Couponing 101

I thought it'd be a good idea to write a few of the basics of couponing. I'm still learning new things so there may be things missing from this list. I will update it with new information when I get it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Price Matching: Price matching (or PM) is when you show the cashier the advertised price of an item from a flyer, and they sell you the same item for that price. You can bring in the actual physical flyer or you can show the eflyer. This can be done with several phone apps, which I will cover later on. Each store will have it's own price matching policy. Some stores will PM such as No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, FreshCo, Wal-Mart and Target. While other stores won't, such as Zehrs.

Some stores will have a PMing limit, and others don't. It's best to ask the store manager for their PMing policy, or check online. It is ultimately up to each store manager for what they will/won't allow. Don't worry about this too much though, I've yet to run into a problem. I do most of my PMing at Wal-Mart, but I've also had good experiences with Target.

Rain Checks: Rain Checks are when a store doesn't have a product in store that they have advertised in their flyer. Normally when this happens, the manager will write you a "rain check" which is basically a note saying they will sell you that item at the sale price when it gets back in stock.

Scanning Code Of Practice: Also known as SCOP for short. This is a little-known about gem. This policy states that if an item rings up at the cash for more than the sale tag states, you are entitled to get the item for free (if it's under $10) or get $10 off the tag price. This only applies to the first item, then the rest will have to be manually priced in the system. Most stores won't tell you about this policy, but they usually have some sort of sign at the cash stating the policy. If you don't mention it, they will just manually override the system and you will pay the advertised price.

There are several short forms used in couponing, this is just to save time. I've included the most common, but there are others out there.

Store Short Forms:
WM - Wal-Mart
RCSS - Real Canadian Superstore
SDM - Shoppers Drug Mart

Coupon Short Forms:
BOGO: Buy 1 get 1 Free.
B2G1: Buy 2 get 1 Free
FPC: Free product coupon
MIR: Mail In Rebate
WUB: When you buy
MFC: Manufacturer coupon


Other types of coupons:
Peelie: Coupons typically attached to a product that can be peeled off.
Tear Pad: A pad of coupons that you can tear coupons off of. Typically found on coupon boards (near the front of the store), on product displays or on the shelves.
Mail In: Coupons that are mailed directly to your house from either a coupon website or the manufacturer directly.
Printable: Coupons printed from the internet.
Inserts: Coupons found in the weekly flyers. Typically in their own insert.

Types of Coupon Inserts:
There are multiple companies that offer coupon booklets in the weekly flyers. Typically there's 1 from each company a month. It's possible you won't receive these coupon booklets because they aren't always supplied to your local flyer carrier. The most common ones are from Redplum, Unilever P&G) and SmartSource. Sometimes other stores offer them too, like Wal-Mart or Target.

Websites that offer coupons:
There are several online sites you can go to for coupons. First you want to make sure it's a CANADIAN website. American coupons aren't accepted here. Once you've done that, some will offer to mail the coupons directly to your house, and others will be available for you to print them from home. Most commonly they are print at home, but there are some sites that will send you them. For these, you will typically have to register an account. This is free to do and only takes a few minutes - well worth it! You can commonly find coupons from the manufacturer's website as well (again, make sure it's the Canadian site).

Mailed Coupons:
Websaver     
Save.Ca
GoCoupons

Printable Coupons:
SmartSource
P&G Everyday
Healthy Essentials

Phone Applications:
Then finally, there are phone apps you can use to help you save money! There are several out there, but I've listed the ones I use and trust. For browsing flyers I use Rebee & Flipp. Rebee allows you to browse more flyers than Flipp, but Flipp allows you to search directly for whatever item you're looking for and it will show you all the advertised prices for that item. These are available on both Android & Iphone. Finally, there are phone apps that give you cash back on certain purchases. I use the Save.ca App, Checkout 51 (CO51) and SnapSaves (SS). You purchase the items on the offers list, take a photo of your receipt and then your account gets accredited with however much money you earned. You can cash out at different points for each app. This is an easy way to get money back for items you would typically already be buying.

Save.ca is a newer app, and doesn't have many offers yet but I suspect they will grow with time. With Save.ca you can cash out at as low as $5. The money will go straight to your paypal account. At this time they don't have any other options.

Checkout 51 is my favorite one out of the bunch. The offers change every Thursday morning at 12:01 AM. They range from food items, household items and even beauty care/makeup! You may only use each deal once. You can cash out as soon as you reach $20 and they will mail a cheque right to your house within 10 business days. I have done this in the past and the cheques have always cleared.

SnapSaves is a bit different, they offer new items every day but the cash back is quite low. Usually $0.25 or $0.50 per item, but you can usually do each deal multiple times. For example, let's say strawberries are offered at $0.25 cash back. You can buy 4 packages of strawberries and get $1 cash back. Be careful though, not all offers can be done multiple times. Like CO51, you can cash out as soon as you get to $20. But SS only sends cheques out once every quarter (3 months). So if you order a cheque, don't expect it to get to you quickly.

PC Points: This is an app offered by Presidents Choice. You can load offers each week, and earn points at Loblaw company stores (Zehrs, No Frills, Value Mart, RCSS, Etc.). Each 1000 points is equal to $1 and you can redeem your points as soon as you get to 20,000. Sometimes there will be special promotions for bonus points on certain items as well. You can get a PC Points card if you'd prefer that instead.

Optimum Points: Okay, this isn't really an app but it follows along the same lines as the PC Points. Each time you make a purchase at a SDM (Shoppers Drug Mart), you will earn points. Typically this is 10 points to every $1 you spend. There will be bonus points offers available each week on certain products as well. Typically these are "10x the points" or "500 bonus points". You can redeem your points at different levels, each level has it's own value. The lowest being 8,000 points which you can redeem for $10 off. The highest being 95,000 points which is worth $170. Obviously, the higher level of points the more they are worth in cash. There are frequently events where you can earn bonus points, such as spend $50 get 8,000 points. Or "Spend your Points" event, where you get bonus points for spending a certain amount of them.

That's all I've got right now, if there's anything I need to add please let me know!