By Cathy Willoughby
Correspondent
OLD FORT - Always searching for a less expensive way to get something her family needs had Old Fort resident Erin Alice get serious about coupons.
Being prompted by a friend's Facebook post was the final impetus six months ago for Alice to really take note of the savings that are possible. Only couponing since January, she has created her own blog to share the wealth of information she has gained.
"I have a girlfriend who lives in Kentucky, and she posted something on her Facebook wall that she used coupons and got an obscene amount of items for only $2," she said.
Alice then researched websites that promoted coupon usage, learning more about different store policies and how to stack, or use multiple coupons. As she learned the strategy to use, she found it difficult to "ever pay full price again."
What she found was that not only was obtaining, cutting and sorting multiple coupons useful, but that it was best to wait until the items her family used were available at a good price.
Alice prefers to use the printed circular coupons available in newspaper, purchasing multiple copies every Sunday.
She also has investigated websites including SmartSource.com, Coupons.com, electronic coupons at Kroger's site as well as Cellfire.com.
Kroger and Cellfire allow a user to upload coupon savings directly onto his or her grocery store loyalty card. SmartSource and Coupons are printable manufacturer coupons, similar to newspaper inserts.
What she discovered is the grocery stores she frequents will use both, or stack, the electronic with the clipped coupons, increasing her savings.
At times she has received items for just pennies on the dollar, or even with the store owing her money.
She is aware of coupon clipping services, which allow individuals to buy coupons for a significant cost savings.
Yet Alice has not used the services herself.
"I can understand that if there was a buy one, get one coupon on Cheer, for example, I could go online and buy 20 coupons," she said. "I know that there are several people that might go to buy cereal on sale with coupons at Meijer's and buy 36 boxes of cereal. I don't need to get that many."
She has read of others who used their surplus savings to give to others, as well as keeping ample quantities in their own pantries for future use.
"There was one woman who ended up getting noodles for 14 cents a box, and she could use them for a youth event at her church," Alice said. "Others who get a lot of coupons and find something where they can get it for pennies on the dollar, then get it and donate it to food pantries. And sometimes it's nice to be able to stock up on things."
She started her blog, simplestepstobigsavings.blogspot.com, at the end of March.
"I have a lot of friends with tight budgets," Alice explained. "I started the blog to try to put up my deals, what I have found, where I've found coupons and good deals. On the pages I've tried to explain coupon terminology, some things about rebates and finding coupons. Just to get some basic information for friends and share some of the knowledge that I've found. I feel like I am helping them, I hope."
She said that one week she noticed that she had 50 "hits" or readers who visited her blog.
"In a month and a half, I've had over 500 hits so far," Alice said. "I think I have two friends or followers."
Some of her secrets have to do with the stores, the codes on the coupons themselves and her system of organizing them all.
She likes to shop occasionally, when sales on items she needs are really good, at the Kroger and Giant Eagle in Rossford. There they will triple coupons on specified dates. She also has discovered that the numbers along the bar code show whether the store can double, or not. Some stores will double up to 50 cents, others up to a dollar.
"If it starts with a 5, any store will double it," Alice said. "If it is a 9, it's not a double coupon."
As an example, she used a recent sale on Capri Sun packaged drinks.
"It was $2.25 a box, and the store would double the $1 coupon, but would only accept two," she said. "At Kroger, they would double for all four of the items I had. You find out these idiosyncrasies, and you have to be flexible to be able to roll with the punches."
Store coupons, such as those that are distributed by Kroger and Target, can be stacked with manufacturers' coupons. Walgreens offers a coupon book every month, and its children's activity book, Wags, has a number of coupons included in its back pages.
She clips as she finds the time and has them organized with categories of items stored in baseball card sleeves in a notebook.
Without that method, Alice said, she is afraid she would lose track and find many expired before she realized it. Alice shops once a week, after comparing sale circulars to coupons.
"I'll put it on the blog, 'Here's a sale, with coupon matchups,' so that they can get really good deals," she added. "I like people to get it for free."
