CouponsToTroops - Send your expired and unwanted coupons to overseas military families!

If you’ve been a reader of mine for awhile, you know that I’m involved with CouponsToTroops, where we work to spread awareness that US Military families who are stationed overseas can use manufacturer’s coupons up to 6 months past their expiration date. We also help put families and groups here in the states in touch with overseas families so that they can mail their coupons on over.

One of my favorite parts of my day is checking my email and seeing messages from people here in the states who are looking for an address of a military family to mail to, and messages from overseas families who are hoping we can help them find coupons in their mailbox.

Here’s just a few of things that the military families have said:

~I LOVE to use coupons to help stretch our budget. If you can help us out I would be so grateful.

~It is very hard to find any good coupons over here. Any help will be greatly appreciated. You will not just be helping me and my family but many other military families
~
Thank you for offering this program to us! It is much appreciated!

~I am not sure if you know how much of an impact your services have out here but I can tell you it helps our families tremendously!!

~thank you for helping out so many military members. It means so much to know that there are so many people that want to help members that are stationed overseas!

It amazes me how something so simple as taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to cut coupons from your Sunday paper and mail off an envelope of coupons overseas can mean so much to someone half a world away. And to know that they are going to a US military family who sacrifices so much for us every single day…. who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

A Google search will yield you pages upon pages of information on sending coupons overseas to our military families. Our program is one of the few that recommends mailing directly to a military family and I’d like to explain the reasons why we do that.

• Some groups have you ‘adopt’ a base and you send your coupons to a generic address on base – usually to their Family Support Group. We’ve heard so many horror stories from military wives that there are not enough volunteers on base to get the coupons distributed quickly and they end up with stacks and stacks of boxes in their back room that ultimately end up in the trash because by the time they do get distributed, the coupons are well past the 6 month expiration window of opportunity.

• Other groups have you send your coupons to a collection point here in the US and they’ll send them overseas for you. It costs the same exact postage to mail overseas as it does to mail to a collection point in the US. (who will then turn around and spend MORE postage money to get them to their final destination.)

When you mail directly to a family on our contact list

• you KNOW that your coupons are getting to someone who will use what they can and share the rest with others on base. (Some groups have you ‘adopt’ a base and you send your coupons to a generic address on base – usually to their Family Support Group. We’ve heard so many horror stories that there are not enough volunteers to get the coupons distributed quickly and they end up with stacks of boxes in their back room that ultimately end up in the trash because by the time they do get distributed, the coupons are well past the 6 month expiration window of opportunity.)

• the coupons will be delivered overseas quicker since they won’t be making an extra stop along the way.

Right now CouponsToTroops is in an interesting predicament. The families that we help out overseas have been talking up the program so much that right now we have a LOT of new families who have signed up to receive coupons. We do receive emails from people wishing to send coupons every day, but we can always use more, so I’m hoping for a little bit of help from all of you, so that we can help that many more military families.

Please help us spread the word about the CouponsToTroops program and the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CouponsToTroops) and/or our email address (admin@couponstotroops.com) and help us find more people who are willing to mail coupons overseas. Post about us on your blog, on your Facebook page, tweet about us, tell your relatives, your neighbors, your co-workers, your church group, your couponing group, your Moms Group, etc. And don’t forget to tell them to tell us that you sent them!!!

If you do help us spread the word, please leave a comment below. Be sure to include links to where you’ve posted…. You just might find a shout out from CouponsToTroops on our Facebook or Twitter page!!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CouponsToTroops
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CouponsToTroops
Email: admin@couponstotroops.com