Some HCW Tips

HCW can be very confusing, so here are the tips/tricks I’ve learned from poking around there:

1. Sign up for a free membership. Its very worth it and there are some features you can only access as a member. You can sign up here.
2. Once you've signed up, you may need to post once or twice before you can access the Coupon Database. Once that's done, you'll see a toolbar across the top of your screen once you login. The options are: User CP, Blogs, FAQ, Members List, Coupon Resources, New Posts, Search, Quick Links and Log Out.
3. Click on Coupon Resources and you'll see a link for Coupon Database. This is where you can search for any coupons you want. Type in the name of the product you're looking for in the "Description" tab (ie. Barilla or Pampers) and click on Search. It will tell you which paper the coupon was in or give you the link if its an online coupon.
4. Forums - when you first login to HCW, scroll down to the second boxed area called "Swingin' Deals". This is where you'll find forums for popular stores. If you want to see what's going on in CVS land, you'd click on Drug Stores and then CVS. If you want a supermarket, you'd click on Grocery Stores and then your store. Circulars are often posted ahead of time and folks will post with ideas on how to make the deals even better.
5. Subscriptions - Overwhelmend by going through all the forums? Join the club! You can "subscribe" to a forum and have all new posts emailed to you. This is nice since you don't have to keep going to HCW for updates. Once you're in a forum (ie. Swingin Deals, Drug Stores, CVS), you'll see a link called "Forum Tools". Click on this and then "Subscribe to Forum". You can choose how often you'd like to get email updates.
6. New Posts - this link gives you all new posts, in all forums. I click on this every so often and scroll through and look at the ones of interest to me. On the right-hand side, it will tell you which forum the post is in (ie. CVS, Auctions, Jokes & Humor, etc.) so you don't waste time trying to read everything.

I'm sure there's tons more to do on HCW, but I'm a busy lady and this is the extent that I use HCW.