Maybe couponing has changed in the last 10 years, but it’s still possible to build a couponing stockpile.
It’ll take you longer since grocery stores don’t really double coupons anymore. But you can definitely do it when you use these coupon stockpiling strategies.
New to couponing? Read our Beginner’s Guide!
1. Use the Krazy Coupon Lady app to organize your deals.
KCL recently introduced Grocery Deal Alerts inside the KCL app.
This is a grocery-shopping game changer, because not only will the KCL app point you to couponing deals worth your time, but now it’ll give you a notification on your phone when there’s a deal on an item you need to buy.
Just enable notifications inside the app and then select brands you’re interested in like Dove, Huggies, Nabisco and more.
When a certain item in your stockpile is getting low, that’s when you should enable deal alerts. Set it and forget it until there’s a deal!
2. Plan to stock up on household items first — they don’t expire.
The trouble with slowly stockpiling food is you run the risk of items expiring before you’ve completed your six-month supply.
It’s not as big of a problem for items that have a shelf life of a year or so, but for items that expire in a couple months, it will be challenging to get a full six-month supply before they reach expiration dates.
You won’t have this issue with household items like laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, body wash, razors and more. Plus, these are probably the spendiest items on your grocery list — another good reason to tackle them first.
RELATED: How to Never Pay Full Price for Laundry Detergent
3. Focus on Ibotta offers you can redeem up to five times per receipt.
Ibotta is a no-brainer when it comes to couponing, and the app just keeps improving.
Now you can use Ibotta offers to stock up on items. Look for offers that say “Limit 5” — this means you can buy five on the same receipt, and since you’re not using coupons, the store won’t know or care.
For example, let’s say Walgreens has a sale on Suave body wash and it’s $1.50 per bottle (reg. $2.59). Then you find an Ibotta offer for $0.75/1 Suave body wash. After you submit your receipt, you’ll have scored five body washes for $0.75 each — saving $1.84 each, or 71%!
4. Combine Target mobile coupon offers with manufacturer coupons.
For example, when you see a baby-purchase mobile coupon inside the Target app, it’ll often say something like “FREE $15 Target GiftCard with baby wipes, diapers and training pants purchase of $75 or more.”
Don’t be brand loyal — look for manufacturer coupons for any brands and especially for any brands Target has listed for sale. Combine your coupons with the Target mobile coupon, and stock up on baby products.
5. Instead of buying four identical items in one transaction, buy four different items four times.
Stay with me here — the traditional way to stockpile is to use the maximum number of coupons possible in each transaction (usually it’s four).
But coupon print limits have changed, and sometimes there are limits to how many “like” coupons you can use in a transaction.
For example, depending on the store, some coupons only allow two of one type of coupon per transaction. And you can often only use one P&G coupon at a time (and they’ll expire 24 hours after you print!).
Work around this by doing up to four different deals at one time, but group each transaction with different items so you’re only using one coupon on each item per transaction.
For example, do four transactions of a bottle of Tide, a pack of Pampers, Bounce dryer sheets and Dawn dish soap.
If you have coupons for all items, you’ll still be able to stock up — you’ll just need to do more transactions and stockpile more things at once.
6. Sign your spouse up for all the couponing apps — Ibotta, Coupons.com, Target, etc.
This gives you twice the access to coupons because you can print two coupons for each mobile number on Coupons.com, and you’ll have a secondary phone to use to redeem Ibotta offers.
You’ll still need a unique receipt to redeem Ibotta offers from each phone, but you can do two separate “Limit 5” transactions as long as you have two receipts!
Of course, you’ll need to be sure you follow coupon rules — don’t do too many transactions at once, and pay attention to coupon fine print and store rules.
7. Stockpile freebie deals you find at drugstores like Walgreens and CVS.
Whenever you see a moneymaker or a freebie deal on an item your family uses, jump on it.
Drugstores are the best places to find these types of deals because their rewards programs offer “store cash” that you can spend on items to get them for free.
CVS has ExtraBucks and Walgreens has Register Rewards. Look for deals like “Buy 2, get $6 in ExtraBucks” and then within that promotion choose items on sale that you can buy with coupons. More often than not, this will result in a freebie.
You can use your ExtraBucks or Register Rewards just like cash on your next purchase.
UP NEXT: Check out KCL’s favorite couponing tips!
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