~Where to Get Free Product Coupons~

A great deal of my savings comes from the use of free product coupons. I have a coupon holder that holds just FPCs! Often they have long expiry dates and so I've got some that I'm saving for a rainy day! Where do I get them all? I get asked that all the time!

First place to look is in coupon inserts in your local paper. These inserts come out at random times of the year according to a schedule. There are two main ones that are listed on that schedule: Smartsource and Shop & Save. These inserts are usually found in your major city papers or the one that all your other flyers come in. It is worth it to pick up the paper on the weekend these come out! Coupon distribution varies across Canada so not every region receives the same coupons. There is also another insert that comes out in papers called the P&G Brandsaver. The Brandsaver coupons can also be selected online and are distributed by save.ca. Brandsaver doesn't tend to distribute FPCs but I have gotten BOGO offers from them. You can however find FPCs on Save.ca quite often. If you are surfing online they sometimes have banners for their current save.ca offers posted on different search engines. That is often how you can discover them! There is always of course the thread on Smart Canucks that I refer to all the time! They keep this thread up to date with current save.ca offers!

Second place to find them is on products. Cereal boxes often have them but they can be found on many products. You just need to keep your eyes out! Of course don't purchase the product if you don't need it unless the value of the product less coupons and the FPCS on it makes it free. In that case you can donate it to your local food bank!

Another place I get many is from trades! Many members on Smart Canucks put together bundles of FPCs and trade for gift certificates or other FPCs. I often get huge bundles of these by redeeming airmiles for GCs and then trading them for the FPCs that I can use.

On Ebay you can find sellers that are listing FPCs! I know you're thinking "Why would I pay for a FPC???" Doesn't make sense does it?!? Well sometimes it works out. For instance, I've purchased Source and minigo yogurt FPCs in bundles of 4-10 per at the cost of one yogurt. So I've gotten one less free, not a biggie to me. But I use mystery shopping payment money, or money I've earned by selling items myself on ebay to pay for them. I've never taken money from my bank account to buy coupons. It's always been 'extra' money!

Join companies mailing list or clubs! I've received Always pads or Tampons FPC, LaCoupe shampoo, Nestle Tollhouse chips, Kashi Cereal FPC. Also many will send out cents off coupons when you sign up! Sometimes these are one time offers so watch the forum at Smart Canucks for announcements!

Finally, and this is a little known fact, is to write companies and ask! Yup! if you shoot off a nice compliment letter that says something like: My family loves your (insert product name) and we use it all the time! I would love if you could share any coupons that you may have so that we can try other products you offer and continue to enjoy the ones we love! I use different variations of this kind of letter and write to companies via their online contact form and I've had a lot of luck. Companies that send FPCs include: Pinnacle Foods (Duncan Hines, Vlasic Pickles, Hungry Mans, Aunt Jemima Breakfast products) Cloverleaf (Tuna, Salmon, plus cents off coupons), SC Johnson (Saran, Ziploc ,other brands), Colgate/Palmolive ( will mail out $5-$10 off coupon), Clorox, Fleishmans Yeast, Johnson & Johnson (Replacement coupon for Parents Pack). Other companies replace their products if you have a legitamite concern with one you have purchased but most companies will mail something out even if it is only cents off coupons if you compliment.

It is trial and error but please don't abuse the good nature of these companies and only request one for yourself!

Happy hunting for FPCs! I hope you enjoy many savings with these tips! In the future I will post any particularily good FPCs that I come across and share with you all how I got them! Coupon Trains is next on the blog in a guest post from Deb, the moderator over at Canadian Coupons Exchange Yahoo group! I'm a member there and can't say enough about what a great group of people there are on there! There is a link on my sidebar to join up and be a part of the group! Looking forward to hearing any of your tips on getting FPCs! Drop me a comment and share with other readers!

~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!!!