Step 9 is all about the little extras that make couponing that much sweeter. These are advanced strategies that, when used, will turn your deal into a steal!
Rain checks are the cherry on top! They are often overlooked and much forgotten. Rain checks are a master couponer’s advanced strategy. Rain checks lock in the sale price for you to use at a later time. If a sale item is out of stock, ask a store employee for a rain check. They will write out a note, similar to the one above with the sale price on it. Keep it and next time the item is restocked you can exchange your rain check for the item and be guaranteed the sale price. Rain checks have an expiration date too, so be sure to check how long it’s valid for!
Mail-in Rebates, or MIR, is an added way to reduce the cost of an item. When paired with coupons and a sale, rebates can oftentimes make the item FREE or even a profit. If you are planning to take advantage of a rebate offer, it’s best to separate it from the rest of your purchases. Most rebates require the original receipt and sometimes UPC bar code from the product. Read the rules of the rebate carefully before doing the transaction. There are specific terms and purchase dates. If it’s not done exactly as specified, the manufacturer will return your forms.
Profit, or better known as a money maker (MM), is the added bonus of couponing that happens a lot! Not only do couponers get products FREE but it is possible to actually make money too! For example, at CVS they have Colgate FREE after ECB. It costs $3.50 and you will get $3.50 back, if you use a $1 coupon to make the price $2.50, you will get back $3.50 and therefore a $1 profit!
Price matching is when a store guarantees a price if you find it lower somewhere else. Target and Walmart both offer price match guarantees. You will need to keep the ad with you that has the lower price to take to customer service. The ad must be for the current week. The good thing about price match is that you can do your shopping in one store and if a store has coupons out for that item, paired with manufacturer coupons, it could make for a great deal!
These bonus strategies are great for stacking different promotions together and taking your savings to a more advanced level.
Do you use any of these strategies? Any others you use?
$5 for $83 Worth of Products at Rite Aid 2/19-2/25
Hi! I'm Isra, aka The Frugalette. I took my family from fancy to frugal in 3 years, with 3 kids and 1 income, oh and found the meaning of life too! To read more about my fancy life gone frugal, 
I didn't realize that Target price matched. One strategy that I've been using is checking to see if any items I've bought at stores like The Gap go on sale after I've bought them. I ended up getting my daughter's Christmas dress for $10 (originally >$50) because of this!
That's a great tip Sarah! Old Navy (same company as GAP) will also price adjust purchases if they go on sale later, just keep the tags/receipt with you.
i didn't realize target matched prices either. these are all great tips. i need to get better at watching our $. the trips to the super store zap the dollars right out! especially target. LOL
I am good at couponing w/ my binder + all but horrible w/ rainchecks! I forget about them!
Thank you for making me aware of this. I had no idea Target did price matches and I am there all the time. I am making a big effort to try to save money!
I used to be really bad at remembering to use the rainchecks. Now, I have a coupon binder and I put the rainchecks on the very first page…so, I really have no excuse not to see them.
Rainchecks are really awesome at drugstores like Walgreens because everytime I see a sale the have that I want to take part in, the items are always gone by the time I get there.
Dawn
http://www.cheapisthenewclassy.com
That's a great tip Dawn, I get the rain check but I do forget to use them!
thanks for posting this, i always wanted to know how to coupon better, i kinda suck at it right now
Awesome tips! Something else that I do is try to use a coupon for a free item in conjunction with a store coupon. That way I make profit on it, as you mentioned. Love that!
Thanks for the reminders!
Thank you for trying to explain the terminlogy towards the starters!
Wal-Mart actually has it on their website that they don’t require an ad for price-matching. http://corporate.walmart.com/ad-match-guarantee
Oh that’s awesome, thanks for sharing! I must have been going on an old policy. So you could just tell them how much it is somewhere else and they give it to you?! Wow!