A Little Backtracking...

I wanted to pause from the "breakdowns" of my deals for a moment, and share some knowledge I think would benefit anyone who wants to begin to coupon.

I was just asked about many of the popular (or even not as popular) coupon sites and their tendency to ask for so much personal info. Is the benefit of savings worth it? Well, I gave my honest answer: I only look at a couple of sites regularly, and those sites DO NOT REQUIRE personal info. If you want to 'sign up' as a member (for free) and join in any discussions or savings forums then by all means, join! I am a member on krazycouponlady.com, but as for others, I simply view the webpage like any other website. The only personal info they ask, if you join, is name, email, and I believe zipcode so ads will be tuned to you (but, Facebook does this too! and they already have way more info!)

The sites I frequent: 
Krazycouponlady.com
TotallyTarget.com
Iheartthemart.com
coupons.com
smartsource.com
save.com

As for coupon sites, I use coupons.com , smartsource, and save.com (which was formerly Redplum). I get 95% of my coupons from my Sunday papers, and a small percentage from magazines we subscribe to (long before I couponed)--side note, magazine can be a great place for really awesome coupons! I just got a Buy One Get One Free coupon in Cosmo for Pantene (once I use this coupon, I will certainly share how I used it). Personally, the internet coupons that I do get--mostly come from Target.com and many of those are only for use at Target, but they do have manufacturer Q's and they can be very good. Target, Smartsource, Coupons.com and Save.com all require you to download a 'coupon printer' to your computer. This does not require any personal info, but it is a download which takes up minimal space on a computer. Remember, there is a max of 2 downloads allowed per coupon on these websites, so I have a download on my desktop and my laptop (this is also why those sites do not work on library or school computers, because the computer needs to supported software). It is harmless, and millions of people every day use the coupons from the internet. It only has to be downloaded once, and it simply does its magic every time you print from those sites (it's not like a program you have to open).

If anyone else has questions, please do so! I am beginning to get a feel for answering them and posting about them :) My savings and deals are not big secrets and I am completely happy to share about them (why would you hide ways to save people money???) Comment and/or ask away!