Northern Virginia- Prince William : Free Coupon Box at the Potomac Community Library

As if there weren’t enough reasons for me to be in love with the library… I discovered last month that they have a free coupon exchange! I’ve seen groups meet before, but this is the first time I have seen a permanent box set up at a consistent location (Turn left as soon as you walk past the librarian’s desk). You can come when you have the time or motivation, and drop any coupons you have, but don’t want or need, in the coupon drop box. The librarians sort them into about 25 different categories. You can then paw through the categories and grab any coupons you want (No limit!). I was so impressed that I offered to stop by twice a week and sort them so that the librarians don’t have extra work! They said they’re enjoying it for now but that they’ll call me if it ever gets overwhelming.

If your interested in getting into extreme couponing, this would be a great resource. While I was there, I grabbed 8 coupons for Secret deodorant (Buy 2 get $1.00 off) and used it at Wegman’s where I got the deodorant for $0.99  a piece. I added them to my “Walmart” (I keep a stocked “Walmart” on each level of the house so that I can get the best prices for things that I use constantly and never have to run out to grab something that I didn’t realize I was out of), and saved myself 8.00 🙂 I also found TONS of diaper/baby wipes coupons. You can find blogs with coupon match-ups (They tell you to grab the 6/20/12 coupon for “whatever” at .50 cents off then go to “Random Supermarket” where “whatever” is on sale, and buy 10. They then tell you that the total price for that item will be .25 cents), at http://beltwaybargainmom.com/ , This blog is just for the northern Virginia area so you’ll have no problem finding your local supermarket if you live here. I shop at Wegman’s for the most part and they have awesome match ups for that store.

The coupon box at Potomac library is unadvertised, it’s not even on their website. The other branches may have the same thing, but I use Potomac exclusively so I don’t know. If you live in the area, and you library doesn’t have one, you should volunteer to start one. It would take you two shoe boxes, one set of index card dividers, and an inbox tray (or a shoe box top) and about an hour a week. That is, if you wanted to volunteer to sort the coupons yourself. If you don’t have the time to stop by every week, I would bet that putting up a little sign asking for people to assist by sorting coupons for you if they have the time will take care of that. I know how grateful I am that they have a program like this and I’m sure that everyone else who uses it feels the same way.

If you happen to know of another library in the area that has this program, leave a comment so that others can find their way there.

And if you start your own coupon exchange at a branch that didn’t have this service, leave a comment so that you can be properly praised- because you are AWESOME!

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