[Tracy Winters]

Great Idea

Cynthia & Catherine,

Thank you very much for bringing up the subjects of coupon exchange groups and especially Military Commissaries. I’ve posted it here.

I think that giving away grocery and food coupons that you don’t use to our armed forces stationed abroad is the minimum we can do to show our support and appreciation to them.

Since I don’t have anyone in my family to send grocery coupons to, I’ve searched and found a program called Overseas Coupon Program (OCP) that enables everyone, even those that has no family members in the armed forces, to send their expired coupons to them.

I’ve signed up with the program, and once a month I’m sending them all the coupons that I don’t use, expired as well as none. I think that every one with a heart should sign up as well.

If you want to participate as well follow the link above for details.

[Tracy Winters]

Technically No. In reality – Yes

Technically – you’re not allowed to buy or sell coupons. It doesn’t matter if it’s on eBay or anywhere else. That is the manufacturers” policy.

They distribute different coupons at different communities, and don’t want people messing up with their promotions strategy. However, as you’ve suggested, they can’t force their policy because they can’t hunt down millions. In addition people claim that they give away the coupons for free and only charge money for a service they provide – which is theoretically legal.

Interestingly – eBay itself allows selling manufacturer coupons on its site. It used to ban it for some time, but changed its policy not long ago. eBay does have a few rules for selling coupons, though. Here are a few highlights:

You can

• Sell unexpired paper coupons or inserts (max 100 coupons or 5 whole inserts at a time, max 20 identical coupons).
• Sell max 2 coupons for Free Products
• Sell max 2 coupons printed from the internet

You can’t

• Sell expired coupons (they regard this a s fraud).
• Sell scanned coupons (coupons that aren’t original)
• sell coupons that has been recalled by the manufacturers, or coupons for products that have been recalled by the manufacturers

If your interested, here’s the link to eBay’s coupon policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/manufacturers-coupons.html

[Tracy Winters]

Realistic Couponing Vs. Extreme Couponing

Aimee,

I get a few emails every day with the same question and complaints.

Unfortunately, that show has given people unrealistic expectations for couponing and given most couponers unfair representation.

Don’t expect to get 90% savings. Remember – it’s a TV show, not real life.

Many stores that you see on the show have allowed these people to coupon limitlessly. But they do impose limits on everyone else.

50% saving is pretty good, and that means that you’re a good couponer.

Doing more than that will require some extreme measures. Are you willing to do dumpster diving? Are you ready to Stockpile for 4 years? And how does investing 60+ hours a week sounds like?

I’m not sure it’s worth the effort…

With that in mind – if you want to improve your couponing skills then you may find this site, and especially the Smart Coupon Strategy very helpful.

[Tracy Winters]

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the contribution. I’ve posted it on the here.

[Author]

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