Saving money seems to be the hot topic today. With the changing economy, there are many families that are struggling to make ends meet and provide for their basic needs, including housing, clothing, and food costs. One of the ways that people can reduce their costs of living and increase the money that remains in their pockets is to make use of coupons as they do their shopping. You can save enormous amounts of money if you use them wisely and to their greatest value.
There are several types of coupons available today. There are cents off coupons, percentages off coupons, buy one get one free coupons, buy something and get something else free coupons, doubler coupons, and rebate coupons. Each of these can be used a bit differently and some can be used together to make your savings even greater.
With cents off coupons, you are given a very straightforward proposition of a certain amount of money off of a particular product. If it is a product that you would buy anyways, this is a wonderful deal. However, if it isn’t something that you would normally purchase, be careful not to let the pretty coupon induce you to make the purchase. This doesn’t save you anything at all. It only makes your monetary waste slightly less.
Some stores offer double coupons in their weekly circulars. These can be used with the cents off coupons and will double the amount taken off at the register up to a certain amount.
When you have a percentage off coupon, it is essentially the same as a cents off coupon, except that you are going to get a percentage off of the retail price.
If there is an offer of a buy one, get one free, you are given the opportunity to get two for the price of one. This is a great value as long as the item is something that you use fairly regularly. With an offer to buy one item and get another item free of charge, you are getting exactly what it says. You are going to get two different items for the cost of only one of the items. You are typically going to be paying for the more costly of the two. Be wary, however, of the fact that often a retailer will increase the price of the item that is being paid for until you are really paying for both items anyways. If this is the case, there is no real savings for you at all.
Rebates are a little bit trickier, but they are often the most valuable. The companies can afford for them to be because many people don’t ever actually put the rebate to use. They buy the item with the promise of getting some or all of their money returned to them, but only if they send in the rebate. They may forget to send it or just not get around to it, but for whatever reason, the company never has to return the money. When there is a rebate offered for a product that you are purchasing, be sure and do what is required to take advantage of the offer. In today’s economy, every little bit helps!