For Election Day, I thought it would be nice to have a guest post from Coupons to Troops. After all, it’s because of our troops that we have the right to vote.  Thanks, Lesley, for all of your hard work with Coupons to Troops.

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November is Military Family Appreciation Month, and I’d like to thank Smart Spending Spot for allowing me the opportunity to share one way that you can show your appreciation to US Military families, specifically military families who are currently stationed overseas, through CouponsToTroops.

CouponsToTroops has 2 goals. The first is to spread awareness that our Military families overseas can use EXPIRED coupons, up to 6 months past their expiration date. And the second is to put those families in touch with coupon-sending volunteers back here in the states, because coupons are just not readily available overseas like they are here.

I’ve asked one of our military wives living in Japan, if she would write about what CouponsToTroops has done for her and her family.

I’ve never been the type of person who could spot a great sale or locate a deal at my commissary. I’ve always gotten just what I thought I needed, not really paying attention to price or brand. I knew what type of item I used, I knew at which store to get it and I’ve always had a general idea of what my total cost would be.

It wasn’t until I felt my money slipping down the drain that I knew I had to wise up about saving extra money. My savings account was in the single digits. But that was before coupons and that was all before the help of CouponsToTroops.

Once I wised up and started getting tips and information from family and friends stateside about how coupons saved them so much money, it was a no brainer that I HAD to start using these tactics to start saving my family some much need extra funds. The question was how?

Enter CouponToTroops. Now 6 months later, I have a stockpile that makes my neighbors envious, a savings account that keeps accruing money and a happy family that never has to ask, “what’s for dinner”. Getting coupons through CouponsToTroops and being matched with families from the United States who generously send their expired coupons to military families overseas, is not only wonderful, but life altering. I am so grateful for all the time and patience that goes into the CouponsToTroops organization. If it wasn’t for them, I’m not sure if I’d ever have found so many wonderful, kind, giving people who are just looking to give a little back to those who need it.

Thanks CouponsToTroops and thanks to the awesome people who support their cause. You all are absolutely outstanding!!

Thanks

Aprille (military spouse, mom and couponer) Yokota Air Base, Japan.

Getting involved with CouponsToTroops is very simple. All you need to do is send an email to us at admin@couponstotroops.com and request to be matched to a military family. If you have a preference for a particular branch of service or a country, please specify that and we’ll accommodate as best we can. We will forward your request on to a military family and ask them to contact you , providing their mailing address. Then you just gather up your coupons, and mail them off.

You can send them clipped or unclipped, sorted or unsorted. You can mail an envelope once a week or you can hold off and mail once a month, or once every two months.. Whatever works best for you is what works best for us and ‘your’ military family!

The USPS offers several options of Priority Mail FLAT-RATE mailers which can help keep the postage costs manageable, if you are mailing a large number of coupons. Prices for the Flat-rate mailers range from $4.95 to $14.95 and there are quite a few different sizes available.

The advantages to CouponsToTroops versus some of the other coupon programs out there, is that we make it easy on you to send. You provide the coupons and the postage and we supply you with a family to mail directly to. You get one-on-one contact with the family, so you can get to know who you’re supporting and they can let you know when your coupons have been received. You know that your family will either use the coupons themselves or they will share all of their extras with other couponing families on base. Some share via couponing swap groups or coupon trains that travel around the base, others take the extras to various drop-off boxes around the base and some even volunteer with the groups that take the coupons right to the commissary and literally tape the coupons right to the products on the shelf. So even though you’d only be sending to one family, your coupons can potentially reach hundreds of other families.

For more information, please find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CouponsToTroops or email us at admin@couponstotroops.com

And on behalf of all the military families that we serve, thank you for your support!

Lesley

CouponsToTroops