~Coupon Trading~

Like baseball cards coupons are traded all over Canada! Women and men who are saavy savers know that sharing with one another helps everyone! Coupon Trading is exactly what is sounds like, trading coupons with another person. I personally love this because I like to organize my savings with the use of multiples of one coupon. Sometimes I can't get enough of it to satisfy my use so I trade for them. For example: Nabob Coffee $2 off coupons. They started off with an expiry of Dec 31, 2008, then July 2009, now there are some for Dec 31, 2009. So I've been stocking up on the ones for the later expiry so that I have lots of time to use them. I wait till there is a good sale on the coffee then stock up. I currently have around 15 cans of coffee in my cupboard.

Anyhow, I digress, how do you do it you may ask? Well I do most of my trades through Smart Canucks. They have it set up there where you can list what coupons you want to trade under your profile and then people can either search you through a great search page they have or by clicking on your profile. (Here is a link to the Trading Page) There is also a forum on the message board where members post trades that they are looking for and offering. To negotiate a trade the typical protocol is to send the other member a private message through the message system with what you are looking for and ask what they want for it. They will respond and you negotiate what you find a fair deal. Whichever person is new to trading usually has to send their letter first and once the other person receives it they will mail yours out. So you would mail out the other persons coupons or whatever you are trading and would receive yours a bit later. They have a feedback system that works similar to ebay where you can describe how that person was to trade with. I like this system so far I've had no problems with any trades through there.

I have also done trades through the Canadian Coupons Exchange Group (link on sidebar) and had great success. Please be sure to read through each sites individual rules and respect other peoples private information.

There are other websites out there that you can do trades on and I have no personal experience with them as I have chosen to limit my use to only a couple because of time. I would like to make a list of these other sites though so if anyone has experience with them please leave me a message and I will post it on here for everyone!

So now you know why I've told you to save every coupon you come across...your trash is someone elses' treasure! I keep all the coupons I plan on trading organized in envelopes by type: Food, Baby, Personal Care... I am debating on organizing them by expiry date as it seems as though it may be easier to maintain. I will update you once I get a system that seems to be working. Feel free to drop me any suggestions! I would love to post pictures of how someone else does it!

You can get unique coupons through this method because some areas do not get all coupons that are available. I know in my area I don't get half the coupons that are out there. I like to search the trading page at Smart Canucks for coupons for products I regularily use by typing in a search for the product. You never know if someone has a unique coupon you've never heard of! Or possibly a FPC (free product coupon)!

Traders use alot of unique acronyms on the forum that can take time to decipher. Some of the regular ones you will come across are:

LF: Looking For
FT: For Trade
FPC: Free product coupon
WUB: When you buy
BOGO/B1G1: Buy one get one (usually followed by free or $ off)
SDM: Shoppers Drug Mart Points
GTG: Gifts to Grow Points
GC: Gift Certificate

Coming up on Save a Loonie: Where to get Free Product Coupons? Points Programs Explained, Mystery Shopping, Coupon Trains (by a guest blogger!), Freebies...keep posted that is in no particular order!!!