You Can't Coupon in Hawaii!

"You can't coupon in Hawaii," "Hawaii doesn't have double coupons," are statements that I hear all the time.  However, couponing is Hawaii is actually something everyone living in Hawaii should be doing.  The cost of living is very high here because we live on an island, so everything needs to be shipped here.

I started couponing about 2-3 years ago.  It was something that I grasped quite quickly.  One of my favorite savings was purchasing 12 tubes of toothpaste for a total of $1.47 from Longs which is also known as CVS.

So many people that I have encountered have said, "they don't give coupons for things I buy." Well, who doesn't use toothpaste?"  Exactly, we all use toothpaste everyday. Many of us brush our teeth 2-3 times a day.  So, ask yourself this, "how many tubes of toothpaste do you go through in a month?" Now ask yourself, "how much did that tube of toothpaste cost you?" Did you spend more that 0.12 cents?  

Granted there are people in the states that don't spend more than just the tax on toothpaste and I have as well here in Hawaii, but those types of sales, here that is, are rare.  I am sure if I had all the time in the world then I would spend more time on trying to get the sales and I did at one point, but then it wouldn't help the average person who works full time and has a family to take care of.  When you are trying to get people to save money by couponing then you need to take in to consideration that the average person has to do so many things in a day in addition to working or going to school or like me both, plus taking kids to extra curricular activities, cleaning the house, making dinner, going shopping for food, etc.  

My goal is to get you to save money with causing little to no interference or inconvenience in your day to day life.  So, how do you do that?  

Well, I am going to explain to you just that.  Remember I told you I bought 12 tubes of toothpaste for $1.47 making each toothpaste 0.12 cents.  Here is how I did that.  I used manufacture coupons in addition to Longs (also known as CVS) coupons.  Yup, I stacked coupons in Hawaii.  See a lot of people don't understand how you use coupons.  Don't stress because I am going to teach you how and walk you step by step.  

I used my coupons when the toothpaste was already on sale that way I could get more savings.  Let's say that the store has toothpaste on sale, but you already have toothpaste.  Many people won't buy because they already have another tube in their cabinet.  That's where your thinking about it all wrong.  When that tube of toothpaste is gone your going to need toothpaste, but now that store no longer has it on sale. So you find yourself buying toothpaste at full price.  

The second trick to couponing is buying more than what you usually buy.  I am not trying to get you buy all the toothpaste in the store like some people do when they coupon.  I just want you to buy enough toothpaste, so that way you can have enough to last you until it goes on sale again, but also when you will have a coupon for it.  

The third trick to couponing is getting to understand your stores sale cycle.  Here in Hawaii most items will go on sale again in 6-8 weeks.  That means if you use 1 tube of toothpaste a month, then you need 2 tubes of toothpaste, so that you can get it on sale. 

The fourth trick to couponing is matching your stores sale cycle with your coupon cycle.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, specific coupons are printed on a cycle.  This means that you could have a coupon for toothpaste, but it won't go on sale for another 4 weeks and vice versa.  

Once you figure out trick 4, you will never have to buy toothpaste at regular price or for that matter you will never even buy toothpaste at sale price again.  That's right you could literally be buying toothpaste for 0.12 cents in Hawaii.  Now how many of you want that type of savings?

Is Couponing a Waste of Time?

Couponing can take up a significant amount of time especially in the beginning. You need to cut out your coupons, organize them, perhaps in a binder or file folder, and maybe remember what you have in the process. Some people buy the newspaper to get the weekly ads and other people buy inserts in bulk from distributors to get the manufacture coupons. It's really hard not to get overwhelmed while looking through your weekly ads and going through your cut coupons at the same time. One good practice is to create a list for each store.

For example: say you have coupons for Tide laundry detergent that is currently on sale at Target.
- Pull that Tide coupon out of your binder
- Start a grocery list for "Target"
- Write down the item "Tide"
- Write down Target's sale price
- Write down how much your coupon is for
- Rinse and repeat for the rest of the other stores!

Keep in mind that lots of stores will have the same products on sale during the same week.  So it would be beneficial to scour your weekly ads to find the best deal on that Tide, so that when you apply your manufacture coupon, it will be that much cheaper!