I was curious if paying for coupons was a smart move after reader Eve mentioned how TheCouponMaster.com had saved her money. The way it works is the site charges you a handling fee for clipping the coupon and mailing it to you. Paying for coupons outright is illegal.
What made me curious about the site is being able to get my hands on a lot of coupons for the the few products I buy that have coupons. I do a lot of my grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, which does not accept coupons. (But in most cases, at least for the products I buy, their prices are still lower.) When I go through a Sunday newspaper insert, I’m lucky if I find 3 coupons to clip. So being able to order multiples of coupons I will use is hot stuff.
Most coupons at TheCouponMaster cost between $.08 and $.50. You can search for coupons by category, date added, or keyword. The category that had the most selection was Health and Beauty Aides. I found the Meat and Dairy sections to be woefully inadequate.
Here’s what I ended up buying:
3 x Right Guard, Dry Idea or Soft & Dri Products $1.00/2 = $0.24
4 x Mitchum or Mitchum for Women Product $.75/1 = $0.32
3 x Degree Men or Women Anti-Perspirant/Deodorant $.75/1 = $0.30
3 x Clearasil Product $2.00/1 = $0.45
8 x Garnier Fructis Shampoo, Conditioner or Treatment $1.00/1 = $0.80
3 x Breyers Ice Cream $1.00/2 = $0.30
6 x Aquafresh $.75/1 Premium Toothpaste = $.60
With shipping and a processing fee I paid $3.95 for $29.75 worth of coupons. If I use 4-5 of them I’ll make my money back. Of course, I did not find a wide variety of coupons – but at least I won’t have to buy deodorant and shampoo for a year! And the whole process took me about 20 minutes – not a bad hourly rate!
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
Trader Joe’s accepts coupons. I’ve used them for Morningstar Burgers and Laughing Cow cheese.
Truly, the best way to find coupons is to put “[product I want] coupons” in a search bar and they will likely come up.
Right, Trader Joe’s accepts manufacturer coupons for brand names, but they don’t issue coupons for their in-house label.
By using coupons (and coupling them with sales) is a great way to start building a good stockpile. Glad that you were able to find some coupons you were able to use.
*smiles*
I purchase only the “good”ones that I know I will use. like today I order 10 coupons for free cans of dog food
I use lots of personal hygiene item coupons becuse I purchase products for a local women’s shelter. It takes quite a bit of time clipping, sorting and going to the different stores where the items are on sale. But I make a hobby of it and have some fun, knowing it is for a good cause. I think I will look into ordering extra coupons from this website.
I used Coupons and Things by DeDe when I bought coupons. The prices were more reasonable and I found that they had a larger selection. I simply paid the per coupon handling fee of approx. .08-.10 each, and I got 25 coupons for $2.50. If you look ahead on Hot Coupon World for upcoming sales, you can order coupons accordingly and really double or triple your savings because so many items are FREE when you shop at Walgreens or CVS, if you have one near you.
I’ve always wondered if paying for my coupons outright would be cheaper than paying for the postage for my coupon train.
For me, I plan my shopping out by what’s on sale that week that I also happen to have a coupon for, which means that I switch brands and products all the time. I save most of my money on the original markdown, the coupons are more just the icing on the cake. I’m not sure cherry picking my coupons would help much when I’m getting a deluge of hundreds of coupons for roughly $1.25 in my mailbox each week.