10 Helpful Tips for Couponing Beginners
Is this the first time you learn about coupons and try to use them to get discounts while shopping? Whether you are a newbie or a longtime coupons user, you will find this post useful to you. Here, I will provide you some practical tips for maximum benefit on shopping with coupons.
- Distinguish between online coupon and offline coupon
This is an extremely common knowledge but some people encounter it when using coupons for the first time. So I would like to mention here, so that eSpecial Coupons’s customers don’t get in the way of this little hassle.
An online coupon is normally a series of characters that form a code and only applicable when you purchase online. To get a discount is very simple, you just need to enter the coupon code in the discount code box when you checkout your order.
On the other hand, an offline coupon is usually a tangible ticket or document that is only used for in-store purchases. When making a purchase, you just need to hand the coupon to the cashier and they will help you subtract an equivalent amount from the total shopping bill.
Distinguishing between online coupons and offline coupons helps you save time in the search process and collect coupons if you want to become a coupon expert.
2. Know where to find coupons
Before entering this step, you should answer these two questions as follows: you prefer online shopping or go to the store to choose the product, and what type of product you want to get a discount?
If you are interested in online shopping, online coupon code is a perfect choice. There are many websites that offer you online coupons. You should look for trustworthy websites where they often work with brands or stores to launch coupon codes. If you have no idea about those websites, our eSpecial Coupons is a great choice for you. eSpecial Coupons not only provides you valuable coupons which can truly help you narrow your shopping budget but also ensures that you will get high quality products which not be affected by the discounts.
You can also find online coupons through promotional emails from the retailers or brands that directly send for you. You can subscribe by your email address when you visit these brands or stores’ websites so that every time there is a promotion, you will receive a promotional email.
If you love wandering around product display shelves while carefully selecting them, offline coupons will suit you the most. These types of coupons are easy to search in any newspaper, magazines, brochures, flyers, etc. There are people who even buy 2-3 identical newspapers at once just to get more than one similar coupon for their favorite product.
3. Use coupon binder
Whether you are a tidy lover or someone who throws things around and forgets where they are, a coupon binder is a must-have item for you. Coupon binder keeps all of your offline coupons in order.
Offline coupons usually are small pieces of paper so that they are easy to lose. If you keep them in a coupon binder, you also can sort them in a specific way of your own to help you find it effortlessly when needed.
For example, you can sort it in alphabet order by using letter “C” for coke and “S” for snack. Or you can sort in by the expiration so you can maintain everything under your control.
4. Check expiration date
Every coupon code has its expired date, so make sure you use it ahead of time as you don’t want to get into embarrassing public situations.
Knowing the expiration date also helps you to make a quick purchase decision as well as schedule time for in-store purchase cases.
5. Make a shopping list
This is an indeed crucial thing you need to do before starting your shopping journey. List everything you want to buy in a check-list, this will help you avoid shopping spikes that will cost you money on items that are not useful to you during the purchase process.
You can even list the items to the extent “necessary,” so you can save the items that are not overkill and buy them next time if this time you do not have enough budget or the prices are too expensive without promotions.
6. Understand coupon policies
There are some stores accept coupons produced by the competitors but some do not allow. Therefore, make sure you clearly understand coupon policies so that you can choose the best places for shopping.
Coupons are typically designed for a particular product, there are also coupons for all the products of the brands, so be aware of what types of your coupons will help you avoid many small issues that may annoy you.
7. Understand coupon terminologies
Some coupons often contain specific abbreviations or terms which may confuse a newbie. There are some common coupon terminologies that widely used nowadays:
8. Use on cut-price items
BOGO: buy one get one
PEELIE: a type of coupon that you can find when peeling off a package.
PSA: price starting at
NED: no expiration date
YMMV: your mileage may vary
Etc.
Get discounts twice for one product, this is a tip that can help you save a lot money! By using coupons on sale products, you can buy stuffs with the very low price and you can even get it free if your coupons exceed the products’ values. That’s sounds great, right? Let’s try to do it in your next spending.
9. Set a price for an item
You should know about the market price of every item that you are going to buy in your shopping list. So that you can control your budget better while avoiding buying things that exceed the maximum price that you can pay for it. You can wait for next time if the stuff is on sale or you can find any coupons that work with it. As the market price sometimes fluctuates.
10. Don’t try to use all the coupons you have
Coupons, although they bring benefit to the customers, but the manufacturers also. In fact, coupons are one of the marketing tactics that manufacturers often use to stimulate the desire to shop for people so the businesses can achieve their sales targets. If you don’t want to be the poor gazelle falling into these attractive coupon “traps,” then you have to remember that you should only buy what you really need.
Don’t spend your extra money because you find the products cheaper for their good quality and the average price, or you just simply regret the coupons you have. At that time you will have a strange idea that you cannot buy it with that low price anymore due to the expiration date that is coming, then you will suddenly have an appeal to buy them. Stop that thinking as soon as possible because you will feel like a fool when you spot newly released coupons in the near future!