As a college student, I know how important it is to save money and stay on budget. One way I’ve been able to save money is by couponing for necessities like toothpaste, toilet paper and shampoo. If you want to learn how to save money, then here’s some advice on how to start couponing. 

Places to coupon 

My go-to places to coupon at are Dollar General, Walgreens and Family Dollar. All these places have big coupon communities on social media, so it’s easy to find deals each week posted online. 

They’re beginner-friendly couponing stores because they have digital coupons on their websites and apps. All you need to do is click each coupon on the app and enter your phone number at the store, then you’ll see your price start dropping. 

Digital coupons

When you think of couponing you probably think of that one show about extreme couponers and their giant folders full of paper coupons. Cutting out paper coupons and finding them around the city is definitely a big time-waster and not college student-friendly. 

Instead, I want to welcome you to the world of digital couponing. To start digital couponing, all you need to do is go to the store’s app or website, create an account and start clicking coupons. When you get to the store that allows digital coupons, like the ones I mentioned, all you need to do is punch in your phone number when told and your coupons will be added. 

How to find deals

When you open the app or website you will probably be overwhelmed by the amount of coupons available. Some stores may limit the amount of coupons you can have saved onto your account, so you want to make sure each coupon you clip matters. 

The reason I recommend starting with the three stores I named is because of their large couponing community. Join Facebook groups, follow TikTok couponers or follow Instagram couponers to learn about deals everybody else is doing for that week. 

In these social media communities, people will usually post the exact items they bought and post pictures of what coupons you need to save in order to get the price they did. This is probably the biggest advice I can give, so go follow some couponers on TikTok!

Best days to coupon

There is really no set day to coupon, you can go to the store whenever you have freetime. However, certain days do have better coupons than others. 

Dollar General has a $5 off when you spend $25 coupon that is only eligible on Saturdays. Lots of people stack this coupon with other coupons to get everything cheaper. Make sure you check if any stores carry coupons available for only certain days and that are stackable. 

Items you can coupon 

Popular couponing items are mainly household items and toiletry. Toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent and air fresheners are the popular items you can get couponing. You use most of these items on a daily basis so it’s a good idea to stock up on them with coupons. 

Couponing may seem intimidating at first, but once you start doing it you learn quickly. This is a great way for college students to really save on things used on a regular basis, so go online and start couponing!

Feature image by Morgan Scruggs