hey guys welcome back to my channel
today we're going to talk about how to
get started couponing with your phone
now i did a video on how to start
couponing in 2022 a few months back but
in that video i was also going over how
to use paper coupons and like how to
organize them and stuff and i just don't
feel like i put enough emphasis on how
easy couponing has become
in recent years and how you truly don't
need all of that stuff in order to
coupon and build a stockpile couponing
has really evolved lately and everything
is kind of trending towards going all
digital a lot of couponers are switching
over to only using digital coupons and i
know a lot of you have expressed in the
comments and in a couple polls that i've
done that you also much prefer
all digital deals over using paper
coupons and so
i feel like this deserves a video of its
own so in today's video we are going to
dive into
how to become a digital couponer and all
you're gonna need is your phone
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now before we dive into all that
juiciness i'm actually partnering with
the flu zap for this video and we're
gonna do a giveaway i asked them this
time if we could do an amazon gift card
and they said yes so we're gonna give
away two 50 amazon gift cards to enter
the giveaway all you have to do is sign
up with the fluz app with my referral
link down below i'll put it in the
description box it's totally free to
sign up and subscribe to the fluz
youtube channel so i'll have their
channel linked below as well and then
when you're done just leave a comment
here on this video letting me know that
you completed the steps and you will be
entered into the giveaway now what is
the flues app i'm glad you asked fluz is
a money-saving app that i've been using
for about a year now basically it gives
you cash back for purchasing gift cards
so instead of just going to the store
and swiping your debit card you're going
to go into the flues app first and
purchase a gift card for that store so
let's say you're going to go to cvs
right you're going to go in the flues
app purchase a cvs gift card earn cash
back for buying that gift card and then
you're gonna take the gift card and use
it at the store when you go and it's
based off percentages so different
stores offer different percentages of
cashback and some stores are considered
voucher stores which offer up to 35
cashback when you use a voucher which is
completely nuts and this includes stores
like cvs so if you coupon at cvs this is
really gonna up your couponing game
there um starbucks doordash there's
several more they have a pretty lengthy
list of stores that are considered
voucher stores and when you sign up with
my link you're automatically going to
get three vouchers that you can use so i
definitely recommend downloading give it
a try i'll put the link below okay back
to digital couponing first i want to go
over the pros and cons of being a
digital couponer versus using paper
coupons first of all digital coupons are
free and in most cases paper coupons are
not free because you have to buy the
newspaper to get the inserts or you have
to order your inserts from a coupon
fairy so definitely a pro that the
digitals are free because obviously
we're couponing to save money so the
fact you don't have to pay for the
coupons is a huge plus number two
digitals are easier to
use you're gonna have far less problems
at checkout if you're only using digital
coupons compared to if you're having to
hand the cashier a stack of coupons to
scan because we all know they don't
always scan now granted digital coupons
also don't always come off but i do find
that when i'm doing all digital
transactions more times than not the
transaction goes smoothly and i don't
have near as many issues digitals are
also less time consuming because if
you're getting paper coupons if you're
ordering the whole inserts at least
you're gonna have to sit down and cut
them out and you're gonna have to take
the time to organize them into some sort
of binder or whatever organization
system that you choose that's gonna take
time and lastly digitals are more
accessible coupon inserts have always
varied by region they will continue to
vary by region and it's just harder for
some people to get the good coupons
however on the flip side digital coupons
are not going to vary by region like
paper coupons do now don't get me wrong
digital coupons can vary by account and
they can also be purchase based so it
can still vary a little bit but it's
gonna be more like random and based off
your previous purchases rather than
based off the area you live in but for
the most part most of the manufactured
digital coupons that we get everybody's
gonna have now don't get me wrong i love
paper coupons you guys have seen me use
them in pretty much all of my youtube
videos in the past i've always used both
digital and paper and they do offer more
savings sometimes we get paper coupons
for items and we don't get a matching
digital for it also if you have the
paper coupons you can do a deal multiple
times and really stock up versus the
digital coupons they're only one time
use but you do in most cases have to pay
for them they're to take a lot of time
to cut and organize and they're just not
as accessible most people i think just
don't want to deal with that right now
especially when digital coupons and
rebates are so readily available like
they are now now if you are fairly new
to the coupon world you're probably
thinking alicia what the heck is a
digital coupon and how does it even work
great question a digital coupon is a
coupon that you clip to your online
account at certain stores like walgreens
or cvs and it's going to be connected to
your account in your phone number so
that when you go to the store and you
purchase the correct product you're
going to enter your phone number at
checkout and that coupon is
automatically going to come off that's
what makes them so easy another term
that you might want to get familiar with
is rebates rebates are also all digital
but they're not the same thing as
digital coupons because digital coupons
are something that come off of your
total at checkout rebates on the other
hand give you cash back after your
purchase the amazing thing about this is
that digital coupons and rebates since
they're two totally different things
they can stack together and offer insane
savings i just want you to get familiar
with that term because we will be
talking about it as well as store
rewards if you're going to choose a
store to coupon at that offer store
rewards think kohl's cash it's like a
store credit that the store gives you
for purchasing a certain product or
spending a certain amount of money on
certain products and they're going to
usually advertise this in the weekly ad
and on the tags in the store so
essentially when you purchase a
qualifying product you're going to earn
the reward after your transaction is
complete and you can use that reward on
your next transaction just remember
digital coupons take money off at
checkout so you're actually paying less
at the register rebates are going to
offer you cash back after your purchase
and store rewards are like a store
credit that you earn for purchasing
specific products so to get started
first thing you're gonna need to do is
pick a store to start with and this this
might be the hardest part i'm not gonna
lie the reason why i recommend picking
one store you don't have to pick one
store if you don't want to but even
though digital couponing is a lot easier
than paper couponing you're still gonna
have to learn the ropes of that store
and what their policies are how the
reward system there works so picking one
store to start with is going to be a lot
less overwhelming and intimidating now
what store do you choose i'm gonna get a
lot of flack for this but i love
recommending walgreens to newbie
couponers and couponers who just
generally want to use digital coupons
walgreens gets a lot of flack in the
couponing community because there can be
a lot of issues you run into there
especially when you're an advanced
couponer doing complicated transactions
but their customer service is great and
is usually very helpful with
fixing whatever issues went wrong so
that does help a lot but the reason that
i recommend walgreens is because
walgreens offers a ton of digital
coupons and they're usually very high
value compared to other stores we just
don't see digital coupons like that at
any other store that i know of walgreens
also has a very easy to use app and you
can order products online using digital
coupons and you can also place your
order for curbside pickup which is
really convenient because you can coupon
from home right you can order your
products in the app on your phone and
then you go to the store and you park in
a designated parking spot and they bring
it out to you to your car you don't even
have to go in the store to coupon cvs is
the more popular recommendation for
newbie couponers and i think that's
mainly because cvs has a very easy
and simple reward system they only have
one store reward it's called the extra
buck compared to walgreens that has two
different types of rewards register
awards and walgreens cash so
it's a little more complicated at
walgreens as far as the reward system
it's a little trickier to learn whereas
cvs there's only one and there's not
near as many rules like it's pretty
simple as well as store coupons these
store coupons at cvs are kind of insane
they are purchase based and they do vary
by account but they can be stuck
together in so many different ways
however if you are only using digital
coupons keep in mind that the
manufacturer digital coupons at cvs are
going to be much more limited than they
are at walgreens another popular option
for digital couponing is dollar general
i used a coupon at dollar general and i
kind of stopped because my local dollar
general was always low in stock on
things also i just felt like i was
spending more money than i wanted to on
couponing people love it because they
have what's called a five off 25 digital
coupon that can be used on saturdays and
it can be stacked with other digital
coupons so it's a popular choice because
it's really easy there's no reward
system to learn one store that you might
not think of is walmart walmart is
different because they do not offer
digital coupons and there's no weekly
sales ad however don't knock it because
walmart is amazing for rebates apps like
ibotta have a ton of different rebates
that are only available at walmart and
as far as coupons go while they don't
offer digital coupons there is the
coupons.com app which it's kind of like
digital coupons but it's not because
obviously the total is not going to come
off at checkout instead they offer cash
back so they like reimburse you for the
amount of the coupon to your paypal
after you make the purchase and there
are other stores of course that you can
choose from but i'm not familiar with
any of those stores really as far as
couponing there so i can't really speak
on that but there are plenty of options
for you to choose from okay once you
choose your store you are going to want
to download the app for that store so if
you choose walgreens download the
walgreens app whatever store you choose
once you have it downloaded you're going
to create a free account when you see a
sales ad that says sale price with card
or with membership that's what that
means you have to have a free account
with that store in order to access their
sale prices their digital coupons the
reward system all of that obviously
excluding walmart and find the section
in the app where they have the digital
coupons it's gonna look different for
each app for instance in the walgreens
app you're going to click on the shop in
savings tab here at the bottom then
click on savings up here and that is
going to bring up the digital coupons so
you can kind of scroll down a little bit
click on all coupons and it's going to
pull up all of the digital coupons that
are available to clip on your account to
clip the digital coupon all you have to
do is hit the plus sign on the digital
and it will turn into a check mark and
then boom it's added to your account so
once you enter your phone number this
will come off at checkout as long as you
buy the right product if you want to see
more details about the coupon you can
click on see details and it will pull up
the full coupon there with all of the
wording for it and you can also scroll
down as well to see exactly which
products this coupon is attaching to now
if you just want to see all the coupons
that you've already clipped there's a
blue button down here that says saved
offers so you want to click on that and
it's going to pull up all the digitals
that you already have clipped to your
account from here you can remove them if
you've clipped them and you no longer
want it clipped just be careful because
once you unclip it it's gone forever and
you can't clip it again now for cvs it's
really easy from the home page you're
going to click on deals and rewards
and that is automatically going to pull
up all of your digital coupons that you
can scroll through same thing as
walgreens to clip a digital coupon
you're just going to hit the red plus
sign to send it to card and once you hit
the red plus sign it'll turn into a
check mark dollar general is also really
easy so from the home page right here
you're gonna click on deals at the
bottom
and then it's going to load this page
right here so you can see the coupons
here at the top and the weekly ad you're
going to click view all on coupons and
it's going to pull them all up so you
can scroll through here see what you
want to add if you want to clip a coupon
hit add to wallet now be careful when
you're clipping your coupons because
most stores once you clip them you
cannot unclip it except for walgreens
which i already showed you how to unclip
from walgreens but with cvs and dollar
general you cannot unclip a coupon now
why is this important because if you
have two different digital coupons
clipped for the same product and they're
like different value like let's say you
have
a
one dollar coupon and a two dollar
coupon clipped for this crest toothpaste
more times than not the lower value
coupon will come off first so you don't
want that to happen when you're
scrolling through try your best to just
clip the
ones that you think you're going to use
and of course the higher value digitals
over the lower value just beware of that
also as you're looking through your
digital coupons you're probably gonna
notice that they look a little bit
different and that's because there's two
different types of digital coupons so we
have store coupons and manufacturer
coupons store coupons are obviously
offered by the store that is something
that the store is covering it's like a
discount kind of on a certain product
and then manufacturer coupons are of
course coming from the manufacturer and
that is something that the store is
being reimbursed for by the manufacturer
so
in general and different stores are
gonna have different policies on this
but generally one store coupon can be
stacked with one manufacturer coupon on
the same item if i have a two dollar
manufacturer digital coupon for this
crest and a one dollar store coupon i
could use both of those coupons on this
one item and get a total of three
dollars off and that is called coupon
stacking however i cannot stack two
manufacturer coupons on the same item it
has to be one store coupon and one
manufacturer coupon now how to tell the
difference between the store digitals
and the manufacturer coupons really easy
and it's gonna vary by store but with
walgreens these store digital coupons
are going to say something like certain
dollar amount off with my walgreens the
words with my walgreens being the key
words there this is a very common store
digital that we get with walgreens for
the scott toilet paper and you can see
that it says with my walgreens if it
says that it is a store coupon now a
digital coupon is not going to say with
my walgreens on it it just is going to
say save and then the dollar amount and
underneath the coupon it's going to say
manufacturer's coupon so really easy to
tell there cvs is also extremely easy to
tell all of these store coupons look
like this there are no actual images of
the products they are just a clipart
image with scissors and they are going
to be at the top of your app and these
are the ones that are purchase based and
they vary by account if you scroll down
below all the store coupons are going to
be the manufactured digital coupons and
you can clearly see a difference here
because these actually have images of
the product so
these are manufacturer digitals and
these are store digitals up here so
super easy dollar general is easy as
well the manufacturer coupons look like
this gain one right here where it just
has a picture of the product and it
shows the dollar amount off the store
coupons are going to say dg store coupon
at the top these actually have images of
the products on them but you can see
they have this like black banner here
that says dg coupon so if it says that
it's a store coupon and it can be
stacked with a manufacturer digital okay
so now that you're familiar with digital
coupons the next thing you need to find
in the app is the weekly sales ad this
is important because this is how you're
actually going to find deals by looking
through
the weekly ad and seeing what sales the
store has that week as well as what
products is the store offering rewards
back on if you are couponing at a
drugstore and you're going to take the
sales and the reward offers and match it
up with what digital coupons that you
have available a plus side to this is a
lot of the weekly ads will do those
match ups for you for instance they will
say we have general mills cereal on sale
this week and we have a coupon for it
and it will be right there in the ad so
that kind of eliminates a lot of work
for you and you're also going to match
up the sales with rebates on apps like
ibotta so
you're literally trying to stack as many
savings as you can on top of each other
best possible scenario you have a sale
the store's offering a reward back on
that item we have a digital coupon to
use for it and we have a rebate or even
multiple rebates we don't have to have
all those building blocks though
sometimes it really is just a matter of
there's a great sale they're offering
back a reward and we got a coupon and
there's not even a rebate involved
you're really just looking for a good
deal and essentially a stock up price
and a stock up price is basically the
rock bottom price for that item and
there's different stock up prices for
different items um for instance tied
detergent my stock up price for that
would be about a dollar fifty so if i
can find a deal on tide where it's a
dollar fifty or less i would consider
that a stock up price so that would
definitely be something that i would add
to my list for that week now most weekly
ads start on sunday and go through
saturday so it's a sunday through
saturday thing which means on sundays we
have a new weekly ad brand new deals and
new digital coupons as well so how are
you going to find the weekly ad it's
going to differ by the app obviously but
in walgreens once again you're going to
be on the homepage you're going to click
on shop and savings at the bottom then
go to the top and click on savings and
it's going to pull up a banner that says
view your weekly ad so click on that
this is what the weekly ad looks like
for walgreens let me find a good example
here so like right here you can see they
show dove body wash on sale for seven
dollars it does list a store reward it
says you get four dollars back in store
rewards for purchasing two of this
product and it shows a digital coupon
right here for seven dollars off two
with a plus sign so you can actually
click that and clip it to your account
right from the ad and they do the match
ups for you which is awesome cvs is
super easy once again from the home page
of the app at the bottom here you're
going to click on weekly ad and it will
pull it right up as soon as you type in
your location and all of that and dollar
general once again you're going to click
on the deals tab at the bottom
and weekly ad will be right here so you
can click on this
and it will pull up the weekly ad next
up is going to be to download some
rebate apps rebate apps are just gonna
up your coupon game they really are
they're free to use they're pretty
simple and you're just gonna get so much
more savings and you don't have to
download all of these you can start off
with one or two and then kind of add
more in as you get used to them that's
kind of how i did it my favorite rebate
app is ibotta they just have the most
rebates compared to any other app that
i've seen which by the way i will have
all the rebate apps that i use linked
right down below for you in the
description box so that they're really
easy for you to find but this is kind of
what i bought it looks like they have
rebates for different stores so you're
gonna want to kind of scroll through and
select the store that you want to shop
at we're just going to go with walmart
and then you select in-store and it's
going to pull up all the rebates that
are available for that store and you can
see they have
they have a ton of options and the list
could seriously go on forever now you do
want to activate the rebate before you
redeem for it so to activate it just
like digital coupons you want to hit the
plus sign next to the item and it will
turn it into this check mark here and
that's going to add the rebate to your
account so that when you scan your
receipt it's going to pick that up on
your receipt they have a pretty
reasonable cash out minimum too most
rebate apps are going to have a cash out
minimum so definitely expect that with
ibotta it's 20 so once you hit 20 in
your ibotta account then you can cash
out to paypal or your bank account or
you can even get gift cards other rebate
apps that i highly recommend downloading
and that i use myself are fetch rewards
shopkick swagbucks of course the
coupons.com app which that's not
technically a rebate app that's more of
a coupon app but still highly recommend
downloading those are my top five so
those will all be linked below when you
are kind of scrolling through your
weekly ad you're looking for good sale
prices that are offering back rewards if
you're shopping at a store that has
rewards you're going to match that up
with digital coupons that you have for
that item and you're going to take a
quick scroll through ibotta or other
rebate apps and see if you have any
rebates for that product as well so if
you're able to stack all of that
together you are going to see some
insane savings next up get familiar with
the reward system at your store if
you're choosing a store that has a
reward system so for example walgreens
like we talked about they have register
awards and walgreens cash two different
rewards there cvs has extra bucks if
you're choosing target they offer gift
cards whatever it is get familiar with
it your deals are going to heavily rely
on earning and using aka rolling those
rewards that is how we get insane
savings at drugstores and also how we
get really low out of pockets it's my
favorite part of drugstore couponing i
just think that the rewards offer like
just better deals we just get better
deals at drugstores i'm just gonna say
it but you have to learn how those
rewards work if you're going to
effectively use them so
get familiar with it follow other
couponers who coupon at that store so
you can kind of see how they use those
rewards and i will go ahead and link the
walgreens and the cvs coupon policy down
below for you guys in the description
box so you can kind of read what they
have to say about it it's always good to
read the coupon policy anyways give that
a quick read through if you're choosing
one of those stores it's not going to be
something where you just like read an
article and then you just know the
reward system there are many ins and
outs to it and it's going to be a
process of learning but start getting
familiar with it now the next thing that
i'm going to talk about kind of ties
into that follow other couponers who
coupon at the store that you're
couponing at it's just a great tool to
be able to follow other couponers who
are couponing at that store they're
posting the weekly deals for you so you
don't really have to do the match ups
yourself if you don't want to i still
highly recommend learning how to do that
process because being able to
think for yourself and knowing the
process of that is going to help you out
especially if you run into issues when
you're at the store or at checkout just
having that where you can follow other
couponers is going to help so much and
it's going to help you learn a lot
faster but then the most important part
and the last part to this is go do your
first deal just go
do a deal after you do all the other
steps that we've talked about you gotta
just get out there and do it because
couponing is really about trial and
error you gotta just
go learn and learn from your mistakes
it's gonna be kind of tempting to just
wanna keep watching other people do it
for a while longer before you work up
the nerve to go but you just gotta go
you gotta do your first transaction it's
gonna be intimidating if you're anything
like me with social anxiety but you know
what you're gonna be really being proud
of yourself afterwards for doing the
dang thing now granted there's not gonna
be as many mistakes with digital
couponing as there would be with paper
coupons you're still going to run into
some situations where maybe a digital
coupon doesn't come off at checkout
because it's just being wonky and it's
not coded right and maybe the specific
scent that you grabbed the digital
coupon wasn't attaching to or maybe it
is your fault and you accidentally
overlooked and misread the coupon and
maybe you thought it was for the three
ounce toothpaste when it was actually
for the six ounce toothpaste and that's
fine it happens to all of us i promise
if something goes wrong at checkout
which it's bound to happen i'm just
warning you and take a deep breath
you're gonna be fine remember to just be
nice to the cashier because i promise
you everything will go smoother if you
remain
kind to cashiers they are not gonna be
willing to help you if you all of a
sudden turn into a karen and you're
super rude about it because at the end
of the day they just work there it's not
their fault if a digital coupon does not
come off they don't actually control
that so
just be kind you know apologize maybe
ask them to void the transaction so you
can go back and get the correct item
sometimes they don't even have to void
it like if there's nobody in line behind
me i just ask really nicely if i can run
over real quick and switch the item out
and then they can just do a switcharoo
right there but if they do have to void
transaction it is fine you are not the
first person that has asked to have
their transaction voided you do not have
to pay remember that that's very
important you can just kindly say hey
you know it's a little more than what i
thought it was going to be because this
certain coupon isn't working can we
please avoid the transaction i will go
put the items back for you myself and
most the time they don't even care
especially if you're nice about it then
once you're kind of more away from the
register you can kind of reevaluate
maybe try to figure out what went wrong
another thing you can do to kind of
minimize issues happening at the
register is to make sure that the
digital coupon is attaching to the
specific product that you're buying and
you can actually scan the product in the
app and it will tell you what digital is
attaching so for walgreens you're going
to go to the home page click the search
bar at the top and then there's going to
be a little barcode icon in the search
bar that you're going to click on that's
going to pull up a scanner so you can
scan the barcode so let me just scan
this crest toothpaste real quick that is
going to pull up the product on the
walgreens website so once you scroll
down a little bit here it will show the
digitals right down here if there is one
that is attaching to it and for cvs it's
pretty much the same you're going to
click on deals and rewards and then
click on the barcode in the search bar
at the top
scan the barcode of the item and it will
pull up the digitals they're attaching
and that's it continue doing deals as
you feel comfortable i definitely
recommend you know starting slow doing
one or two deals at a time don't do more
than what you're comfortable with doing
remember it is a process and you will
get more comfortable as you go and you
can kind of up the pace as you see fit
you got this let me know if you have any
questions in the comments below i will
be more than happy to help you thank you
guys for watching this video and i will
see you in the next one
[Music]
i'm bye living life with the lights i'll
die with my own
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