All You, the couponer’s favorite magazine, has a new website. It is much more interactive, and allows blogging and comments to be shared. It appears that ALL You is intent on becoming a hub for coupon savvy shoppers, and the tie in to Walmart is unmistakable. This can only be a good thing!
The big news is that All You is now another source of printable coupons, many of them unique to the site. They’ve partnered with coupons.com, but the printable coupons are expanded offerings.5 K mart coupon, and exclusives on Mahatma rice, Minute Ready to serve Rice, Carvel Ice Cream Cakes, Real Simple Magazine, and snapple, just to name a few.
All You, which is owned by Time Inc and distributed exclusively through Walmart and subscriptions, is not the only magazine to branch into interactive web content with downloadable coupons. Hearst Magazines began to do this in April, loading printable coupons onto Delish.com. It appears that other magazines are doing this too – you’ll also find coupons.com on Women’s Day and other sites.
If you go across different sites to print coupons.com, you’ll find that the tracker follows you, and keeps count of how many coupons you have printed until you reach your limit (usually 2 coupons of each product). It pays to look on your favorite magazine websites, however, because they might be featuring exclusives as this catches on.
All of this partnering with online coupon companies is designed to give you reasons to stay on the website. As you are finding articles, recipes, or commenting on blogs, you can print your coupons! All You has gone a bit further, with exclusive offers mixed in.
Last week I wrote about the All You Grocery Challenge. The challenge is to keep your food bill to under $25 a week per person in your family. I’m alone for much of this summer, as my youngest is working out of state. But he’ll be home soon, so our budget will grow to $50 in that time. The challenge includes restaurants and fast food – it does not include toiletries, medicine, or non grocery essentials. For me the challenge is to shop wisely for one, while stockpiling.
Thanks to my stockpile, I really have not had to do big shopping trips this summer. Week one of the challenge had me shopping for vegetables and meat at Winn Dixie, and bread. Thanks to a buy one get one free deal on meat, my total was $14.71 at Winn Dixie. But as Billy Mays used to say – But wait, there’s more. At CVS, I cashed in some Extra Care Bucks and took advantage of their sale on 2% milk for 2.79. I’ll freeze that one. I bought another gallon of skim for the regular $3.59. Total after Extra Care Bucks – $1.88. So my total outlay for this week is well under $25.
At Winn Dixie, I got a coupon for $10 off a $50 order. I’ll cash that when my son is home, and of course will come well under the $50 total with coupons. We do need to save SOMETHING for eating out – he loves barbecue!
The challenge is a great experience, because it makes you think about every penny you spend on fast food, convenience, lunches for work, coffee from a Starbucks or restaurant in the morning, and so on. It really is a help for those of us who plan to save.