Craft Store Coupons: Use them!

There are many different levels of quality of yarn.  Specialty yarn stores have the more upper end yarn, like 100% silk yarn, alpaca yarn, and hand-dyed, hand-spun yarn.  The price of the yarn correlates with the quality.  Even normal yarn becomes expensive in large quantities.  Anyone who has every attempted a large project, like an afghan, knows that yarn can get expensive.

For example, I made a blanket for my brother as a graduation gift last year that took 18 skeins of 'I Love this Yarn'.  It is so big that he has dubbed it 'Afghan Prime'.  Honestly, who ever complains that a blanket is too big?  I purchased all of the yarn for the blanket using coupons.  At the regular price, the yarn would have cost $71.82 before taxes.  Using 40% off coupons, the yarn only cost $43.09.  I saved $28.73  by using coupons on this project.

Coupons are constantly available and offer significant savings.  Don't go to a yarn store without a coupon!  Described here is a guide to coupons at stores that sell yarn, and the various strategies to make the most of them. 

There are several types of coupons offered by yarn stores.

1. The most useful, generally, are the % off any one regularly priced item.  These are normally 40 to 50% off though I once saw one for 60% off.  These let you pick anything that is not currently on sale and get it for less.  
2. Another type are the % off your total purchase.  These are generally between 10 and 30% off.  They are most effective when something is already on sale.  
3. A similar type of coupon is the % off your total regular purchase.  They also range from 10 to 30% off, but only apply to regularly priced items, not sale items.  As such, they are less useful.  
4. Michaels tends to have spend more save more coupons where if you buy $25 worth of items, you pay $5 less.  If you spend $50, you would save $10 and so on.  If you were to spend exactly $25, that would be a 20% savings, but if you were to spend $49, that is only a 10% savings.  These are useful if you are buying sale items, but they require more thought than other coupons to maximize the benefit.  
5. Some stores have reward cards where you earn store credit by accumulating points.  There are occasionally coupons that help you to earn these points faster, which translates into money for yarn.  
6. There are also the coupons for % off a specific type of product coupons, but they tend to not be particularly useful. 

Hobby Lobby, generally has a 40% off one regular price item coupon, though they occasionally have the % off specific item coupons instead.  Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays and does not accept coupons from other stores.  To find the coupon, go to http://hobbylobby.com/ and click on the 'In Store Specials' tab in the upper left corner.  The coupon will be there along with an ad for what is on sale, (showing what you can not use the coupon on).  These coupons last for a week and expire on Saturdays.

Michaels generally will have a 40% off one regular price item, and sometimes they have 50% off coupons.  Michaels will accept a coupon from another store, but only one coupon at a time. They also have the aforementioned 'Buy More, Save More' coupons and % off of total purchase and % off of regular purchase.  To find these coupons go to http://www.michaels.com/, and click on 'Our Weekly Ad' either in the middle of the top of the page or at the bottom under Shopping.  This will show you the current sales and the coupons.  These coupons generally last for a week (though some are only for a day or for several hours) and expire on Saturday.

Depending on what part of the country you are in, A.C. Moore might be an option.  They have a rewards program where you earn a point for every dollar spent before taxes.  When you spend over $100 at one time, you get double points.  When you accumulate 200 points, they send you a certificate for $10 which can be spent on anything in the store.  This translates to essentially 5 or 10% rewards depending on how you earned the points. Additionally, they have coupons occasionally that give you extra points.  They very consistently have 40 or 50% coupons, and will routinely have % off total or % of regular purchase coupons.  To find these, go to http://www.acmoore.com/, scroll to the bottom and click on the 'Store Locator and Coupons' tab.  Type in your zip code, and hit Go.  This shows you the nearest store, and links to the current ad and coupons.  These coupons last for a week (some are one day only) and expire on Saturdays.  One neat thing that A.C. Moore does, is not only match competitors prices, but they beat them by 10%.  So if you see Michaels advertise that Simply Soft is 2 skeins for $5, you can bring in the ad and A.C. Moore will sell you Simply Soft for 2 for $4.50.  They will honor competitors coupons, but you can only use one at a time.

Hancock Fabrics also sells yarn.  They tend to have the best clearance prices.  When they decide to get rid of a product, they do not mess around.  They tend to have a % off a regular price item coupon.  You have to sign up to receive coupons.  They will then email you coupons and mail them to you as well.  To do this, go to http://www.hancockfabrics.com/ and click on the 'Email Sign up' on the left side of the page.  You can also sign up in store.

Joann's is the most liberal with its coupon policy.  They will let you use multiple coupons at one time, provided that the code is different.  I have gone in and used 5 coupons at one time.  One from Michaels, Hobby Lobby, A.C. Moore, Joanns' mailer, and Joanns
email.  They are the only store that allows you to do this.  They tend to have a % off regular price item, and occasionally have % off total and % off regular purchase coupons.  I have heard that Joanns coupons are available online, but I have had no success in finding them.  I receive mine in both mail and email.  To sign up to receive them, go to http://www.joann.com/ and scroll to the bottom of the page.  You can sign up by entering your e-mail address and hitting 'go' or by following the 'join our mailing list' link.  I recommend the latter choice because it also gets you the sales flyer in the mail which contains coupons and can be used at A.C. Moore to get 10% off.  Joanns coupons tend to last longer, sometimes for 2-3 weeks.  This still tend to expire on Saturdays.  They also email out coupons for flat rate and free shipping from their online store.

All of these stores allow 1 coupon per customer per day, at least of the same type.  If you can bring someone with you, you can double the coupons used in a trip.  This can be very useful in obtaining large quantities of yarn, especially at stores other than Joanns where you can only use a single coupon a day.

Walmart also sells yarn but does not have coupons for it.  Their prices start out lower, but actually are higher once coupons are applied at other stores.  If you have to have lots of yarn today and it is not on sale, and you can't get help from others with coupons, then Walmart would be your best bet if they sell the yarn that you are wanting.  

Hopefully this helps!