Jill Cataldo


Nationally-syndicated money-saving columnist
Blogger, workshop instructor & savings enthusiast
Read by more than 20 million people each week

Smart ways to save on shopping, home, travel and living well!

Jill’s shared her savings methods with:

How to use this site

By:

As we have new people joining the blog every week, I thought I’d post a few quick notes on how to make the most out of using this site.

  • Welcome! The “Deals of the Week” feature of my blog primarily has a Chicagoland focus, though now that my newspaper column, “Super-Couponing Tips” is syndicated nationwide, it also attracts readers from all over the country.
  • SAVE your newspaper inserts. When you get coupon inserts in your Sunday newspaper, save them all. Don’t cut anything out, and don’t remove the pages. You’re going to need the inserts intact in order to be able to find the coupons easily later! Just write the date on the front — then, stick the insert in a folder or expandable file and keep it.

    Coupons in inserts typically don’t expire for 3 months or more, but some can have expiration dates as far out as 9-12 months! So you never want to throw an insert away until every coupon in it is outdated — and don’t just pay attention to the things you think you’ll buy, either. You might be throwing coupons away for things that will be free later (really! Just ask any of the readers of the blog!) So keep them ALL.

    See this method illustrated on my Super-Couponing site!

  • My weekly deals page will reference each insert by an abbreviation, like “9/7 SS”. This refers to the SmartSource insert from September 7th. Here’s a primer on insert abbreviations:

    SS = SmartSource
    RP = RedPlum
    PG = Procter & Gamble
    KL = Kelloggs
    GM = General Mills
    U = Unilever
    AY = All You Magazine

    (All You is not a requirement for using the site, but if you like coupons, you will probably really enjoy it. It’s a cheap ($2.49 an issue) magazine that is absolutely filled with coupons each month — typically $50-$100 worth each month. Many grocery websites are now tracking the All You coupons and matching them to deals, just as they do with the newspaper coupon inserts. You can subscribe to All You online and save about $10/year off the cover price. And depending on the values, if you use 2 or 3 coupons alone from each issue, you’ve recouped the cost of the magazine, and you’re on your way to even bigger savings!)

    I post “Deals of the Week” every week. The deals reference coupons that appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Other newspapers do not have nearly as many coupons, so if you subscribe to another paper, you may not have the same coupons these deals are calling for. The largest newspaper in any market has the most coupons, and in Chicagoland, that’s the Tribune.

    It’s also a good idea to hang onto your weekly store flyers (grocery, drugstore, and general merchandise.)

    Hope this helps! Enjoy the weekly deals and the rest of the site! If you like these deals, please consider coming to one of my Super-Couponing classes! Most are FREE in the Chicagoland area, and you will learn how to find deals like these on just about everything that you buy!

    If you have any questions, please feel free to post them on the blog. I post under the screen name Coupon Maven.

    Welcome, and enjoy!

    — Jill

Comments

  1. Hi Jill,
    Is there a site, such as Coupon Tom, that tracks the All You coupons? If not, how do you track what’s in each magazine or do you clip them?
    Thanks!
    P

  2. Hi Jill!

    Do you happen to know how often the coupon sites like smartsource & coupons.com are updated with new coupons?
    Thanks!

  3. I was just wondering…..

    If you have a coupon that says buy 3 get $1.00 off can you use two other coupons on the other two items that you buy?

    You buy 3 boxes of cereal. you have a coupon for buy 3 get $1.00 off. Can you use a .35 cent off and a .50 cent off on the other two boxes of cereal?

  4. I am very new at this so this may seem like a silly question, but i have to ask. Are the coupons printed off the internet manufacturer’s coupons, and if so can they be stacked with manufacturer’s coupons found in the paper?

  5. Attended your Super Couponing class in Huntley. I can’t wait to get started. I’ve already informed my husband that I will no longer be shopping on Thursday and that we need to get the Trib this Sunday. While I’m looking forward to giving this a try, I don’t want to wind up like your friend who couldn’t buy food because she was buying all the cleaning products. What would you say is the first step for super-couponing? Should I wait until I’ve accumulated a larger selection of coupons? Should I concentrate on getting familiar with my store’s coupon sites? Thank you for your guidance.

  6. I STRONGLY recommend FireFox as a safe and secure alternative to IE for all web browsing. I require approval for all cookies, accept most for the session only (so that sites that require them work, but nothing gets permanently stored on my computer), reject third party cookies, and use Adblocker Plus to suppress virtually all ads.

  7. I’m a newbie at this, and this is probably redundant for the pro’s, but I’ve been printing an idex of the coupons by manufacturer in each insert using coupontom.com. This is the link that is on the top of my screen

    https://supercouponing.coupontom.com/coupons/valid

    I got there by scrolling to the bottom of the home page, clicking on “partner with tom” and then clicking on the example link. In the example, you can see all the unexpired coupons in an insert. (The week it comes out, they are all unexpired, thus all there.) I click on the insert I want, highlight the coupons in the insert, and then “print selection.” (Otherwise it prints all the inserts.) I staple this to the front of my insert.

    Hope I’m not copyright infringing here, but I love the index. The electronic “clip” wasn’t always working for me, and I love to be able to scan the inserts in the store if I see something I remember.

    Thanks Tom and Jill!!! You are making my grocery bill so much smaller!

  8. So I am clear on what I am reading…. You post the deals on Tuesdays (July 28 Deals) so that is only good that day and Wednesday? You write: “Any GROCERY store deals run through Wednesdays of the week they’re posted.” Am I reading/understanding this correctly? If not please explain..thanks.

  9. Attended your Joliet class on Sat 8/1- FANTASTIC! THANK YOU. I went to Couponmom site and it didn’t show the BEST deal of the week: Jewel has BOGO Fannie Mae Ice Cream and the SS also has a BOGO coupon………..I almost missed out on this -where else could I have gone to see this so as not to have missed out.

    Thanx – coupondiana@yahoo.com

  10. My daughter in law went to one of your classes at the libray and told my daughter and myself about it. It is great. My husband and I are both retired and when I can save money shopping it is very good for us. I went to Jewel today to buy a a few things. I spent $92.00 and I got back $31.00 to spend the next time I go to Jewel again. Wow, that was great. I will continue to use your site and look forward to saving lots of money this year. Thanks again.

  11. Hi Jill,

    My cousin, Jean turned me onto your website, I orded the ‘all you’ magazine and picked up my first sunday paper today. Have pulled the RP and SS inserts. Where does one find the P&G inserts? KL, GM and U – where are those? Jill, Thanks so much for all your efforts and mostly for sharing with everyone… Jean, I reall appreciate you dropping off the website for me to look at. I got free coupons for Tangs from Restaruant.com for the next movie ! Luv you much, Mary Ann :)

  12. now you post your deals on Monday mornings, not Tuesdays….you may want to change that part in your “How To Use This Site” piece. Thanks for that piece, by the way, I have been doing this for over a year and always learn more from you!! Thanks, Jill!

  13. How many newspapers do you get delievered to your house each week? I have heard some people ordering 2 or 3 and others ordering for as many people as are in their household. What do you reccommend? As I am new to the site and dont know much about couponing , do you do all of your weekly deals like you have posted for the week of May 10th? I think its awesome awesome and helps me to figure out where to go – thanks!

  14. i seen the sherk reuseable bag..i love it !!! where can i find those at???

  15. Newbie on the website.

    I just can’t understand how this method of holding all the coupon inserts is efficient. I have been a couponer for years and years (the family says, “don’t ask her if she has a coupon, just ask her what the coupon is for!”) I have always used coupon files sorted by items; e.g “Cereals,” “Dairy Items.” Do you try to remember what is in the inserts or do you go through them each time the grocery ads come out?

    We are very fortunate in Tucson that there is stiff competition in the grocery stores–we have 5 major chains that put out ads each week and just about everyone doubles all coupons up to $1. Of late, ALL coupons (even .05) are worth $1.
    When I see a good sale on an item I just refer to my file to check my coupons. Granted, I do throw out a lot on expiration dates (I check through on the 1st of each month), but I think it would drive me crazy to go through each insert each week. Maybe, however, I am missing the wisdom in this.

    Thanks.

jillcataldoheadshotI'm Jill Cataldo, founder of Super-Couponing® workshops and author of the nationally-syndicated newspaper column and video series "Super-Couponing Tips" enjoyed by over 20 million people each week.

Want to live well on less? Read full bio

Blogger Badges

JillCataldo.com contains affiliate marketing links and promotional offers. Read full Privacy and Disclosure Statement for details, blogger network affiliations and advertising/PR information.