Frugal Tips for College Kids Part 1

I would like to write a series of posts featuring my money-saving tips for college students, because saving money as a student can be totally different than saving money for others.  However, some of these tips can apply to anyone, too!

Couponing

**These aren’t tips for extreme couponing, these are just basic suggestions for using coupons to help save money here and there. Later, I will post further tips for more extreme couponing

One of my pet peeves is people who don’t think that using coupons is worth it.  I once posted on facebook how proud I was of myself for spending only $40 on $100 worth of groceries.  Some of my friends asked me for tips, but one of my college friends posted that she never uses coupons because there aren’t coupons for the things she buys.  This blew me away.  There are coupons for everything out there; you just need to know where to look!

Even if you don’t use coupons for everything, saving $.50 or $1 here and there can really add up.  I once read an article about a woman who decided to put every cent she saved in a separate savings account, even if she only saved $.25 in a trip.  At the end of the year, she had over $300 in that account.  It adds up!

So here are some tips for you to find coupons you will use. 

• Find Coupons Online
  There are multiple places to find coupons for brand name products online! Here are just a few of them: 
  • Coupons.com
  • SmartSource.com
  • Redplum.com
  • Sign up for e-mail newsletters from brands.  Sometimes their newsletter will contain coupons.
  • Another option is to just type “[enter brand name here] coupon” in your search engine and see what comes up!
• Sunday Paper
• Some college campuses provide the local paper for free to their students.  If you live off campus, chances are that buying just the Sunday Paper will pay off with the coupons you will find.  Don’t be ashamed to leaf through the inserts before you buy the paper to make sure you’ll use what you’re buying!
• Contacting Companies for Coupons
• Many companies will give you coupons if you ask.  So if you think there are no coupons out there for your favorite food, you’re probably wrong!  I’m currently working on a list of companies that will mail you coupons if you ask.  Will be posted in a week or two!
• Coupon Trading
• One site I use is Mysavings.com.  Sign up for an account, and you are able to view what coupons other member have up for trade.  Offer up yours, and see if you can work something out.  Some members will trade for Boxtops, others for MyCokeRewards caps, and still others for freebies, so even if you don’t have a coupon collection, you can trade something!
• Look in Grocery Store Ads or In Store
• Grocery stores will sometimes print manufacturer’s coupons in their weekly ads to add to their sales, so make sure to pick up the ad as you walk in the store
• Manufacturers will send “tear off” coupons to the store, which are displayed next to the product.  For these, I usually take 4 or 5 to use later, if not right away.  Usually these coupons don’t expire for a while, so you’re safe with taking extras and using them later.

Those are the basic couponing tips I have.  See?  No excuse for not using coupons! 

If you have any basic couponing tips you think I could add to the list, let me know!  I’m totally open to suggestions!