If you are like many of us these days you are concerned with saving money. Learning how to shop for sales, using coupons and taking advantage of all of the savings that are possible is certainly worth your time in these undefined financial times.

Everyone shops for foodstuff and groceries and that includes personal things like shampoo and soap and clean-up things like dishwashing liquid and laundry detergent. It is easy to find coupons for these items and capitalizing on the top savings as you use them is undeniably to your benefit.

There are often rules that go along with using coupons but rules are made to be broken. Ask the supervisor of the store what he will do or won’t do. If you don’t ask the question you’ll never know but if you do ask the question you may get a pleasant surprise. Here are a few useful questions you can ask.

Ask if the store offers its own coupons. You can verify the website but if by possibility the store does not have a website you can always ask the supervisor when you get there. If they do have them they will be pleased to give them to you if you ask and if they don’t have them you just gave them a great idea to bring in business.

Ask if the store will allow you to use a coupon on a sales price or clearance item. Many times they will spell it right out on the coupon that it is not allowed but you can always ask. The worst they can do is say, “no” and they may end up saying “yes”. If by chance they do you will save quite a bit more money.

Ask if they will allow competitor’s coupons. Many stores offer a price guarantee that says if you find a competitors ad with a lower price they will honor the lesser price but few individuals actually ask if they will take the other stores coupons and usually they will say yes as it is in their best interest to do so.

Ask if you can use numerous coupons or if you can combine manufacturers coupons with the store coupons. Many times they will allow you to combine coupons and when you do you double up your savings. You can also ask if they will acknowledge expired coupons. They may say “no” but they may say “yes” and you never know until you ask.

Ask the store If they will accept competitor’s coupons. Most stores offer some sort of a price agreement that offers you the lesser price if you see the item advertised at a lesser price but many folks don’t even ask about competitors coupons. It’s in their best interest to say “yes” to this demand so ask the question.