Printable coupons Pros and Cons
I had to wait a while before jumping on the coupon bandwagon because I didn’t have any ink but when I found a deal for ink at Staples I was well on my way to saving hundreds on stuff I normally buy anyway every month. These coupons are usually a higher value than those offered in the paper so they can be a great way to increase your money saving opportunities. There are some pros and cons to them though.
One of this biggest cons is that most printable coupons have a print limit so if they are a popular item or extremely high value they will go fast. Sometimes even within a few hours. But if you can grab them in time they can be extremely money saving and worth the ink and paper spent on printing.
Which brings me to the other con. The price of printing can get pretty expensive but check your office store of choice for rewards. I use Staples rewards and they have 10% rewards on their printer supplies which means I get rewards back for buying them anyway and then if you find things through-out the month to earn you more rewards you can get your ink and paper free to cheap this way. They also give you $2 rewards for turning in empty ink cartridges (limit 10 a month). I picked up some paper this month with my rewards and coupons for 3.34 out of pocket (OOP) and recieved a 4.99 easy rebate which I got back in PayPal but had the option for a check. So the paper was a money maker. I got $1 reward for the paper as well plus I have 12.99 coming from a battery purchase and 3.50 from my previous ink purchase making my rewards total next month a whopping 17.49. That’s more than enough to pay for my printer ink so that will be free next time making all of my printable coupons free to me to print in April. Can’t beat that!
The cons may have kept you from printing before but I hope this post helps you see that if you use internet coupons you could be saving so much more and work those coupons to pay for the paper and ink you’re using anyway. I hardly even pick up the paper for their coupons unless I see a really great sale would be even better with a coupon coming out Sunday.
Don’t forget those rebates too! Most of them want you to print out the form and send in with your proofs and receipt. I know this week that you could have bought a Tangled DVD for under $10 WITH a free Color Wonder if you take advantage of rebates. I’m still working on making rebates work for me since the money has to come out of your pocket up front and sometimes it’s just not there but there’s quite a bit of freebies to have this way if you can make it work for you.
I hope this helps with any concerns you might have had about printable coupons. It can really be a moneymaker and Walmart allows for overages so if a coupon doesn’t exclude trial sizes you could pick something up cheap and get the overage applied to your cart purchase. This can help to pay taxes on any free item coupons you might have scored that week. Happy printing.
Posted on March 31, 2011, in Tips for Newbie Couponers. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
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