5 Steps to Finding and Using Coupons from the Internet

In these economic times, practically everything for sale in a store eventually has a coupon available. And, it’s no wonder. More people are searching for coupons online more than ever before according to this Google Trends graph.

Here are 5 steps to help you get more involved with using online coupons:

1. Start a new email address – For most coupon providers, you will need to submit your email address to get access to the coupon. That way, they will be able to send other promotions to you. Just a fact of life on the web. Create a new email address at mail.yahoo.com or G-Mail, Google’s mail system, so that your primary email is not cluttered with promotions from coupon suppliers.

2. Find coupons online – A good starting point is a site called CouponSavingGame.com which offers coupons for free.

3. Test a coupon – Print one coupon from whatever site you use to get the coupon and bring it into the store, buy the merchandise and use the coupon. This will assure you that the site you’ve chosen has valid programs and that you have printed the coupon properly to allow the scanners to work in the stores. CouponSavingGame.com, for example, may require you to download a bit of software so that your printer prints the coupons properly. Just printing one coupon at first will save you embarrassment in line at the store if you print out, like, 50 coupons and none of them work!

4. Sign-up for daily coupon announcements - Most sites will have a feature where you can be notified of new coupons. Coupons are usually timed, meaning, you often will only have a few days to take action. So, don’t rely on yourself to visit a coupon website when you want something. Let them send their promos to you so that you are kept up-to-date. And, always use your alternate email address as mentioned in step 1.

5. Commit using coupons to habit – Make the habit of looking for a coupon before every trip to the store. Make your store list and then scour your chosen coupon sites for active coupons. Just last week I saved almost $45 on $100 worth of groceries…over and above what the grocery store was offering in their in-store discounts! Add that up over a year’s time and that’s quite a savings.

I haven’t used a newspaper to cut coupons in years because it’s so tedius of a process and it’s just plain boring. The web has converted me to using coupons for just about everything in every kind of store. But, using coupons must be easy, fast, and committed to habit to be a real money saver. Hopefully this list will get you started in the money saving direction today.