Be frugal like Paul :) Part II - Coupon Codes

Coupons are good. Repeat after me, coupons are good. That's coupons as in KOO-pons, not Q-pons. As I've mentioned in the past, I always check those Hot Deal forums before I buy anything, and it goes without saying that I never buy anything without first checking if there are any coupons available.

No, coupon is not a dirty word, it's not an admittance of any weakness, cheesiness or cheapness. You don't have to hide your face or use some pseudonym. It's plain common sense. You'd be foolish to just hand over your money and not use a coupon when there was one available. It's just like buying something on sale. You wouldn't pay full price for something if it was on sale would you? You do like sales don't you?

Coupons are free money, not just a couple of cents off, and usually worth significant chunks 'o change. All it takes is a few extra seconds of time to enter in a coupon code. It's like your secret pass to savings. Stores offer them as incentives to buy from them. They're there for you to use. So use them.

Like the coupons you get in the mail or newspaper, the web equivalent of the coupon is a coupon code. Since you don't present a physical coupon to a cashier, you just enter in a coupon code at checkout, and voila! free savings.

Coupon codes can be made up of numbers, letters or both. There are both single use coupon codes and multiple or unlimited use coupon codes. The single use coupon code means that it can only be used once, usually only by one person so you can't share it with your friend. Most coupon codes out there are multiple use, or unlimited use coupon codes which means that you, your friend, your friend's friend and dog can use the coupon as many times as you wish. Oh yeah!

You can find tons of coupon codes in the Hot Deal Forums like FatWallet.com, or just do a google search for the terms "coupon" and a store name. FatWallet.com even has a list of stores and the available coupon codes for that particular store. As an additional bonus to using the coupon codes, there are programs that offer "rebates" or "cash back" when you use a special link when you make a purchase at a participating store. I'll talk about that in the next part of this "frugal" series.

So remember, always first check if there's a coupon code for a store before you buy anything. And please, do me a favor, if you're intent on buying something at full blown list price, send me the money that you were going to spend on it. I'll buy it for you and deliver it to your house (and keep whatever savings I can make). And while you're at it, send me all your free air miles since you're probably not too interested in those freebies either ;)

Bottom line: Coupons = free money. And free is good.