Put Those Expired Coupons to Use

With the recent difficult financial times, many people have recently become more serious users of coupons. There is even a show on TLC entitled "Extreme Couponing".  I have been using coupons for over a year now and find that it really does help to lower our grocery bill.  But what can you do with your coupons once they have expired?

It is a little known fact that military families stationed overseas are allowed to use coupons at the grocery stores on base for up to 6 months past their expiration dates.  These families are often young, far from home, and living just above the poverty line.  What better use for your expired coupons, which are now worth nothing to you, than to help another family?

Collecting expired coupons is a great civic project for churches, scout troops, or even your office.  All it takes is a box and someone to mail them once a month.  I usually sort mine into two Ziploc bags, one labelled "food" and the other "non-food".  The non-food bag contains coupons for everything from pet food to shampoo to toys.  You can even send those coupons from the newspaper for products that you know you will never use.  The only thing that is not useful is store-specific coupons, such as coupons that are only good at Walgreens or Petsmart.

There are several bases that are accepting coupons.  Perhaps the easiest way to find one is to go through the charity Overseas Coupon Program (www.ocpnet.org).  There, you can "adopt" a base and regularly send them all of your coupons.  They ask that the coupons be no more than 2 months expired at the time of shipping so that they have time to sort them and put them to use on the other end while they are still useful.

Once you have your coupons collected, simply put them in a manilla envelope and take them to the post office.  You will have to fill out a customs form since you are shipping something overseas, but the post office people will help you with that.  It really is an easy process.

This is a program that really works.  In my first few months mailing coupons overseas, I received 2 "thank-you" letters from military wives who had used my coupons.  This is something that is easy to do and will show your support and gratitude to our troops and to their families who are stationed so far from home.