Hawaii Shopaholics

Organization is Key!

Find a way you like to be organized, once you start couponing you may find another organization method.

I use a binder method for organization.  Here is a video of my binder and below is a picture of my binder:

 

• I suggest getting a subscription to the Star Advertiser Sunday (Weekend) Subscription.  This is the only way you are guaranteed coupons.  Call (808) 538-6397.  Ask for the Shopaholics Home Delivery Offer.

• Coupon Swaps are a great way to come and ask questions. Coupon Swaps are Free kid friendly events.  They are designed to help couponers find the coupons they are looking for and to help build your coupon collection. Read the Hawaii Shopaholics website were great information is posted daily.  Have questions, ask on Facebook or email us at Hawaiishopaholics@yahoo.com.

• Reading your coupons is very important.  Most times the companies put a picture of the most expensive or most popular qualified product as the picture on the coupon.  Check for size limitations, some coupons will state ANY with no size limitations which means cheap or FREE travel size.  Behave ethically when couponing.  Couponing is like a game and we must follow rules.  Coupon fraud is a Felony, so play by the rules!

• When reading your coupon, look for key words like Shopping Trip, Transaction, Purchase or Per Person.  Shopping Trips are in and out store and different register.  Many coupons limit how many coupons you are allowed to use; for example, many coupons state 4 like coupons per Shopping trip per day.  This means if I wanted to use 12 coupons but only 2 registers are open I would only be able to use 8 coupons.   To use the 8 coupons you would need to check 4 out with one cashier go to your car and drop them off.  Go to get the next 4 items and go to a different register to check out.  If you wanted to use your last 4 coupons you would have to come back another day.   Next, Transaction means the little stick at the register to get different receipts.  When the word Purchase appears on a coupon just substitute purchase for item.  Per Person is each person in the party.  If it is you plus 3 kids than you can use 4 coupons when it states per person.  Proctor & Gamble (P&G) coupons state 4 like coupons per Household per day which simply means you can only use 4 like coupons per day.

• Never Copy a coupon it is FRAUD, a Felony, and a punishable crime.

• Sales are cyclical, meaning every 3 months you will see the same sale.  No reason to stockpile for years, most things will expire.  We are couponers not hoarders!  We like deals but know our limitations.  Remember most things have expiration dates.  Evaluate how much of the one product you will actually use before it expires.

• Check the expiration date on items you are buying.  If you are buying several and the expiration expires soon, you might actually be wasting money in the long run.  I always check expiration date and think if I am going to use XX many before it expires.  In my house, storage is limited so I want to save the little storage for things I actually will use.  Yes you can get many things free and many things really cheap, but is it worth clearing a shelf for?  I believe in taking what you will use within the expiration date.  Also, remember sales have cycles.  You don’t need to stockpile for more than 6 months.  Happy Shopping 

• Shop clearance sections and match clearance items with coupons.  I find lots of great deals with clearance section, again watch for expiration dates.

• Evaluate the tax and fees added to each item you purchase, we are about being frugal and tax and fees really start to add up when you buy a lot of one thing.

• Have and iPhone or Android?  If so check out this cool app: I love The Key Ring. You can load all your store loyalty cards on it, so you have all your cards on your phone no need to carry them all around.  Thanks Melissa!  Go HERE to see more Smartphone apps.

• I just want to point out if you are a new couponer, if something is a money maker buy it, I don’t care what it is.  Couponers look forward to money makers.  Money Makers help reduce the cost of the items you really need to buy.  I know when starting out a lot of these money makers are embarrassing.  Last year I bought a lot of things I didn’t need included 70 bottles of KY, 50 packs of Trojans, 18 packs of Depends, and many more embarrassing items.  Hey they were money makers and I was able to find ways to donate them.  There are 2 places that allow Money Makers: Walmart and Commissary.

• If you are just starting couponing, you should expect to save 30% on your first three months couponing.  If you save more than 30%, fabulous but don’t expect it.  Your 3-6 month period of couponing, you should expect to save 50% on your grocery bill.  After 6 months, you should be able to master how to save more than 50% on your grocery bill.  After a year of couponing, you should have built your stockpile where throughout the coming grocery trips you are just replacing items you used to maintain your stockpile and also buy the free items and money maker items.  Of course, every month we all need to buy meat and produce which rarely have coupons; however, this is when money makes help out our grocery bill.

• I consider your grocery bill to be all the little places you shop at throughout the month.  Remember as a couponer you will have to make several more trips to places to get good deals.  Wal-mart and Target price match but they do not price match everything.  For example, I enjoy Longs Drugs because I have a Green Bag Tag.  I receive a $1 ECB every fourth transaction I use my Green Bag Tag.  Wal-mart doesn’t match this Green Bag Tag incentive, therefore there will be certain things you cannot have price matched.  You should expect to make several trips a week to get good deals.  When I refer to grocery bill it is everything grocery related you purchased throughout all your trips. If you do not know what a Green Bag Tag is, please read this: http://hawaiishopaholics.com/archives/category/drug-stores

• When you sign up for freebies, remember to have a separate email address for those sign ups. I consider it my junk mail email since you do get spam from time to time. I sign up for everything because simply you never know what it will be until you get it. I tell everyone who attends the coupon classes to sign up for freebies because a lot of times they include high value coupons.

• Click HERE to read about the Scrubbing Bubbles coupon Tip.  This is one of the most misused coupon.

• Many Sales Ads have in ad coupons in them.  When this occurs some may actually be manufacturer coupons that you can use at other stores.  Here are three tips to determine if an in ad coupon can be used at other stores.

1. Look for the words manufacturer coupon to be present on the coupon.
2. Look for an address for the coupon to be mailed back to.
3. Look to see if the terms of the coupon state if the coupon is ONLY redeemable at a certain store. If ONLY appears than you can only use it at that store.

Coupon Terminology:

Difference between stacking, doubling and piggy backing.

Stacking Coupons – is when you use a store coupon stacked with a manufacturer coupon.  A few stores on island that allow stacking is Whole Foods, Longs Drugs/CVS, Walgreens, Target, Times, Safeway.

Doubling – happens only at Kmart and is when you use a manufacturer coupon off of one item under $1 will be doubled up to $1.  Example $.50/1 tide will double to $1.  $.75/1 suave deodorant will double to $1.  Max is a $1.  A $.50/2 (two products, won’t do anything since the coupon is attached to two products.  Go HERE for all the complete rules and tips on how to double coupons at Kmart.

Piggy backing is unethical and a coupon no no.  Piggy backing is often done as a mistake so learn to not do this.  Piggy backing is the usage of two manufacturer coupons for 1 item, example using a BOGO coupon with a $1/1.  To use both manufacturer coupons you would need to purchase three items.  A BOGO coupon is attached to two items so to use the coupon you have to purchase two items.

There has been discussion on the wall about shelf clearing and I want to address it. Hawaii Shopaholics stance is and will always be to not shelf clear. With that said, deals are always first come first served and you may not always score a deal but fear not a new deal always comes about! If there is a limited amount of items always try to leave at least one for someone else to score a deal. I want the Hawaii Shopaholics Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to be places where I can share deals I spot in Hawaii. This is what makes Hawaii Shopaholics different than the mainland pages. I enjoy sharing deals and hearing when other Shopaholics score deals. I would love for other Shopaholics to report the deals they find on the Hawaii Shopaholics wall on Facebook, Hawaii Shopaholics Forum (Facebook Group), tag Hawaii Shopaholics on Instagram or you can shoot an email with a picture to Hawaiishopaholics@yahoo.com. I want the Hawaii Shopaholics page to refrain from bashing each other but instead a place where couponers can unite and share deals! As always, Happy Shopping!

I received this email and question a lot! Here is goes —- Why do we not receive Target Insert Coupons or this and that coupon?

First you need to know is Coupons are a marketing tool.

The areas that receive Target coupon inserts, have low Target sales. Meaning there is a lot of competition to Target by other stores in that area. Target is known as an expensive high end Super Store. These areas that usually receive Target coupon inserts, have at least one store that double coupons in that specific area. A way for Target to drive customers to their store and try to compete with double coupons is by releasing these Target Coupon Inserts. Make sense?

Why do we receive very little coupons in Hawaii? Coupons is a marketing tool, and a lower population than other states. Will a company sell more products if they put their marketing tool in California or Florida versus Hawaii? Probably! This is why we receive very little coupons. Plus Florida and California receive a lot of tourists from other states. Yes Hawaii is a huge tourism state but it is a lot of international tourist not just people from the United States. Other countries can’t use our coupons.

Next why is there zip code specific coupons on coupons.com. Same reason as mentioned above. The manufacturer has seen a decrease in sales and is trying to boost their sales in a particular market. They will release coupons in that zip code. Why can we use them at other stores? Because most of them are manufacturer coupons. This is why you need to play around with the coupons.com zip code. Also, remember if a coupon says manufacturer coupon and states ONLY redeemable at XX or XX Only. The coupon is intended to ONLY be used at the specific store regardless of it stating manufacturer coupon. This usually has to deal with that the specific store is having very low sales of that manufacturers products and the manufacturer is trying to drive business to that specific store or else they may have to pull the item from that stores shelf.

 

 

***I am hearing so many people having issues with coupons lately.  I wanted to highlight a few things you can do to avoid issues.

 

1.  Make sure to know the stores coupon policy. Follow it and have it printed.  Go to the home page of our website and read under “Store Breakdown”.  I have done a lot of the research for you.

 

2.  Be patient, sound more educated and help educate the cashiers.

 

3.  If you have issues, don’t argue with the cashier.  Simply ask for the manager.  If the manager sounds uneducated ask them to call corporate.

 

4.  When couponing, especially when starting out, you have to help educate your cashiers.  I have the same cashiers at Longs Drugs and Target.  They know me when I enter the store and know I am going to use coupons.  They trust me because they know I know what I am doing.   I never have an issue at those stores because the managers recognize me and so do the cashiers.

 

5.  You need to realize when cashiers actually scan wrong coupons, expired coupons and do something wrong they actually get disciplined.  If you are knowingly using wrong coupons, you are stealing.  Many cashiers are really cautious probably because they have already been warned and/or written up for accepting wrong coupons. For example, one guy cashier at a store I frequent (The Commissary-Pearl Harbor), has had 2 warnings already and a 3rd warning is a No-No!  Every time I go to him with coupons, he immediately calls a manager to verify the coupons so he doesn’t get in trouble.  You have to remember there is a back story of why the cashier is opposed to coupons.

 

6.  Be ethical.  It is important to play by the rules.  Every store has their own rules and on top of that every coupon has it’s own rules.  There is so many people who do not play by the rules and this causes us Real Couponers to get hassled.

 

7. Do not use expired coupons.  I cannot tell you how many times cashiers tell me Thank you for having all non-expired coupons.  They always tell me people just throw a stack down and majority of the times don’t have the items and are trying to use expired coupons.  I don’t care where you shop, no where in Hawaii accepts expired manufacturer coupons (this includes military stores).

 

8.  You need to profile the cashiers you are going to use.  Do they look friendly?  Do they look like they have patience?  Do they look like they care for their job?  Remember these are minimum wage employees, in a lot of cases these cashiers may not work at the store long.  You want to look and profile to see if they actually enjoy their job.  If so, you probably want to use them as your cashier.  I usually try to find the younger guy cashiers first, than the younger girl cashiers and so forth.  I personally try to avoid older guys because they are slow.  I know this sounds mean but profiling your cashier is important.

 

9. Don’t be afraid to call corporate if you have issues.  If you prefer writing an email you can do that too.  Facebook is a great means of communication as well.  For example, I had issues at Chili’s Kapolei one time, went onto their Facebook page and left a post of how dissatisfied I was.  The next morning I received an email thanking me for the post and also received a free meal to make my experience satisfying.  My issue was that I placed a pick up order.  Not only was it late, but people who ordered after me received their orders before me.  I waited for 15 minutes and when I asked for a drink she charged me for it.  I thought since they were late, I should have at least been offered a complimentary drink.  Therefore, when something is under your skin, communicate about it through some means.  If a store never hears there is an issue, they will never know that something needs to be fixed.

 

10.  My biggest tip, is learn which stores reward you for bringing your own reusable bags.  Target does, you have to remind them but it is $.05 per bag they use.  The Exchanges do as well, Longs Drugs (Green Bag Tag), and many more.  You have to do a lot of research when you begin couponing, but once you know the rules it is easy to play the game.  Couponing is indeed a huge game.

 

Good luck shopping.  If you have a shopping trip you would like to share please email a picture and description to Hawaiishopaholics@yahoo.com

 

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