A different approach to obtaining coupons

We all know about getting coupons from the newspaper, printing them off the internet, finding them on products and in magazines. There is another way to obtain high value coupons: Writing companies.

 

Over at Couponing to Disney, she writes about her 5 a day mail campaign, where she contacts 5 companies each day.  I have recently started my own variation after a pretty long hiatus.  I do 7 a week.  With a 2 month old, I don't always have the time to contact 5 companies per day, but, I always have time to contact at least 1 company per day.

When I contact companies, I am honest about their product. Did I like it, how it makes our lives better, or if I didn't care for the product, I include the UPC code, when and where I bought it and how much it cost.  I include specific times when we have used the products (example: each morning, for my husband's birthday, etc.).  Sometimes, I will ask for coupons, other times, I just compliment the product or give them a suggestion.  Here is a recent example:

After buying the soy based Glade candles, I was really impressed by them (they have a very strong, clean scent). I wrote glade an email asking if their holiday scents would be in the soy based as well. I included my name and mailing address in the email under my name. They wrote me back to thank me for my email and sent me a coupon for a free 2 oz. soy based candle.

How do I find the contact information for companies? I google the company name and I visit the company website and find the Contact Us link.  Most websites have a form that you can fill out and submit, if not they will have an email address that you can write to.

In the past month I have written to the following companies and received responses:

Kashi- they emailed me a $1.00 IP ( I thanked them for being a part of the Recyclebank program)

Michelina's- They sent me 2 Free product coupons (I complimented the variety of products and noted how my husband has one for lunch a few times a week)

Dole- 2 free bunches of Bananas Coupons (we had 2 bunches of bananas not get ripe, they just turned black-EW!)

Bar S- They sent me a coupon for a free product up to $5.00 (I complimented their awesome bacon)

Clif Bars: emailed me a thank you, but no coupons.

 

HotCouponWorld has an excellent thread about contacting companies (with a link to a very large list) here.

 

I am savings all of my frees and high value coupons for the AllYou Grocery Challenge, so I can really stretch our $25 per person per week allotted amount of spending.