Archive for October, 2009

What Are Coupon Trains and How Do They Work? – Guest Post from This Bird’s Day

Today’s guest post from This Bird’s Day shows you a different side of saving your Loonies. Instead of wasting unused coupons, pass them to someone who can take advantage of them! We hope you enjoy this post on coupon trains and their money-saving possibilities. – fi

Choo-choo, All Aboard the Coupon Train!

Have you ever wondered exactly how a coupon train works and where you can go to join one? In short, coupon trains are a way to trade the coupons you don’t want for the ones you do with other people either in your city or across the country.

Coupon trains usually consist of 5 – 10 participants. The first person, or the conductor, gathers the participants names and mailing info, and makes an ordered list of all participants so everyone knows where they fall in the mailing order. The conductor starts off the train by putting the coupons they don’t want into an envelope and mails it to the second person on the mailing list. The second person takes the coupons that they want out of the envelope and replaces them with the same amount or greater worth of coupons that they don’t want, then mails it on to the third person who then does the same. This continues until the coupons get to the last participant on the list. That person then takes out what they want, replaces it with what they don’t, and mails it back to the conductor who, by then, will have an envelope full of new coupons.

The rules to coupon trains are very simple.
1) Replace the coupons you take out
2) Try not to keep the train for longer than a few days – you should know approximately when to expect it, so have your coupons ready to go.

Coupon trains work best when you are close in proximity to each other (to shorten mailing times) and when everyone on the list has different preferences for coupons. If you have a baby, and want all of the coupons from the others on the list, you should make your preference known so others will know what to include. That being said, cross-country coupon trains work well too and sometimes you find some great coupons that were never displayed in your province (but you can use).

To find coupon trains in Canada, you can search online for Canada Coupon forums, or you can check out my site at This Bird’s Day. I maintain a list of coupon forums as I come across them in my sidebar under Savings Sites.