What Is Better Than Free?!
You think to yourself "What could be better than this?"
You just got a mailbox full of free samples. Or maybe you stepped in to your local store with some coupons and got such a discount at the checkout that you were actually happy for once to whip out the cash to pay since you knew you were really getting your money's worth. As you're gloating over your savings, think of this, there's actually something even better than free!
It may not happen as often as you get freebies in the mailbox maybe, but it CAN happen and that's what you need to know.
How about getting paid when you use coupons and discount codes most effectively?! If you are already a coupon user this will make sense immediately. If you're new to coupons it won't be hard to learn to make this work for you the next time you head to the store.
Here's the deal (no pun intended): Take a coupon to use that has a higher value than the store has the item currently priced at. If the store honors it, not only will you end up getting that item for free, the extra value gets applied to your bill.
Here's an example: Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa - I printed 2 coupons recently for $2.00 off any box. The store had it priced at $1.28 a box. Do the math. That's 72 cents in my favor, per box! As you may realize, that means I got PAID $1.44 to buy the 2 boxes of hot cocoa! Same thing recently happened with Reach Dental Floss.
Something else to do is, keep your eye out for coupons that don't specify size of product - this is another money maker. For example, in the past 
Pantene Pro-V had a coupon available for $2.00 off any 2 Pantene Pro-V Shampoo or Conditioner products. Check out with the travel size bottles in hand (which are usually under a buck a piece) and you just made a few cents buying new shampoo!
Admittedly, there are times when the stores' will not make up the difference for you and will strictly only give you a discount matching the sale price of the item. But hey,the worst that happens is you'll still walk out getting your items totally free. That's nothing to complain about, and more often than not you end up with the extra value being given to you. So consider it a more effective and worthwhile way to coupon-shop. With a little more thought, you might just start making money on some of the items you buy!
Article submitted by one of our editors at SaveCreatively