Coupon Trading Ideas

Are you name brand picky and when your brand goes on sale you wish you could have MORE coupons?

Do you hate seeing coupons go unused?

Do you find coupons and tear pads while you are shopping and wish you knew someone else who could use them?

Then here is a great idea for you! I personally am not one who likes to get together one night a week and coupon swap, but I do like getting and giving different coupons. What I recommend is a coupon train!

A group of 5 people would work great. My suggestion is to have people with different household needs and different locations. Here is how an awesome train would look:

Sally in St. George (It is just her and her husband at home and she enjoys cooking)

Jill in Provo (Newly Wed student and her husband is a toothpaste and toilet paper snob. Her and her husband both eat lunch out on campus during the week)

Ashley in Logan (Young mother with 2 boys in diapers and is expecting another and has no need for feminine products)

Helen in Ogden (Has 4 young children all in school that LOVE lunch ables and is always in need of a quick weeknight dinner)

Iris in Salt Lake (A grandma who only has her grandchildren over occasionally, but cooks a lot from scratch)

This to me would be an IDEAL train. Everyone has different needs and is in different places in their lives.

Sally and Jill would more than likely give their diaper coupons to Ashley and I bet Iris keeps a few of the diaper coupons for when her grand kids come to visit, but would also be happy to give some to Ashley. Ashley in turn gives her feminine product coupons.

Jill cannot have pets in her apartment, so she is more than happy to give hers pet coupons up who would most likely been taken by Helen whose children have a pet cat and dog. She also is not using her lunch able and fruit snack coupons, who are happily accepted by Helen.

Iris doesn't much care for boxed dinners so is more than happy to give those up to someone like Jill, Ashley or Helen who uses meals in boxes frequently.

The location of the girls is perfect as well. They all shop in different stores, therefore are more than likely to find different tear pads and coupons while shopping. Every time they see one they grab 5 of each coupon, one for themselves and one to share with each member in the coupon train.

Someone would want to start the train by putting together a big manila envelope. Sally could mail it out to Jill and Jill would mail it to Ashley until everyone had a chance to see the envelope. When you got the envelope your job would be to put your unused coupons in the folder and any coupons you found around town. When you get the envelope it is also your responsibility to clean out the expired coupons. Then you would send it on it's merry way again.

This is a great idea if you are too busy to get together with your friends and neighbors to trade coupons. It is also a great idea if you want to meet new coupons out there. So start asking around and finding some friends to start your own coupon train!

Let us know how it goes!