Coupons in all their various shapes and sizes

I've been very lucky to have had the opportunity to use coupons to lower the costs of my purchases on a month to month basis. And what I am finding is that there are numerous ways to obtain these coupons. You can find manufacturer coupons in the store hanging beside the product. You can write a manufacturer and request coupons (and yes, this really works, but that is another blog topic that I will expand on another day). You can have them downloaded to your cell phone or blackberry (now this is something that I have heard about, but have not experienced myself. If anyone out there uses this, please let us know as it's definitely worth having another discussion about). You can request them from websites such as www.save.ca, www.websaver.ca, etc. And you can print them from the internet.

All of these methods, whether used by all or not, are valid ways to obtain coupons. But does the retailer honor them?

Most retailers will honor a manufacturer coupon, but I'm finding more and more will not without a UPC bar on them. Their are just too many fantastically good replicas out there, and retailers are getting burned and not reimbursed for these replicas. I too would have the tendency to shy away if this was the case. Now, I'm not saying ALL retailers are doing it, it's just something that I have noticed more and more frequently in the different retailers that I personally frequent, and on different websites where the discussion has been brought up.

Like I said above, I've heard about downloading your coupons to a hand held device. This sounds like an ABSOLUTELY wonderful green and earth friendly way to go. And if retailers are going to get on board with this, then I say lets go for it! I'm all for ending the waste of paper and the killing of trees. Quite the idea if you ask me.

Requesting coupons from websites is a great way to obtain coupons too, and I've personally not had any problems using them at any retailers that I frequent. You just have to wait for the mailman/lady/person to deliver them. Use them, and save your cash.

Printing coupons off the internet. Now that is a topic of discussion. I've found that MANY retailers will not accept this. It's unfortunate, but like mentioned above, manufacturers have at times not honored the coupon and the retailer is not re-imbursed. I understand why a manufacturer will not honor a valid coupon. And I understand why a retailer would have problems accepting a printed coupon from the internet because of being "burned" in the past. It's just really unfortunate that others out there have made it virtually impossible to find a store that will accept internet coupons anymore.

Now I'm not saying that all retailers don't accept them. In my personal experience, the following stores DO:

Giant Tiger
Walmart
Shoppers Drug Mart

I'm sure the list is more extensive, but these are the only ones that I know of. I truly hope the trend of rejecting internet printed coupons is NOT completely rejected by all retailers. It's definitely another way to save money.