buy more things.

I feel I should mention that the store isn’t doing you any favors by accepting coupons. The store is reimbursed the full face value of the coupon by the manufacturer plus 8 cents more. It’s all right there on your coupons if you want to read the fine print. And while 8 cents doesn’t sound like a lot think about how many coupons that store takes in every week. If your store doubles or triples coupons they’re usually taking a loss but if it gets you in the door or keeps you loyal they figure it’s worth it.

Some sales are great for the shopper, especially if you go in and buy just the things on sale. It’s perfectly OK to do that, by the way. But stores use a lot of tricky pricing games and even organize the store to try to get you to spend more.

First let’s talk about the layout of the store. Items you need are often at the back. You have to walk past aisles of prepackaged high priced snack foods to get to the milk for instance. You can combat this by sticking to the outer ring of the store, produce, meat, bakery, dairy are usually along the edges.

Grocery stores often place higher priced items on the end caps. Those are the ends of the aisles. For instance the name brand boxed oatmeal may be on the end cap but it you take the time to go down the aisle you’ll see the store brand is cheaper. The store counts on you either grabbing it as you go by the end cap and not going down the aisle at all or ignoring the other options down the aisle because you’ve already got your oatmeal in the cart, why look for more?

Stores also put items that appeal to kids on lower shelves where they can easily been seen by children and they can talk you into getting it. Higher priced items are on your eye level with the lower priced versions being on the shelves above and below. Often they also mix store brand in with name brand. You may see the cheaper store brand price but accidentally grab the name brand item. Also items that are on sale are mixed in with items that are full price, this is especially tricky if only certain “selected varieties” of one type of product are on sale. You might grab the green box of jiggle blobs when only the red boxes are on sale. The store is counting on you being too rushed or too embarrassed to ask that the item be removed for your order and replaced with the version that was on sale.

Ever notice that the store smells wonderful? Stores often have bread baking or popcorn popping. Anything that smells good and makes you hungry will make you buy more food. Ever notice the store’s music selection? It’s usually slow paced, not because more people enjoy that type of music but because it causes you to subconsciously slow your pace. The slower you’re walking the more time you have to notice the great products they have for sale! This is also why stores don’t have windows. It’s not a space saving or security feature, it so you’ll lose track of how long you’ve been in the store.

Impulse items, “things you didn’t know you needed”, are at the register or near the front door. At the register you’re tired and rushed and ready to be done with shopping so you’ll by anything that looks interesting or might perk you up. Candy bar and a soda anyone? Items at the front door are designed to catch you as you walk in. You figuratively have all your cash in hand so you feel you can afford a little splurge you hadn’t planned on.

Another trick stores use is a limited time sale. Sometimes they use the wording “2 days only” or “3 days only” Sometimes it’s “Hurry in! Sale prices are good only for a limited time!” or “Limited quantities!”
The point with these types of sale is to encourage you to make an impulse buy without taking the time to think it through as you would before making a normal purchase. By using these wordings they are creating a sense of urgency, “Buy it now!) But remember to pause, decide if the ‘deal’ is really a deal, check the competition’s prices and look for coupons to combine with the sale for a truly good deal!

The problem with fighting these tactics is that they take advantage of human nature. We don’t even realize we’re being tricked. It seems like our idea but it’s designed to make us feel that way.

The best way to avoid these tricks is to make a list and stick to it! Yes you may find some produce that’s being marked down that you hadn’t expected or some meat that will expire tomorrow if it’s not frozen and has been marked down and there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of those deals, just be mindful of the impulse buys and take the time to go down the aisle to find what you need and make sure you’re getting the best value for your cash. If you always fall into the soda and a candy bar trap at the register, hit up the store water fountain (if they offer a bathroom, they’ll have one) before you hit the registers. Sometimes just being thirsty can make you feel hungry.

Ever notice those cute little child sized carts? The store knows if the child is pushing a cart around they’re bound to put some items in and when they do you’ll be to distracted to notice until you’re at the register or you’ll think it’s cute that they’ve done their shopping and buy the items they’ve selected. Those cute mascots, balloons, coloring pages, free cookie samples and cute race car carts are all designed to make your kids want to come to the store with you and, once there, talk you into buying things, and keep them happy while you’re there. If the kids are fussing, you’ll leave early or be too distracted to fall for all the carefully arranged traps. Another plus of these kid friendly items is if a child has always been to X store and has happy memories of going there as a child they’re more likely to return there when their grown and spend their money. “Get ‘em while they’re young” build store loyalty early and it will last.

Now let’s talk about those tricky sales. The sales listed on the front page of the grocery store sale fliers are called ‘Loss Leaders’. The grocery store is taking a loss on these items to get you in the door. As I said before, once you’re in they figure your theirs and you’ll leave with lots more items than those listed on the sales page.

Sale prices are often written in a way to make them harder to understand as well. Everyone knows that 2 for $5 means that each one is $2.50 but what about 3 for $5 or 5 for $8? Grocery stores count on you not carrying a calculator and not knowing exactly how much you’re spending. The easy way to combat this is to in fact carry a calculator with you, your cell phone probably has one, or make a list of common sale price combos to keep in your wallet or coupon file.

Another method they use is the 10 for $10 or 5 for $5 sales. You might be thinking “That’s easy math! They’re a dollar each!” But the store is counting on your buying multiples. Because it’s 10 for $10 you might feel you need to actually buy all 10 even if you only need 2. Resist the urge to buy multiples (unless you actually need them or have a wicked coupon deal)

Stores also use buy one get one free sales in this same way. At most stores BOGO items ring up at half price. So if the sale is Buy one box of cereal for $3.00 and get one free and you only buy one you’re actually getting it for $1.50. You don’t have to buy two just because the sale is worded that way. Some stores have their registers set up to ring the first item at full price and the second one as free, so you’ll need to check your stores policies to find out. Check their website, sometimes the actual sales paper will say “Item rings at half price”. Also if you take advantage of a BOGO sale and decide to get both items you can use two coupons because technically you’re still buying two items.

Did you know that four for a dollar is cheaper than 25 cents each? I used to work in retail, setting prices and sales and once I did an experiment. Completely non scientific of course but I had some little Christmas tree ornaments. I priced them at 25 cents each and made a sign. After a week I’d sold just a few. I changed the sale sign to say “Four for One dollar” and they sold much better! Even though $1.99 is just a penny cheaper than $2.00 we’ve been trained to see it as a much better deal. Be mindful of that.

Going back to those sales fliers, have you ever noticed that sometimes the sale price isn’t listed? Sometimes it says “Without card item rings at regular retail” or “50% off” but they never tell you what regular retail is or 50% off of what. You have to go into the store to find out. It makes it harder to comparison shop between stores and once again gets you in the door and in their web. This is where have a price book comes in handy.

I hope you can be mindful or these tricks and get out of the store with the items you need and some money left over.

Moms prefer channels old and new
Most Moms are currently getting restaurant and grocery coupons through newspapers (67 percent), in the mail (62 percent) and through email (48 percent).  However, a considerable number of Moms would also prefer to get more coupons directly at restaurants and grocery stores or through their websites than they are currently. There is also a high interest to receive coupons through reward programs – even more so for grocery stores than for restaurants.

We’ve found that Moms are happy to tell us how to help them, and marketers who take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to moms through these additional channels can definitely get a leg up on the competition.

Interestingly, the majority of Moms are not interested in receiving restaurant and grocery coupons through social networking sites or on their mobile phones.  Only a small percentage of Moms were interested in these channels (15-27 percent), telling us that despite Moms’ use of newer technology, they’re not yet ready to be overwhelmed with offers through these newer tools.  However, just as with the growth of email as a marketing channel, it’s just a matter of time.

For more information on Moms’ dining out and dining in trends, download the full report here.

Currently only a third of Moms (35%) dine out once a week or more, while 22% dine out less than once a month. Additionally, 59% of Moms say they will order less food for delivery this year, and 51% say they will order less carryout food.

Moms will be cooking at home more often

Compared to last year, 63% of Moms are planning to make easy-to-prepare meals at home more often this year. Currently 84% of Moms make easy-to-prepare meals at least once a week, and 80% are using leftovers at least once a week, with 57% planning to use leftovers more often this year.

Nutrition and health are less of a concern to Moms when eating out

Currently 45% of Moms order healthier food at restaurants less than once a month, and only 38% plan to order healthier food when dining out this year.

While Restaurants & Institutions’ 2010 New American Diner Study showed that consumers would like to see calories (60%), sodium (45%) and sugar (43%) contents listed on menu boards, we found that these aren’t necessarily Moms’ strongest priorities when dining out. Our survey shows two-thirds of Moms would be happy ordering more vegetables or fruit, lean meat or just generally healthier ingredients when they do consider healthier dining at restaurants.

Moms demand restaurants that are kid-friendly

We found that Moms not only want restaurants where their kids enjoy the overall experience (78%) and that offer a kid-friendly atmosphere (65%), but 41% would also like kids’ entertainment at restaurants. However, Moms’ biggest desire is for a restaurant to offer items they know their kids will eat (87%).

Moms continue to be value conscious

Discounts and perceived value will be even more important this year when Moms dine out. In fact, 63% plan to order from a value menu more often this year, 62% plan to buy discount, value or cheaper items more often, 57% plan to use coupons more often and 54% plan to buy combo meals more often.

In terms of grocery shopping, Moms will be trying to save even more this year

The majority of Moms (77%) plan to use coupons even more often this year. Other cost saving options include shopping for special deals (72%) and stocking up on low-priced items (66%). Close to half of Moms will buy things only when on sale (46%), and 44% of Moms even say they will shop at less expensive grocery stores.

Moms want coupons from a variety of sources

Most Moms currently receive their restaurant and grocery coupons in newspapers (67%) or the mail (62%), and close to half receive them via email (48%). While these are indeed still ways Moms would like to receive coupons, a considerable number would also prefer to get coupons directly at restaurants (73%) and grocery stores (76%) or through their websites (56%).

Download the survey results by clicking here.

For more information on Moms’ dining out and dining in trends, see the full report.

Survey Methodology

The online survey was conducted May 13-18, 2010, among U.S. Moms who were more than 18 years of age, with at least two children living in the household.  Results are based on 585 responses, with a margin of error of 5%, at a 95% confidence level.

A recent study of 3,000 American Moms by BSM Media found that 60 percent of Moms surveyed used coupons for the first time in the last year. And 80 percent said that it took a coupon to motivate them to try a new brand.

Maria Bailey, CEO of BSM Media and author of Marketing to Moms said, “The Mom Frugalista is here to stay, and it’s time for retailers and brand managers to win her loyalty.”

Bailey believes understanding the why of the trend is more important than the how to connect with Moms.

Moms desire to share news about a lot of things but especially a great deal. It helps develop relationships with other Moms. It demonstrates her shopping prowess. Evaluating her status among her peers.

So figure out how your brand needs to communicate value with Moms. Engage influencers that blog, tweet or use social networks to talk about your category with other Moms. Start a dialogue with Moms to help foster a relationship with your brand. Monitor social media to review online conversations about your brand. Then fashion offers to meet the needs of your potential customers.

Although Australia is not as big into coupons as the US, we are slowly moving towards a similar model with multiple coupon sites going live.

These sites offer the user the chance to search for promotions and specials via their postcode, providing highly relevant and highly targeted coupons for local shops and major retail chains.

Online store coupons – What are the benefits?

I am not really a coupon kind of guy myself; the mere idea of searching for discounts before I go to dinner seems a tad on the cheap side. However, I am learning to put my pride aside for a moment and teaching myself to have a little look at what is available.

In fact, doing this has not only been an interesting learning curve, I have actually found some great bargains for places I visit all the time – no lifestyle change necessary!

Benefits of online coupons include;

• Plenty of places to eat, generous discounts
• Everyday retail chains we use are on these sites (Bing Lee, Harvey Norman, Blockbuster)
• The savings that can be made are substantial

How do you start looking for online coupons?

Pretty easy really, I found a number of websites that listed the dockets/coupons via searching for my local postcode.

The best coupon site I have found to date is Hot Dockets, the online leg of Shop-A-Docket – remember those dockets on the back of Coles and Woolies tickets? Yep that’s them.

The website lets you search via postcode and easily print the dockets off after you select the ones you want.

Online coupon ideas

After looking around, here are some of the good ideas I found for using these online coupons to save money on everyday things;

1. Ordering a pizza? Grab a discount.
2. Hiring a movie? Print a docket for BlockBuster.
3. Having dinner somewhere? Check for discounts. In my area I found buy 1 get 1 free deals for Indian, Thai, Chinese and more.
4. Bored? Go bowling. Lots of discounts available.
5. There are so many more options. Just have a search yourself.

Source: http://www.savingsguide.com.au/using-online-coupons-to-save-money/

Triple dipping might require a little more effort, but is certainly worth the benefits.  Here are two examples of how I’ve gotten three times the bang for my buck:

Coupon + Cash Back + Miles: I subscribe to J.Crew emails, and a while back I got a coupon code for 20% off one item (Incidentally, there’s a sale going on at jcrew.com right now, and the coupon code EXTRA20 will give you an extra 20% off sale items until this Saturday, July 10th), which I chose to use on an item that I had been meaning to buy.  I made sure to use my Discover card on that purchase, since it was giving me a 5% cash back bonus for purchases at clothing stores during that quarter.  Finally, I also checked my frequent flier options.  Instead of visiting  jcrew.com directly, I accessed it and placed my order through the AAdvantage eShopping program, which gave me 3 American Airlines miles per dollar I spent on that purchase (minus taxes)!

The triple dipping results: An item on sale for $100, bought for $80, giving me another $4 in cash back and 240 miles.

Store Card + Miles + Upromise cash: Two weeks ago I bought a $260 netbook for my mother at Best Buy.  I already had the Best Buy Reward Zone card, which gives $5 in store credit for every $250 spent (a 2% rate), but I made my purchase through Upromise rather than by going directly to bestbuy.com, earning another 2% plus a $10 incentive (Upromise sends emails with extra offers if you don’t use it for a while).  And of course, I used my Citi/American Airlines card so I would get miles as well (a better deal than Discover when outside the bonus period).

The triple dipping results: A $260 purchase, for which I got $5 in store credit at Best Buy and $15 on Upromise as well as 260 miles.

Admittedly, the extras I got for triple dipping were relatively small compared to the price of the purchases, but they made it a much better deal than spending $100 at J.Crew or $260 at Best Buy and not getting any breaks for that.  And all I needed was a little creativity to consider my options among the available offers.

Have you had a great double/ triple (/quadruple?) dipping experience? Please share it in the comments section!

Caution!

As the economy continues to struggle the use of coupons grows.  People who never or seldom used coupons are now clipping and saving at a furious rate.  My concern here is that coupon usage is, as Martha Stewart would say, “a good thing” on the other hand overuse quickly becomes an obsession.  Saving money  on those items you need for daily life is a good thing; making coupon usage a competitive sport is not so good.

I believe somewhere in the middle is the right touch.  We should plan our needs (read meals), then pick those coupons that assist us in feeding our families good and balanced meals.  Just because the manufacturer of peanut butter puts out a coupon doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right time to purchase a case.  This is not say that buying a few extra isn’t a good idea it is just that most of us will get into a buying frenzy and spend more than we should on peanut butter and not have money left for more important items like meat, fish and vegetables.  I see way too many shopping carts in the checkout line with large quantities of coupon items, mac and cheese boxes, taco “kits” but no meat to go with them.  My fear is that their families are getting the same meals over and over and not more balanced meals that would come from a more planned approach.  There is absolutely everything right with saving money where you can, but one should balance the savings with a smidgen of common sense.  Sorry, no coupon available for that.

For added insight see our posts Grocery Shopping – Inattention Can Cost You Big and Are You Tough Enough to Win the Coupon Wars?.

What was interesting about our shopping venture was comparing prices between here and the UK. We discovered that film processing is a lot cheaper in the UK. My cousin said he gets prints from his digital camera for about 5 cents each. And DVDs are more expensive here. However, when it comes to make-up US prices can’t be beat. Maybelline mascara costs 8 pounds which is about $11 and here it’s around $5.99. My cousin’s daughter is a big Nintendo DS fan. She saw the new version was already released here and got $50 off the price by trading in her old one. And it worked out about $30 cheaper than in the UK and the games are cheaper here too. One thing my cousin finds interesting is how many coupons I use. Seems coupons aren’t that abundant in the UK and even when they are people are reluctant to use them.

As you know I’m always checking the Internet for money saving articles and here’s a link to a great one I saw today on Yahoo, Great Everyday Products http://tinyurl.com/de5lsk

Coming up this week on Budget Smart Girl…for Earth Day how living green can save you green and how stocking your pantry can shave dollars off your food bill.

Have a good week.

There seems to be a lot of hubbub over this one, which The Consumerist has covered pretty well. Since since issues with redeeming the coupons seem to be ironing out, I thought it would be safe to try to redeem the coupons both me and the boyfriend received. We got a reminder email from Quiznos last night to print the coupons. We did, and decided to find a location to visit today.

We found a location, although the nearest was 15 miles away. But it was a sort of lame adventure.. what else would we do on a random Saturday? We piled in the car and drove to it. Once inside though, it was a small nightmare. We were told our coupons were no good, they wouldn’t accept them, but then when I tried to find a corporate phone number to find they decided to “try to run the numbers through.” We stood there for a good half an hour while multiple employees told us different things and took info off of our IDs. In the end, though, the coupons were denied and we were told they were fake and no good. Surprising since we had printed the coupons directly from the Quiznos email the night before.

In the end all was not lost – we were so hungry by that point that we went to the Mexican place next door and had the best lobster chimichangas possible. Still, we were bummed, considering we thought we would try something new. And standing in that store for a half an hour smelling the food and then being denied was a whole ball of fun, lemme tell you.

I’m not totally ripping Qiznos a new one yet. I know that there has been a lot of miscommunication on this one between the store locations and corporate. I have emailed millionsubs@quiznos.com with the complaint. I’ll let you know how this turns out.

And as an update to this post concerning my trouble with enrolling in free prescription programs – the issue has seemed to resolve itself. One day GlaxoSmithKline just started randomly sending me bottles of my medication – granted, it’s what the prescription was for, so I won’t complain. AstraZeneca was actually a pretty good sport – after the 3rd phone call where they had “not received anything from my doctor” when I know the doctor faxed something in, in exasperation I said “What ARE you guys? Is this really a prescription program? Or an illegal drug front? What are you guys selling?!”

I really wouldn’t recommend that technique for someone trying to enroll, but the guy on the other end of the line was a great sport, laughed, and gave me his personal fax number. A week later I had the meds. So good for both of the companies.

There are some great blog posts coming up – one in which I ponder the price of $20 chicken breasts and decide to debone a whole chicken (it’s just chilling in the freezer now and I am scared shitless) and review awesome and inexpensive makeup. Good stuff!

A while ago I wrote a post on Grocery Shopping – Inattention Can Cost You Big spelling out how smart shoppers understand how grocery stores increase their profits through the use of shelf tags and shelf talkers.  This is nothing illegal, just a way for them to augment their small profits by tricking the unaware shopper into spending more than they have to to purchase what the store would like you to purchase.

This post takes the consumer education a little further; into the world of coupons and BOGO’s (buy one get one) specials.  Again, this is not to condemn the grocery stores and call foul on their methods; only to provide an understanding on how it works and how smart shoppers can profit from it.  Product manufacturers and grocery stores spend lots of marketing money and effort in convincing you to buy what they want you to buy.  Our job will be to convince you to buy only the products you really need.

As the economy tightens more and more of us are clipping coupons and marching off to the store to “save” a bunch on our purchases.  To successfully work within the “coupon” system we have to actually put forward some effort on our part.  First there is the finding and clipping of the coupons; no big deal just developing a routine.  Now that we have the coupons we have to organize them, maintaining our collection within the expiration dates.  There is nothing like getting to the checkout line, thinking you have just saved a bunch, only to find out that many of your coupons have expired.

Now it is time to talk about shopping discipline.  Hopefully you are planning your meals and making a shopping list.  Take out your coupon collection and go through it to pick out only the ones that are for the products you need and have on your shopping list.  This is where the store’s marketing attempts to take over your thought process, be sure that the product is still the best buy even with your coupon, even with double coupon offers.  Sometimes the stores will push a certain product and an equal product will be cheaper without the coupon.  At times the BOGO offer is good, but can you really use 2 of that product?  Most stores will only charge you half price if you buy only one of a BOGO.

To sum this up, saving money at the grocery will cost you time and effort.  You are up against an army of marketing specialists, hired by the manufacturers and grocery stores to seperate you from your money.  You need to be just as deligent in your process as they are in theirs.  Be tough, be smart, it is us against them and I am on your side.