How to read Coupon Match-Ups

8/3/2011

Welcome back!! I hope you are enjoying your couponing journey with me! This week we are going to learn how to read my coupon match-ups. 

So what does coupon match-up mean? A coupon match-up is when you take the sales circulars from The Blade and match up the best prices with coupons that are available.  That is how you are going to find the best deals on items – not by using the coupons as soon as they come out but by holding onto them until you find a great sale to go along with it.

I only match-up items that I think are a good deal. If I see toothpaste on sale for $2.99 that week, I probably won’t be listing it in my match-ups as this is not a good price in my book.

Here is what a typical coupon match-up will look like:

               Nestle Nesquik Pouches – $1.09
               $0.50/1 Nestle Product – 6/5 RP
               Final Price: $0.09

So the example above lists the product – in this case Nesquik – and the sales price at the store. The next line will show the coupon available for that particular product.  The coupon match-up will list out the value of the coupon and will tell you what insert the coupon came from. In this case, the Nesquik coupon was for $0.50 and came from the 6/5 Red Plum Insert.  The last line will tell you the final price of the item at that particular store. In this case, Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50 so this coupon is actually worth $1.00 making the item $0.09 after coupon.

So the next question is – What is a Red Plum Insert?  Each week The Blade will have coupon inserts from different companies.  Typically The Blade will have a Smart Source and Red Plum Insert each week. Once a month you will receive a Proctor & Gamble and occasionally you will receive a General Mills Insert.  Here are the abbreviations that I will use for these inserts.

                SS  - Smart Source

                RP – Red Plum

                P&G – Proctor & Gamble

                GM – General Mills

I hope this helps you understand how to read my coupon match-ups. Please feel free to email me if you have questions.  Make sure to check back on Sunday. This is when the coupon matchups are posted!

You can find my blog at www.savingmoneyintoledo.com where I post many money saving deals each day.