This is Part 5 in a series on Couponing Basics to Extreme and Everything in Between that even a very beginner can master this month. Today’s topic is Where to Use Coupons?

Whether or not you are trying to eat healthier,  feed your family more nutritious meals, or just get that paycheck to stretch until the next paycheck we could all save a little money using coupons. My hope is that after you have learned and implemented my tips and resources you will be able to strategically use coupons as a tool in your mom toolbox to save your family money.

In case this is the first time you have came to my blog my name is Shannah Holt and I’m a mom of 8 kids (and 8 furbabies). I’m also a SAHM that has homeschooled for about 15 years now, so living on one income and sometimes less than that with a large family I’ve had to learn the hard way how to stretch that paycheck to survive. I just want to share my tips so you don’t have to go through as much struggle as I have.

Here is a video from a live presentation I did on my Facebook page. I do post tips each day if you would like to check them out here is my page: Fit Frugal Life Facebook Page

There are 2 important factors in deciding where to use coupons. The first is location. If you live in a pretty good size city you will find ample stores to shop that will take coupons and offer good sales to match with them. If you live in a smaller area you may have to do a little more research on whether you will save more money driving to the next bigger city or staying where you are and shopping at the limited stores in your area. More than likely it will be a better pay off driving up to an hour away from home. The second is to know the store’s coupon policies. Unfortunately, different stores have different coupon rules.

In Part 2  I explained the lingo and what the fine print means on a few of the more confusing coupons.  The store’s coupon policies have fine print as well. Some are not even easy to find and even more misunderstood by the cashiers checking you out. So it will be up to you to understand the rules and to carry a copy with you to the store. But if nothing else, at least read them. Coupon polices save you from wasting time trying a coupon that the store doesn’t allow. And when you know you’re right, you can confidently appeal to management or CSM at Walmart. I’ve had to do that a time or two.

Just because a coupon’s fine print says it can be doubled does not mean the store doubles coupons. As a matter a fact most stores do not double coupons at all. See the store gets reimbursed from the manufacturer of the product you are purchasing and they are only paying the store the face value of the coupon. If the store doubles they are actually taking that loss for themselves. I’ve even seen stores do triple coupons but that is rare. Walmart does not do any kind of doubling and Aldi’s doesn’t even take coupons at all.

Another coupon rule that is frequently different at many stores is whether or not they allow overage. Overage is when a coupon is worth more than the value of the product. Say you have a 50c off coupon on a can of soup and the store will double that coupon. What if the can only costs 75c? Some stores will still double the coupon and that extra 25c goes off your total checkout purchase owed to the store. Other stores will only double up to the price value of 75c. Then again other stores will only do the 50c off. Walmart doesn’t do doubling but they do overage most of the time. Some stores have a limit on how many they will double per item, per order or per day. There was a coupon a couple years ago that took $5 off Tena products and did not specify the size it had to be. Everyone ran to Walmart and purchased the $2.47 item. That ended up attracting a lot of attention when customers were not purchasing anything else and had to pay change for 30 packages of pads. So the best way to handle overage is to make sure you have extra items in your cart.

Today I’m providing a list of links to store coupon policies so that you can find them all in one place and print them off for your coupon binder. Let me know if you have a store I didn’t have in the list and I will add it. Also if you are confused about any coupon policy comment below and I would be happy to help you figure it out.

Store Coupon Policies

1. Bi Lo Coupon Policy
2. Commissary
3. County Market Coupon Policy
4. Country Mart Coupon Policy
5. CVS COUPON POLICY
6. DOLLAR GENERAL COUPON POLICY
7. DOMINICK’S COUPON POLICY
8. FAMILY DOLLAR COUPON POLICY
9. FOOD LION COUPON POLICY
10. Harps Coupon Policy
11. HARRIS TEETER COUPON POLICY
12. Hays coupon policy
13. HYVEE COUPON POLICY
14. Kroger coupon policy
15. Meijer Coupon Policy
16. PUBLIX COUPON POLICY
17. RITE AID COUPON POLICY
18. SAFEWAY COUPON POLICY
19. Schnucks coupon policy
20. Shop N Save
21. TARGET COUPON POLICY
22. VONS COUPON POLICY
23. WALGREENS COUPON POLICY
24. WALMART COUPON POLICY
25. Winn Dixie coupon policy
26. Whole Foods coupon policy

Did I miss a store that you would like me to add to the list? Comment below!