Don't Throw Away Your Expired Coupons!!!

I am a couponer and have a giant binder full of coupon inserts from the Sunday paper and various other places. Once a month I go thru and toss all the expired coupons in the trash. Well my trash will no longer be eating those expired coupons as I stumbled across a wonderful program today.

Military familes that are stationed overseas can use these expired coupons for up to SIX MONTHS. I encourage you to mail your expired coupons to our military families. I found a wonderful website with a current list of addresses (updated monthly) that are accepting coupons. Please check this list before you mail your coupons to make sure the base is still accepting. Sometimes they get overwhelmed with all of the coupons.

Here are a couple of tips:

• What Type of Coupons... They can only accept regular manufacturer's coupons like from the newspaper inserts--NO INTERNET COUPONS OR SPECIAL "IN STORE" COUPONS--in some cases they may be able to use Internet coupons but they will be able to print them on their own so do not send any from here in the States. A few of our military families have also asked us to pass along this request, if you have time, it's also very helpful to separate the coupons into two categories, one for FOOD and one for NON-FOOD, then place them in plastic bags. This will help them with sorting for the families when they arrive at the base.
• How Long Does the Mail Take... When sending your expired grocery coupons keep in mind the time it takes to mail your coupons internationally--usually many weeks--so do try to get them sent off quickly. Of course if you know a military family personally you should probably send your coupons directly to them--if you do not you are welcome to send them to the bases we list on our site. When the coupons are received someone at the base will either distribute the coupon donations to needy families or place them in an area where they can be picked up by families at the PX or Commissary.

Here is the link to the website that updates their addresses monthly for military bases overseas, so please check here before mailing. If you are going to mail frequently you might want to bookmark this website.

Happy Mailing!!! Let's spread the value of coupons around the world.

**I'm trying to find out if the military bases in the US allow expired coupons. I'll update when I find out.