I have a coupon class business, and at the class I gave today, I had all early 30 year old DINKS who want to hire me to get the coupons together, and give them a list for the grocery stores in my area on a weekly basis. Does anyone do anything like this as well as do the actual couponing at the store for anyone? I'm trying to figure out how to do it and how much to charge!

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Kristie

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Kristie
mom to Tyler (11/94) & Joycie (3/99)
www.thegrandskofour.shutterfly.com

Oh my! Interesting request... and probably very overwhelming to consider although maybe not if you can figure out how to do it easily and without adding a lot of work for yourself.

I am sure that you taught them what they need to know in order to get their own coupons (ie eBay, online clipping services, trading, buying a newspaper!)???

I belong to a local online group but our stores are completely different here in AZ. Maybe checking out that website would give you some ideas. There is no registration involved unless you want to be added to the email list.

Website is called Practical Saver She sends out an email with sales/coupons each Wednesday morning when she herself goes through the newspaper. She encourages her users to share local deals that they know of as well (which helps her out!). She does not charge a fee for her workshops but has written several books that she sells on her website and on Amazon.com, charges for advertising space on her website, does TV shows for our Phoenix channel for a small stipend, etc.

Do you charge a fee for the class? If so, maybe you could raise the price just a little to cover the time that you would have to spend on this?

Hope that helps a little.

sounds a tad overwhelming to me but if they are showing interest, perhaps it's worth it! Lots of factors to consider:

what your time is worth
how much it will cost you $$$ wise to obtain the coupons
taxes on what you earn (want to make enough to be worth it after taxes)

I know I used to pay the grocery game like $10 a month and they match coupons with the deals locally. Perhaps you can set up a similar site in your area and charge a monthly fee for them to use it. Then you can charge separately for the actual coupons and shopping list together. Cost would depend on how often you need to do it: weekly, biweekly, monthly...I would venture to say that $5 a week per person per list and coupons might be feasible. So if they utilized your service for the month it would be $20 a month per person but I would make it so that you can't utilize the coupon and list service unless you subscribe to the monthly website fee (so that would be $30a month for both services).

good luck!

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

It's not really that hard when you are already doing it for yourself. I have a friend who just doesn't have the time to find the deals, get the coupons, etc, so I do it for her. When I order my coupons, I order enough for both of us (sometimes more for her she has a bigger family) and then when they come in she stops in and picks them up.

She doesn't "pay me" anything, but she stops and gets the newspaper for me, gives me all the cigarette coupons and formula checks she can find and get through the mail. Things like that, so it's probably pretty close to even, sometimes she gives me things to sell on Ebay and I keep the money.


It really isn't hard when you are already doing it, but I would do it for multiple stores that I didn't even go to, kwim? SHe has learned over the years what goes on sale free after coupon, so she probably could manage for herself, but she just doesn't have the time, so we help each other out.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

I would be very reluctent to do something like that. I know how overwhelmed I can get just coupon shopping for my family. NO way I would consider doing it for lots of other people, too. Then you would have to deliver it??? NO thanks. I can think of better ways to earn money. Also seems to me if they would have the money to pay a "personal shopper", which is basically what you would be, why bother with couponing??? I do it as a hobby. Apparently that is not the intent of someone who wants to pay you to do the couponing and shopping for them.

JMTCW.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

flipper, if you are doing it for a friend or two then no, it's that that much harder but if you are talking 10, 20, 30 or more people....I wouldn't do it for free and although the work isn't hard, it's time consuming. At least it would be in my eyes

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I'm lucky I can keep track for the 2 of us, I couldn't imagine trying to do it for any more than that really. I just do it because she's a friend.

If I was trying to make money by doing it and if you are really organized and have the time to spend, I don't think it would be hard. Worth it? Probably not.

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

Thank you everyone for you input, keep the advice coming! I still haven't decided!

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Kristie
mom to Tyler (11/94) & Joycie (3/99)
www.thegrandskofour.shutterfly.com

I am thinking that how much you charge has to factor in how much you are able to save for them. Know what I mean? Like if you were going to charge $10 a week, then maybe you should provide coupon savings of $20 a week....or something like that. I think the best bet in doing this was if the items that the customer wanted/needed were similar to your own and you could leverage your own work to this business. But if they have demands/needs different than yours (like they needed baby products, and you did not....or they did not eat processed foods...or ate organic only), it would be too much extra work.

cj/

So far the number everyone was ok with was 25.00/ week, but I didn't know if that would include coupons if I had to order some, and what if the only really cheap/free things that week were like gum and a can of tomato sauce? I don't want people mad at me because they don't like what's available that week! There are so many things to consider! I do have one person who pays me right now to get their list topgether and paperclip the coupons that go with it!

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Kristie
mom to Tyler (11/94) & Joycie (3/99)
www.thegrandskofour.shutterfly.com

there are alot of web sites that do this for a fee, they are actually decent sites too. Sometimes they get the area's messed up, but they do every state. One is thegrocerygame, I think its great if you have people locally who want to do it, and $25 a week is excellent, I would think that would include coupons, especially since a paper is under $2.00.