Coupon craze comeback
With so many of you wanting to save money while shopping, coupons are making a comeback. We met a woman who defines frugal. She is a life-long coupon clipper and a self-professed yard sale queen. She knows how to pinch a penny unlike anyone else.
Aimi Dalness, a Carolina Forest wife and mother of two, said she learned her frugalness from her mother and she is teaching her two young daughters how to live a frugal lifestyle.
If you think you’re frugal, match this. Dalness only buys yard sale and goodwill clothes, shoes, furniture and everything else in her house. She collects coupons for everything, no exceptions. “I’ve always cut coupons and watched the grocery sale ads in the newspaper.“
She also shops the clearance bins in the grocery store and discount stores to add to her savings. She likes to clip traditional coupons and collect the ones in the mail. But she spends a lot of time online, looking for deals. She likes craigslist for free items and yard sales listings. Amazon is how she price shops and ebay just has good deals, she said.
“You can sign-up, save five dollars in store or 10 percent online, a lot of stores have cheaper prices online,” Dalness said as her girls sat on her knee. She gives her email address online and gets 5 and 10 dollar coupons and all kinds of other things. “They sent me a coupon for free umbrella once so I took advantage of that.“
Dalness said she tries to shop online before going to stores. “I’ll go to Wal-mart’s website, K-mart’s website and try to find the cheapest price. For instance, toys, so that I don’t have to do as much driving and it also saves time.“
If you don’t already clip coupons, you might want to take a look at them again. They’re everywhere. Just start looking for them in the paper, in the mail and in stores. But online, you can type in almost anything and find a coupon for it.
Start with products you normally use, go on that company’s website and look for a coupon.
There are many e-coupon sites. Here are few. Each will lead you to other sites. You can do a general search for “coupons.”
http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13306&zid=iq37&nid=10
http://www.parenting.com/article/Mom/Work—Family/The-Best-Coupon-Sites-for-Mom
http://www.coolsavings.com/printablecoupons.aspx?SessionID=53dbbecb-67c9-44f8-86c2-00c586afb556-2
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Reader Reactions
I had not thought of using coupons for groceries that I could find online until I read the article in “On Your Side”. On Saturday last weekend I spent an hour or so looking for different coupons and I did find a number that would give me money off on items that I was planning to buy anyway. I felt pretty good about spending the time finding these coupons and even though it did take longer than usual checking the coupon in the store to make sure I had the right product and I was following all the requirements, I was still feeling good about the time I had spent and I actually was looking forward to seeing how much money I saved using the coupons I was going to use. I was shopping at Wal-Mart on Irby street and I went through the check-out line and I presented my coupons that I had double checked before I went to the check out making sure of my purchases before I took out my money. I was told Wal-Mart does NOT HONOR INTERNET COUPONS!! “What?“ I said. The cashier said “the home office has notified us we CANNOT ACCEPT INTERNET COUPONS.“ I asked why and she said she didn’t know why, just she wasn’t allowed to honor them. I was in shock and there was a line behind me so I paid the amount I was told and now I really regret the time I took to find all of those coupons!
Conniekay1 of Florence, SC
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