Keep Your Money – Ongoing Article

Entry 11-15-19: Coupon and Stacking Coupons – This all started back when I was doing smaller craft projects due to my living arrangements and I was getting things from Hobby Lobby, Michael’s and Joann’s. My wife and I learned that those three place accept each others coupons. What makes it really nice is that on any given day at least one or two of those stores has a coupon for 40%-50% off a single item !!!

So how does this fit into what I’m doing now? Well all three stores have small sections for woodworking and carry adhesives, magnets, stains, sealers, sandpaper, felt, and just all kind of little things that can be used on the larger projects I work on these days. In particular, Hobby Lobby has a rather large spray paint selection in addition to selling basic resin casting kits which can be used to create inlays in wood. Take a can of spray paint at $7.00 and apply a 50% off coupon to it and it’s now tree-fiddy which makes the Loch Ness Monster happy. This comes in really handy when the resin casting kits are $40.00 and you can snag them for $20.00.

The idea here is to plan your trip out and hit several stores on the same day. When we do it I generally have a group of projects in mind and we go to purchase the supplies for all of them which we generally have to hit all three of the craft stores to get everything.

If you get on your cell phone and go to Google Play or whatever else you use, you can download the apps for Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, and Joann’s. You can also sign up for their newsletters and they’ll send you even more coupons which can be combined with the ones in the app for even more savings.

Now there’s a method you need to follow here for this to really pay off.

1. Make multiple purchases, meaning that you need to put your high dollar purchases together into one purchase in order to get the most savings because the coupons only get applied to the lowest priced item you have when you checkout.

2. Only get as many items as you have coupons for, if you don’t have a coupon to save money on something, come back and get it later.

3. Bring a friend/spouse who can make purchases with you, the idea is to just get as much as possible, with as many coupons as possible. My wife has a card which also pulls from my account so we’re using the same money and it really helps when we’re out doing supply runs.

As you’re checking out make sure to scan the Hobby Lobby coupon for the 40% off a single item, followed by the Joann’s discount usually the same, and then the Michael’s discount off a single item or a discount off your entire purchase.

Finish your purchase and then head off to the next store. Once you’re finished with the three store, do it again if you need to. We’re fortunate enough that we have two Michael’s around us so we can hit one in town and one on the way home which works out in case we forgot something. Same goes for Harbor Freight which I’ll talk about in a few.

Something to be aware of, don’t think you’re going to walk in there and get a new Cricut at 40% off. These are usually permanently on sale just so you can’t use a coupon on them and the coupons all specifically state they can only be uses on regularly priced items.

So yeah, Harbor Freight, another store I absolutely love. People love to trash talk this place and say the tools are crap but I’ve only had one bad tool from there and I took it back and they gave me a new one and it’s been fine ever since… that was 9 years ago so yeah, I’m happy.

There’s a coupon app for Harbor Freight you can download onto your phone and I believe off the top of my head it’s called Harbor Freight Coupons ( how original right? ). Anyhow, I think it’s run by someone who loves to save other people money because it’s constantly updated with coupons we don’t get in our area but work at out local stores. Anyhow let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Get this app on your phone. You’ll also want to sign up for the newsletter on their website and include your cell phone number and LET THEM SEND YOU TEXTS !!!! This is important because last month I got a coupon code sent to me for 60% off a single item texted to me. You also need to go on their website and sign up to get their monthly tool porn magazine sent to you which is loaded with lots of coupons.

Now depending on the cashiers you have working at your local Harbor Freight, you can score some really sweet deals. There’s a coupon or two that give you 20% off a single item, and sometimes depending on the cashier, you can use several of these in one purchase. If the cashier is a dink you’ll have to make multiple passes through the line. There’s also other coupons to look out for that say 30% off a single item $10 or less with a limit of 5. This is great for things like casters which I use on my shop carts. It basically lets me double the number of casters I can get for $10. Last week I got a set of spade bits marked at $9.99 and some wire brushes marked at $2.99 and paid $7.49 for both and was pleased.

Now the big box stores don’t generally have insane and wacky coupons but every once in a while you’ll see some nice savings come around. I find it best to just watch the circulars and commercials for anything that catches my eye. And with the holidays coming up it’s going to be time to snag some great deals on all kinds of power tools. I’m hoping to get a lot more Ryobi and Wen in the shop !!!

There you have it, another great way to keep some money in your pocket. This is something my wife even did a college paper on and scored an “A+” with and the whole class was pulling out their phones to look for coupons, it was great. This doesn’t just apply to craft stores, do your own research and see what you can combine and save with.

And with that, I’m off to enjoy another day off so save some money, grab a burger and smile knowing you just scored.