Coupons 101 Lesson 2: Coupon Lingo

Gigltiaoialoa. Say that five times fast. Coupon lingo may sound just like that word--foreign. You may not know what any of it means, but it's only because you need practice and experience with it. In this post, I'm going to go through some words you may encounter.

COUPON FINE PRINT

• One coupon per purchase/transaction/shopping trip: You may find those words written at the bottom of any coupon you see. The Krazy Coupon Lady has a great post that breaks those terms down.  

ABBREVIATIONS:

• SS: Smart Source; an insert found in the newspapers

• P&G: Procter & Gamble; an insert found in the newspapers; it usually comes out on the last Sunday of every month

• RP: Red Plum; an insert found in the newspapers  

• WYB: When you buy

• B1G1: Buy one, get one
• 1.75/2: When you see something like this, the first number is the price and the second number is the amount of items. This particular one means $1.75 off when you buy TWO items.

•  MM: Moneymaker. You can possibly make money by purchasing an item.  

•  OOP: Out of pocket. How much you will spend "out of your pocket/wallet" when you buy an item.

• IP: Internet printable. Coupons that you print from off the internet.  

• ECB: Extra Care Bucks. If you shop at CVS, you will see this term. Each week, CVS will advertise that you can get ECBs for purchasing an item. ECBs are basically paper money that print out at the bottom of your receipt. You can use them on your next purchase. 

These are the basics. I will add more overtime. If you come across any words that you don't understand on a coupon blog, let me know, and I will help you! 

Swagbucks with the Hubs

My husband joined Swagbucks in July 2011 and he's already reached 17,959 swagbucks! Oh, and he's been working full-time for over a year of that time. He has gotten a $25 Applebee's gift card (which made for a super date night) and at least $100 in Amazon gift cards. He has really been taking it super seriously. I joined in 2010 and I have a little over 20,000. He's catching up with me pretty fast! Between the two of us, we have almost 40,000 swagbucks. That's about $450 in Amazon gift cards (if we had decided to go that route)! Pretty amazing hunh?

Today, we're going to have another lesson in making money with Swagbucks.

1. SHOPPING. How many of your absolutely love to shop? How many of you hate it? Would you love shopping even more if I told you that you can MAKE money while shopping online. Here's how to do it:

• Go to your Swagbucks homepage. 
• Click on the EARN tab and go down to SHOP & EARN. You should see a ton of stores listed. 
• At the top right hand corner is a box that reads "Search for Stores." Type in the store that you're looking for.   
• When the store pops up, you will see that it says something similar to "4 Swagbucks per Dollar." This means that for every dollar you spend at the chosen store, you will earn 4 swagbucks! 
• Hover over the store name and click on the button that says, "Shop Now." You should be redirected to the store page. 
• Just shop like normal, but be sure not to click away from the page!

Practice: Find the store "Wal-mart." Click on the "Shop Now" button. You will be redirected to the Wal-Mart page. Let's say, you decide buy the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" dvd which is priced at $8.96. You will earn around 36 Swagbucks from that purchase because 8.96 (the price of the dvd)  x 4 (swagbucks) equal 35.84. That's pretty darn good!

2. SPECIAL OFFERS

• Go to your homepage. If you look at the top right corner, you will see a mail shaped symbol. This is your inbox/mailbox. If there is a red number over the mail symbol that means you have mail! In your mailbox, you might find things that say "Earn 2 swagbucks for watching this video." All you have to do is watch the video and BOOM you've got 2 swagbucks. Sometimes the videos are only 1 minute long.
• Other places to find special offers: under the EARN tab and on your home page, if you scroll down a little

I'll explain more about Swagbucks next week! Have fun with it and don't get stressed out if you don't get the points/bucks right away. It takes patience. And just think--you'll have more money (even $5 can help a budget) in your pocket for Christmas next year using Swagbucks!

Reminder: Go take the daily poll and do the NOSO. (If you've been doing it every day since I first posted about it, you should have at least 39 swagbucks. Whoo hoo!) Keep it up, you're doing great!

 

Disclosure: This post contains referral links. If you sign up for Swagbucks through my links, I will receive an incentive (when you earn swagbucks, I will earn that same amount). 

Coupons 101 Lesson 1: Where to Find Coupons

Scenario: You have a coupon for $1.00 off Cereal X. Right now it costs $4.00 for Cereal X. Sure, you can go to the store and buy Cereal X for $3.00 using that coupon. That's great because hey, you saved money, right? That's usually the point. But, did you know that you can get cereal for even cheaper using that coupon? I typically spend $1 or less for a box of cereal.

How do I do this?

I wait for the cereal to go on SALE. I love love LOVE sales. Cereal usually goes on sale for 1.99 (sometimes lower) per box. Use the $1.00 off coupon and score it for .99! Awesome, right? This is how you manage to get items for really cheap.

FINDING COUPONS

There are several places where you can go to get coupons.
 
Option A: Print them from the internet. The main coupon sites are:
coupons.com, couponnetwork.com, smartsource.com, and www.save.com

You can also print coupons right from the Xoxo Frugal Momma blog.
 
Option B: Get a newspaper. Right now, I have a subscription where I get a Sunday paper delivered to my door for $4 per month. $1.00 per paper!  If you call the newspaper company in your area, you can ask them about their promotions. Another way that you can get the newspaper is by going to Dollar Tree! They sell the Sunday papers for just $1!

COUPON BOOKLETS

The booklets that come inside of the Sunday paper are typically called inserts. There are three different types: 1) SmartSource, 2) Redplum, and 3) P&G (Procter and Gamble). The number of inserts that you get each Sunday will vary. There will be days when you get three inserts and there may also be days when you get one. For reference: P&G usually comes out at the end of each month.

EMAIL COMPANIES

That's one of my favorite ways to get coupons. I will email the companies to let them know what I think of their products/services. Sometimes, I will ask them if they have any coupons that they would be willing to send to me. Many times, I receive coupons in the mail a few weeks later!