Most of you probably use a deal site to find all the match up deals every week for the stores, which is wonderful and why us bloggers do it! I am all about making life simple for my readers. But, bloggers make mistakes. It happens, we’re human, there’s no way around it.
It’s easy to match up sales and coupons yourself! In fact I highly recommend everyone know how to do it and not fully depend on someone else to find the deals for you. While it’s great to see a list up on my site of the deals there are some that I don’t deem to be a great deal or possibly something I overlook that would be a great deal to you.
First step – Organize your coupons :
(the above is a method I used to use to organize whole inserts)
If you use a full insert filing method – If you don’t already do this, I highly suggest it. Each week when you get your inserts in to go through them and write down/type up a list of the coupons that are included in that inserts. You can list it by the value and product only if you like. You need something you can quickly skim over to see what coupons are included in that week’s insert.
If you use a binder method – Having your coupon sorted this way will make it much easier and quicker to do your own match ups. Just make sure that you have the value and item for the coupon showing (always recommended) so when you flip to a certain category you can quickly skim over the coupons.
You can also use the coupon database on my website to find coupons for any product you’re searching for, this comes in handy with printable coupons, blinkies, store coupons, inserts, etc. It’s all there and makes doing your own match ups super easy!
Second Step – Go through the Ad :
Pull out your weekly Ads for the stores you’re interested in shopping at for that week. First go through and circle any items, deal, etc. that seem to be a great value, offer a reward or may just be an item you regularly purchase.Most of the higher value deals are listed on the front and back of the Ad (this is popular with drug stores) but always skim through the entire ad to see all the deals.
And make sure to snag a local newspaper (or a few copies) for all the coupons to match up with sales!
Third – Match it up :
Once you have all the items you’re interested in or are just great prices, you can them search your coupons to see if there are any good coupons to match with it or use the coupon database and type in the product name (ie. if it’s a type of Oscar Mayer product, you can just type in Oscar Mayer and it will pull up everything under that brand).
I suggest having your store coupons with your other coupons so you can skim through those also, or you can find store coupons in the coupon database as well.
How do I create a big match up scenario?
This really depends on the deals listed in the ad and also depends on your experience and willing to work the math.
Let’s say you see a deal at CVS for a $10 gas card WYB $30 worth of products.
First skim through the products listed to A) see if anything in there interests you (remember, it’s not a deal if you don’t need it). B) Look through your coupons or use the database to see if there are any coupons out there to match with the sale.
Let’s say Herbal Essence & Aussie Hair care products are included in the deal and priced at $3 each.
Look through your coupons or my database and see you have coupons for $3 off styling products and $1 off shampoo or conditioner products, all of those items are included in the gas card deal at CVS. So you would sit down and first do the math to see how many products you would need to purchase (just these or mix and match with other gas card sale items). Once you figure up how many items are needed for this deal you can start subtracting the total amount of coupons you would use with these items.
Example : the deal requires that you buy 10 of shampoo, conditioner or styling products to reach the $30 mark. You have (6) $1 off shampoos or conditioner and (6) $3 off Styling products. Since you only need 10 products to meet the $30 requirement you only need to use 10 coupons. Obviously the $3 off is a better deal than the $1 coupon so you would use more of those. So you buy 6 things of styling products and 4 things of shampoo.
You would subtract a total of $18 ($3cpm x 6 products) and a total of $4 ($1 coupon x 4 products) that gives you 10 coupons for 10 items and takes a total of $21 off your $30 requirement, leaving your total at just $9 before tax. You would get a $10 gas card back from this deal making it all free after the gift card!
How do I organize my shops and match ups?
You can do what I do (though I don’t recommend it) and do your match while you’re in the store and can physically see what products are included in the sale. This requires work in the store and for you to stand there with a calculator in hand checking your math 5 times before going to the checkout counter.
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