Stacking Coupons - Stacking Discounts

[jeffrey]

Manufacturer's know that most people will use the coupons they get in their Sunday paper that week or probably not at all. With this knowledge in hand, rarely will you see a product on sale the same week that a coupon comes out for that particular product in the Sunday paper.

To make the most of your coupons, however, your should not follow the masses, but hold onto your coupons for a later date. By doing this, you'll have an opportunity to "stack discounts" - an excellent way to save money and maximize your shopping dollars.

Stacking Discounts is simply combining multiple discounts at the same time to get the most from the money you spend. For those that are good at it, you can save a tremendous amount of money over regular retail prices, and even more than using coupons on their own.





Getting good at stacking discounts isn't difficult, but does take some organizational skill. It's especially important to have a good system of finding your coupons so they can used when needed.

The first step is to accumulate a number of coupons for products that you use. You can get these on the Internet, from offline sources or even from auctions. Once you have them, you'll want to organize them them in a way that is easy for you to find them.

The next step is to check the weekly grocery store advertisements that come with your paper or in the mail. You can also check them at the grocery store website if you don't get the newspaper. Once you have the sale advertisement, you match your coupons with what is on sale that week to produce double savings, or a double discount stack.

If your grocery store also offers double or triple coupons a certain day of the week, you can plan your shopping that day to create a triple discount stack: the sale item with a coupon that is either doubled or tripled by the grocery store.

Rarely can you stack coupons upon one another (i.e. - use two coupons for the same individual item). Most coupons come with terms that only allow one coupon to be used per one item. That doesn't mean, however, that you can't use multiple coupons to buy multiple items if they are a good deal and simply stock up on that particular product.

Give it a try. Stacking discounts can cut your shopping bill significantly and the better you get at it, the more you'll save.

[asmpp]

I have been doing the clipping, stacking coupons in earnest the last 6 months. It has made a big difference in our grocery bills. I send to overseas military with my expired coupons. I have 2 of them who have voluntarily sent me stamps to send more. I usually send out 2 times to each name/group that I have. The list is long for people waiting for us to send them expired coupons. It is very rewarding to get notes back for how much they appreciate my donations. I have never thought about sorting the food/nonfood items. I do split up the types of coupons so everyone gets about the same amount of different types.

[rob62521]

Excellent suggestion, Jeffrey! One store in my community often has things on sale the same week the coupons come out so that helps. I also share coupons with my mom and her friend so I stock up on items I would normally buy anyway, but just cheaper.

[s.saver]

Thank you for this. Great suggestions. I always hear about stacking, but didn't know about it.