Where to get Coupons

Coupons are a big source for saving money on everyday household and food items, and the first thing you have to do to use them is to get your hands on them.

• Newspapers- almost always on Sundays and the larger city papers are usually better. Some are starting to put them in other days of the week too so you may check with your local papers. I'll suggest you get at least two and will explain later.
• If you have your paper delivered ask the delivery person if they can leave you extra coupon inserts when they have them... give them small incentives to do so.
• Pick up coupon inserts from a local coffee shop or restaurant... they often have a few set out for people to read and the coupons get tossed aside. I do suggest you ask permission before taking them.
• Friends- ask them to save the coupons they come across or that they don't use from their newspapers in exchange for a few of the products you get for next to nothing.
  
• Join a coupon train where you can pass along coupons between friends, pick what you want and add what you can't use. There are a few groups online you can join. One is at A Full Cup
  
• Recycle centers/bins. I do suggest if you're visiting a bin that you do ask first before sorting through. I have heard that some are fortunate enough to have people that work at centers pull some of the coupon inserts out of papers for people if they aren't too busy.
  
• ebay You can always find coupons on ebay and although it is illegal to sell a coupon, it is not illegal to sell your time in cutting, sorting and mailing your coupons or so the loophole goes. Some even sell plain white envelopes that just happen to include free coupons as well.
  
• Trade coupons online. There are several places where you can trade as well. This is different from a train as you talk in advance on what you need and what you will give in return.
• Write, call or email companies if you love their product. They like to have input on what you've found that you like and it helps to insure they will keep the product line if they get a good response with sales and comments.
• Write, call or email companies if you have a bad experience with their product. Companies also want to know if you had a problem with one of their products. They usually want to make it up to you and send very good coupons for some of their other products.
  

Whatever you do, don't throw away a coupon that isn't expired even if you don't think you will ever use it. Oftentimes sales come up where you buy one product(say the product you didn't want) to get another (the product you do want) and you just threw away an important coupon to make them both pennies on the dollar. Ouch! I can't tell you how many times that happened to me before I got smart and started saving them.