Daily Dose of Thrifty: Save Money Printing Coupons

Tonight’s Daily Dose of Thrifty has been moved up the schedule and is being shared tonight instead of when we originally planned.  Why? Well, earlier this week Thrifty Cas and I picked up 15,000 sheets of paper for free from Office Max.  Many Office Max stores are offering cheap or free paper, so stock up!

But with that paper, brought to my mind the little tricks we do to help save money on printing coupons.  It actually is an expense to print coupons.

But you can try to cut the costs with these six tips:

1. Set your printer’s ink default on draft mode. This will save you loads of ink and your barcodes should print just fine and still be read even though they are lighter (it is when you start running out of ink that your barcodes may not scan as easily).
2. Print your coupons in grayscale or black and white to save from using expensive color ink.  You will need to be aware if you favorite places to shop will take non-color coupons.  A few stores will not take black and white printables due to the higher level of fraud risk.  However, most do and if you don’t know if your favorite stores will, just ask next time you are in there.
3. Print on both sides of the paper.  Credit for this tip goes out to reader Heidi.  Thrifty Cas shared earlier her excitement to be able to print 15,000 coupons from the 15,000 sheets of paper we just stocked up on.  Heidi shared the idea of printing on both side of the sheet and getting 30,000 coupons! This is a great tip. So if you are printing a single coupon, just flip the paper over and upside down and print another single coupon on one sheet!
4. Be selective on the coupons you print.  Don’t print any and every coupon under the sun.  Only print the coupons for products that you use, that you want to try, or that come with a current great deal that you plan to cash in on! Thrifty Cas can go a little print crazy and I have to remind her “do you really think we would ever buy that product no matter the deal?”  It is okay to be selective in the things you buy (you can actually be a picky shopper and use coupons!) and therefore selective about the coupons you will print.
5. Take advantage of ecoupons and/or mobile coupons.  There are a few companies that offer coupons you can download onto your grocery savings cards.  Now although they are not the same as some printables, many actually are the same, especially for General Mills products.  So check out the ecoupons if you are shopping at a store with a savings card before you print (unless you are stocking up and need coupons from all the sources :)) The companies offering ecoupons are Shortcuts, Cellfire and PG eSaver.  You can sign-up for free and register your grocery savings cards and then add coupons to your card that will automatically come off at checkout if you bought that product – you didn’t even have to buy a newspaper or use your paper or ink – it is completely free.
6. Score great deals on paper and ink and stock up at those times! Of course a very important tip is to stock up on the supplies when they do go super cheap! For paper, the major office stores will offer paper promotions on a regular basis and often times super amazing deals where you can get the paper free or really cheap.  Also, buy ink when it is really cheap and stock up or use a mail-in refill service like Simply Ink, or take your empty cartridges to Walgreens or the office stores that offer refills. By refilling, you can easily save 50% or more.

We actually save our office rewards from Office Max and Staples to stock-up on ink, but we also wait for a sale/coupon and then use our rewards to purchase them for even more savings.  If we run out, we will use a refill service.

Missed other Daily Dose of Thrifty Tips? You can catch up on these daily tips!