Family Circle Magazine
Everybody loves a good deal, but Family Circle contributing editor Susan Samtur regularly gets free food. In the 30 years she has been dipping coupons and redeeming rebates. Susan estimates she has carted home $93,750 in free groceries-not to mention a slew of other goodies like a coffeemaker from Maxwell House and a bathrobe and towel set from Dove. "I haven't paid for spaghetti sauce, tissues, paper towels, detergent, cereal or coffee in years!" brags the Coupon Queen.
Inspiring, yes. But can an ordinary mom like me net the same results without Spending hours preparing a shopping list and hunting down coupons? With four kids ages 7, 5, 3 and 1, the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is sit down with the supermarket Circular and plan a trip to the grocery store.
But I'm tempted to see just how much time "big-time" savings actually takes. So I phone Susan and she agrees to assist me with my shopping experiment, but only if we shop at a store that doubles or triples coupons. "Shopping on special coupon days is the best way to cash in at the checkout." she explains. Luckily, a Pathmark near my home doubles coupons up to 50 cents every day. The chain even triples them on occasion. Picking up a pair of scissors to clip coupons now seems worth the effort.
Before we hang up, Susan gives me some homework: Consult the store circular for deals, make a list and then look far Coupons that can be applied to on-sale items. "At first, preparing to shop like this will take at least an extra hour or so." Susan admits. "But once you get the hang of it, you'll see how easy it is to save money."
Clicking for Coupons
Checking the Pathmark flyer is a good move. It gives me menu ideas and takes just a few minutes. Some of the week's best buys are: store-brand cheddar cheese (2 Mocks for $5), split chicken breast ($1.79/pound), ground beef (20 percent off), cereal (3 boxes for $6.99), hot dogs (2 packages for $4), coffee (buy one. get one free), spaghetti sauce (2 jars for $3) and whipped butter (4 tubs for $5). I should be able to conjure up some tasty meals with these ingredients.
As luck would have it, our shopping trip takes place after a holiday weekend. When I check the Sunday paper for coupons, I find it surprisingly coupon free. Come to think of it, the store flyer isn't as thick either.
Pathmark store manager Michael Bzik explains: "Post-holiday shopping is typically slow. My guess is store owners and product manufacturers don't want to throw money at business that isn't there."
Since the newspapers are bare. I head for my slash of coupons. They're mostly the kind generated at the checkout, and many have expired. I weed through diem and place the live ones in an empty envelope marked COUPONS. Then I notice the Pathmark logo pecking out from a pile of stuff on my counter. It's calendar filled with valuable offers. Soon I start noticing coupons everywhere - I rip them off specially marked packages already in my pantry. I cut them out of a box of cake mix, one spills from a can of coffee. I'm on a roll!
Then I remember the Internet. I go to www.google.com and I type in "grocery coupons." Wow! 305,000 listings in fewer than 10 seconds! At valupage.com, smartsource.com and coolsavings.com I find coupons for several of Pathmark's on sale item: 45 cents off hot dogs, 50 cents off butter and $1 off two boxes of cereal. The cereal really gets me excited - I'll pay just $2 a box, and each one has a free toy inside. At my house there's no better bribe for good behavior!
Other coupons include deals on canned fruit, jelly, peanut butter, toothpaste, cleaning solutions, juice, pet food, tea and cooking spray. There are some really high-value coupons, too - like two for free car-cleaning products. I click on the ones I want, print them out and put them in my coupon envelope, it's a cinch.
At Pathmark's Web site I find two one-cent coupons! For just a penny each I can buy a six-ounce can of name-brand tuna and a 20-ounce bag of green beans. Most grocery manufacturer Web sites have printable coupons, too. For example: www.gortons.com/promolions (my kids love fish slicks, and there's an offer for a free puppet on the site) and www.Undobkes.com (coupons come with free recipes). I make a note to check other sites (look for Web addresses on product packaging).
According to Lorraine Gallaher, director of marketing for CMS. Inc., a coupon management company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, consumers downloaded 242 million online coupons in 2002-a 111 percent increase from the year before. One reason may be that on average on-line coupons save you more than offline coupons - 97 cents vs. 81 cents. Also, online coupons often have longer expiration dates (4.8 months vs. 3 months for offline).
Food, Glorious Food.
Susan meets me at Pathmark with her coupon file (an accordion-style-envlope you can purchase at any office supply store) stuffed full of savings. She uses index cards to divide the coupons into categories such as bread, canned goods, dairy, etc. Each alphabetically filed category contains coupons with the expiration dates highlighted. At home Susan prepares her shopping list on the compute? GO it's easy to reuse and make adjustments. Like her coupons, the list is arranged by product category. Beneath each heading, the items she will purchase using coupons are marked with an asterisk. Other details required for redemption (item size, number required in purchase, etc.) are also noted. Here's how one entry appears under frozen foods: "* 2 Banquet Boneless Chicken, $1.99-99cents each." Translation: 2 packages of frozen chicken on sale for $1.99, buy at 99 cents (thanks to a 50-cent coupon doubled to $l). Wow!
When I'm out of something I jot it down on a pure of scrap paper. My list isn't neat or logical, and I never go back to organize it. Once at the store, I frantically flip through the flyer to familiarize myself with what's on sale. Chances are I'll use coupons if I remember I have them and I'm not in a rush to leave the store. My shopping sage points out why winging it is a mistake. "Being organized gets you in and out of the Store faster." says Susan. "The more time you spend, the more money, so getting in and out quickly is a key to big savings."
With Susan's coupons we'll buy the spaghetti sauce for just 70 cents jar. The butter is another steal with a 40cents-off coupon. It's possible to apply coupons to the same product, and I have already printed a 50 cents off-butter coupon from my computer. When the coupons are doubled (hers to 80 cents. mine to $1), we buy the sale-priced butter for just 20 cents each (they're normally around $2 a tub).
Susan says there are lots of grocery items that are couponed and frequently on sale. "Unless I'm desperate for a particular item, I never pay more than 25 cents per roll for toilet paper, 99 cents for a 2-liter bottle of soda, $2 for cereal, $2 for a 64-ounce carton of orange juice, 99 cents for a can of coffee or $1 for name-brand salad dressing." says Susan. "Of course, I'm flexible about the brands within the category."
The Price Is Right
It's finally time to start loading up our shopping carts. First stop, produce, where we'll pick up fresh fruits and veggies. As we consider the carrots, Susan explains how refund tie-ins work. "Refunding is the secret to getting free product coupons and checks in the mail." she says. "You won't find coupons for, say, milk and meat, but tin-manufacturers of the foods you use with them, like cookies and ketchup, often tend coupons as a reward for buying their product."
Thanks to refund tie-ins we pick up free food all over the store - sugar, flour, canned green beans, vegetable oil and snacks. But some of the most impressive freebies are on nonfood items: panty hose, a large box of laundry detergent, toilet paper and a bounce bottle of mouthwash.
To be a successful refunder, Susan advices saving UPCs (1nivcrsal Product Codes) in a separate box or envelope filed alphabetically by product name. Many companies also require a cash register receipt, no hang on to them, too. But what if separate refund offers require' the same receipt? "Most companies don't accept a copy, but I usually have good luck cutting the receipt into sections," says Susan. "If necessary, you can always ask the cashier for duplicate receipts." Still, refunding and rebating seemed too complicated a process for me.
Not so, insists Susan. These days, companies as diverse as Lowes, Office Depot, Rite Aid and True Value Hardware advertise rebates in their store flyers. Take Rite Aid. Its single-check rebate system really simplifies the process. Yon just register online and enter the transaction number from your cash register receipt. Once a month you electronically submit your rebates, and two to three weeks later your check's in the mail.
Susan describes yet another easy way to get more for less. "Be on the lookout for specially marked packages. The health and beauty aisle in particular is loaded with them." she says, pointing out the free breath mints on a bottle of mouthwash and a free toothbrush attached to a tube of toothpaste.
Check It Out!
With our cart full of savings, we make our way to the checkout. We don't pay full price for any of the 61 items on our list. The total: $186.90. With coupons and refunds we get the groceries for an amazing $12.24! Shopping with Susan is definitely inspiring. And with so many quick and easy opportunities to keep more cash in my pocket you can bet the bank that this time-strapped mom is ready to change her money-wasting ways!
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