The Best Times to Look for Coupons

Sometimes it’s a waste of money to shop without a coupon. But sometimes it’s a waste of time to try to find a coupon. That’s because, depending on the company, there might not be a coupon to find. Some companies issue coupons every week, some once a month, some rarely.

As the Money Talks deals editor, I receive dozens of deals weekly from hundreds of companies. I sift through them for the best, which you can find in my deals posts and deals pages. Having done this for more than a year, I’ve gotten a good idea of how often certain companies issue coupons.

This post is a breakdown of those companies’ coupon “schedules.” There are more coupon issuers out there – and I’d love to hear about any you’re more familiar with – but this list still serves as a guide that simplifies the to-coupon-or-not-to-coupon question.

All of these companies’ coupons can be found online and printed out. Some stores have a printable-coupon page on their website or post printable coupons directly to their home page. For those stores, I’ve added the direct coupon link, which you should always check before shopping there.

Weekly

These restaurants and retailers issue coupons about once a week, so you should never shop without them. Just visit the Money Talks News deals page or do a Web search to quickly find what coupons may be currently available from these companies:

Restaurants and grocery stores

• Boston Market
• Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market
• Hardee’s
• Mimi’s Cafe
• Whole Foods

Product brands

• V8, juices

Stores

• Costco Wholesale
• CVS
• Family Dollar
• Hobby Lobby, arts and crafts store
• Michaels, arts and crafts store
• Target
• Ulta Beauty
• Walgreens
• Walmart

Monthly

These restaurants and retailers issue coupons closer to monthly. So if you don’t frequent these businesses, you may want to wait for the next coupon to come out before eating or shopping there. But if you eat or shop there multiple times a month, you may find nothing new to reduce the cost.

Restaurants, dessert places, and smoothie places

• Arby’s
• Bakers Square Restaurant & Pies
• Baskin Robbins
• Bob Evans
• Bruegger’s
• Bruster’s
• Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant
• Carrows Restaurants
• Chili’s Grill & Bar
• Cici’s Pizza
• Coco’s Bakery Restaurant
• Del Taco
• Denny’s
• Einstein Bros. Bagels
• Friendly’s
• Jamba Juice
• Jersey Mike’s Subs
• Marble Slab Creamery
• O’Charley’s
• On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina
• Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake
• Quiznos
• Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill
• Souper Salad
• Taco John’s
• Village Inn
• Waffle House

Product brands

• Beech-Nut, baby foods
• O-Cel-O, cleaning products
• Rubbermaid, storage containers

Stores

• Babies R Us
• Bath & Body Works
• BJ’s Wholesale Club
• Bon-Ton, department stores
• Build-A-Bear Workshop
• Express, clothing/shoes/accessories for men and women
• For Eyes Optical
• HoneyBaked Ham
• H&M, clothing/shoes/accessories for the whole family
• Kirkland’s, housewares
• LensCrafters
• Party City
• Payless ShoeSource
• Stein Mart, department stores
• World Market, housewares

Seldom

I’ve seen these restaurants and retailers issue coupons in recent memory, but no more than once every few months. So when you see coupons from these businesses, pounce on them – but don’t waste time trying to dig up their coupons the rest of the time.

Restaurants, dessert places, and smoothie places

• California Pizza Kitchen
• Champps Americana
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Hooters
• Hot Dog on a Stick
• Macaroni Grill
• Maggiano’s Little Italy
• Marie Callender’s Restaurant & Bakery
• Olive Garden Italian Restaurant
• P.F. Chang’s China Bistro
• Ruby Tuesday
• Smoothie King
• Sonny’s Real Pit Bar-B-Q
• Tijuana Flats
• Tony Roma’s
• Wienerschnitzel
• White Castle

Product brands

• Celestial Seasonings, teas
• Cesar Canine Cuisine, small-dog food
• Filtrete, water filtration products
• Gorton’s, frozen fish products
• Hasbro, games and toys
• Hormel Foods
• Keebler, food products
• Maybelline, makeup
• Pental, stationery products
• Post-it, sticky notes
• Rayovac, batteries
• Splenda, artificial sweeteners
• Trojan, condoms
• Welch’s, juices
• Wish-Bone, salad dressings
• Zevia, sodas

Stores

• Hallmark
• Lane Bryant, clothing/shoes/accessories for plus-size women
• Off Broadway Shoes, discount shoes for the whole family
• Sports Authority
• SuperCuts

Coupons are but one way to lower your shopping bills. For more, check out 15 Ways to Never Pay Retail Again.

Karla Bowsher runs our deals page and covers consumer, retail, and health issues. If you have a comment, suggestion, or question, leave a comment or contact her at [email protected].