Couponaholic/Chronic Saver

Hi. My name is Kali, and I am a couponaholic. I thought I would come here to share my coupon story, and I come here not to speak against the wonders of coupons, but to speak for them, to promote them. I challenge you to join me in using coupons. But I warn you...they are addicting and they are wonderful. So good luck, and if you ever need a pal to use them with or if you need a hook-up, you know my number! (I'm serious, I have run into coupons that are for places in an area a friend lives or for a fave restaurant of a friend, and no doubt I am mailing them to my friends...just gotta give these coupons a home).

For those of you that are in a financial pickle or just want to be smarter with your $$$, coupons are one of the greatest way to almost make money!

10 tips from a new user (seriously I am about a couple weeks into seriously using, before it was more recreational, so if there are more experienced users out there please feel free to add your expertise to this page):

1) Annoying mailers filling your mailbox? Well, did you ever think to check them out before tossing them in the buscara? Surprisingly, while a lot of the ads and community newsletters are filled with commercial babble/the remnants of a poor tree or something, you can find some good coupons. Valpaks (in the blue envelope) have some surprisingly good deals in there, for example you can score your man or woman/ or yourself a haircut for under $10 just by opening the envelope. Only trouble I have seen with ValPaks is that their expiration dates are usually within a short time period. So act fast, but not foolishly. There will be another Valpak in the mail before you blink.

2) BOGO. If you don't know what a BOGO is I have to say you may have a long way to go in the coupon world. Or perhaps you are just not a dorky abbreviation lover like myself. That's okay. Learn the coupon vocab though... BOGO is Buy One Get One. And most of the coupons you find that are the better deals are BOGO, so find a friend, a lover, or a stranger and use those BOGO coupons and save 50%! Also, BOGOs exist without coupons, for instance Famous Footwear always has BOGOs. Here's a suggestion, you just want one pair of shoes and don't want to buy another pair? Go with a friend, I did this last winter and we saved a lot of money! Or go with a rent you haven't seen in awhile and suggest they get a pair of shoes too, and you might just get yourself a FREE pair of shoes ;) ;)

3) Libraries. Hit up your libraries for not only your fave book on tape, but you can also check out many passes to museums/zoos/etc. and save yo'self lotsa dough! Also, you can rent movies for free as well.

4)Check out date night specials. Lots of restaurants are putting out "stimulus packages" hooking you up with deals. Mark your calendars and try and rearrange your date nights/entertainment nights so they fall on those nights with specials. Some good examples: Zeno has a promo going on during Tuesdays for $30 which provides an appetizer, a bottle of wine, a dessert and two movie tickets to the Blue Lagoon. I know Bryant Lake Bowl used to have a similar deal with food, wine and bowling, you just gotta dig around and get in the know about when and where these deals are happening.

5) Go to Michaels or Target, and get yourself a handy dandy coupon holder/organizer. If you're gonna use, you will not regret this purchase! Mine cost $1 at Michaels and at the rate I am going here I might need to upgrade soon here.

6) When you get $5 off something, try to buy something for $5, not $50...remember we are trying to save money here!

7) Pay close attention to the restrictions, some places exclude particular days, menu items, require a certain level of spending, etc. etc. Also note the expiration date. So important!

8) Buy discounted gift cards. Example, I just purchased a $50 gift card to the new restaurant, Spill the Wine for $25 plus shipping, so like $28. This is a great deal, but again be careful to read the restrictions first before doing this. For instance this gift card cannot be used toward alcohol purchases, and will come in two $25 gift cards that cannot be used on the same day. Not all places are as picky, but if it is stil worth it to you after the restrictions, go ahead and buy. It's a steal!

9) Subscribe to your local grocer's newsletter. I received two free melons from lunds the other week because I read their newsletter and printed the coupon. Also, in general while grocery shopping, put the items on sale that you want on your list, and if something that is more expensive is on sale that you were not planning to purchase, well it might be a good time to buy and freeze.

10) Use your resources. You usually do not need to buy a newspaper anymore to get a coupon. You can find them online. The other day I went to Herberger's but printed the coupon I needed before going to the store. Also, check online. While I have a love-hate relationship to virtual reality, you can find a lot of good deals online. For instance, I just went online to a yoga/fitness website, and purchased Billy Blank's Ultimate Bootcamp (the one that has 5 star reviews on Amazon) and I got free shipping and spent 6.99, while amazon and Target are selling it for 12-13 bucks. With the internet we have the option of buying directly from the seller versus a second party retailer. Keep this in mind when shopping :)

Well, that's all I can think of right now. If you have any suggestions here not mentioned or a website/article, please do share.

I love coupons...mmm...I think I am going to use two tomorrow...and maybe just look at them right now...sorry...but I gotta go!!!!!