It’s definitely easier to find coupons for popular items like chips and soda, but you have to look a little harder for healthy and organic products.

The experts at Coupon Sense say coupon companies are recognizing that healthy and organic items are becoming more in demand and those companies are beginning to issue coupons.

• Keep an eye out – tear pads, stickies ON products and you can even email companies asking for coupons for their items. In fact, a lot of the smaller ‘natural’ food companies are more than happy to mail out $1+ coupons to customers who just politely ask!

• Need wholesome snacks for the kids? Stock up on peanut butter and raisins when they are at a rock-bottom prices. Remember in general, sales price + coupon = rock bottom stock-up price.

• Yes you can save on fresh food and produce. Compare prices each week. Price match at Wal-Mart (if you like their produce quality) for a one-stop shop each week. You can also join a produce co-op like BountifulBaskets.org . It provides produce at a discount if you pick it up at their designated location.

• Take advantage of sales on seasonal produce and even stock up in order to freeze or can them. This is exactly how our grandparents saved money!  Buy in bulk when the price is right – then freeze or preserve them to save for when the prices bounced back up.  Use a Food-Saver to store produce when you stock up. There are many resources online to help you turn your seasonal produce into something you can store – as jam, jellies, breads, freezer meals, frozen raw, sliced, and whole, etc. Whatever the best method might be, you can always get resources and tips online.

• You can save a bundle by not buying something like canned chicken! Buy seven or eight pounds of chicken breast when it’s on sale, throw it in the crock pot with a can of chicken broth and slow cook it for seven to eight hours. Much more delicious! You can shred the chicken and freeze it in meal size portions.

• Want to be really thrifty? Don’t buy bread at the store. Make your own! You can find coupons to make oatmeal free or super cheap.  Oatmeal has a long shelf life and can be grounded to a nutritious flour in a blender.  Likewise, salt, oil, white flour and sugar, many of the ingredients in homemade bread can be purchased at discounted prices with coupons and sales.  Wheat is harder to purchase with coupons, but, it can be bought on sale at stores that sale bulk grains like Sprouts and Whole Foods.

• Not all “convenience” foods are bad.  The folks at Coupon Sense LOVE the frozen vegetables that you can pop right in the microwave and steam.  They are done in five minutes and with coupons they frequently get them for less than $.50 each and many times for FREE.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/money/consumer/smart_shopper/simple-ways-to-save-when-buying-healthy-foods#ixzz1k18aBOwv

abc15.com
By Daphne Munro | January 3, 2012
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/money/consumer/smart_shopper/simple-ways-to-save-when-buying-healthy-foods

Make shopping easier with these strategies you may not have considered:

Shop online instead of going to stores.

You don’t have to wait in long lines to get the best Black Friday deals, says Meghan Hefferman, spokeswoman for savings.com, an online-deals aggregator.

In the past few years, an increasing number of retailers have offered Black Friday deals online as well as in their stores, she said. Many go live right after midnight Thursday.

Hefferman recommends that you set up accounts at your favorite online retailers and review store policies for online shopping ahead of time.

“Some stores allow you to put an item in a shopping cart before Black Friday, so when the price drops you can check out seamlessly at the reduced price,” Hefferman said.

Use your cellphone.

“If you are standing in a line that wraps around a building, pull out your smartphone,” said Valley resident Laurie Meyers, founder of CouponSense.com. “You may have your shopping done before you get inside.”

Stay away from toys.

The greatest savings on toys is actually expected to be offered in the 14 days leading up to Christmas, said Regina Novickis, consumer savings expert for PromotionalCodes.com. That’s because retailers likely will want to slash prices so they don’t have too much leftover inventory.

Also, avoid high-end, brand-name TVs. These products see the best deals usually one to two weeks after Black Friday or in January, Novickis said. Off-brand models, however, typically have rock-bottom prices on Black Friday.

Ask for a deal.

ShopSmart magazine, which is published by Consumer Reports, says in its December issue that shoppers who tried to negotiate said they saved an average of $82 in stores on TVs, cameras and other consumer electronics.

Shop small.

American Express is offering its customers a one-time $25 credit for spending $25 or more at participating small businesses the day after Black Friday on Nov. 26. Some restrictions apply, including having to register your card to get the credit.

For a list of businesses, visit facebook.com/SmallBusiness

Saturday.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8236.

USAToday.com
By Sue Doerfler – The Arizona Republic | November 21, 2011
http://www.usatoday.com/USCP/PNI/FEATURES/2011-11-21-PNI1121liv-thrifty-black-fridayPNIBrd_ST_U.htm

GREAT GROCERY RACE: Gregg cashes-in coupons

HIGHLANDS RANCH – I came prepared for the 9NEWS Great Grocery Race with a secret weapon – Jen Kugler with CouponSense.com. We visited King Sooopers and Safeway. Both stores had aggressive deals, but Jen helped me cash-in big on coupons that we could use at Safeway. Jen had amassed some special deals and even a flu-shot coupon that she received from the Safeway pharmacy. Bottom line, it allowed me to buy a lot more for a lot less. My grand total at Safeway was $5.06. My grand total at King Soopers was $16.49.

Keep in mind that weekly specials vary week-to-week and store-to-store and our couponing received a nice boost courtesy of some special deals that Jen had been accumulating for a few months. Bottom line, a little preparation and some good coupon resources can help you save a lot of money during the holidays and any time.

If you’re interested in trying out CouponSense, use the promo code 9NEWS and you’ll get the first month free and $10/month after - www.couponsense.com.

GREAT GROCERY RACE: Jenn saves with store cards

CENTENNIAL – With my Target RedCard in hand, I was able to snag a few money saving deals while shopping for my big Thanksgiving feast.

If time is money, then I win this Great Grocery Race. I gathered nine essential items in less than 10 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, just one week prior to Thanksgiving.

Using my RedCard, I was able to knock-off 5 percent of my total purchase with a grand total of $22.60.

A quick shopping spree at Walmart yielded similar results. Aside from the turkey which was priced at $13.38 for 12 lbs., the big-box retailer had almost identical prices as Target.

Walmart’s grand total was $24.92.

GREAT GROCERY RACE: Heidi finds out all-natural options incentivize customers

I decided to approach my shopping on Wednesday by looking for the lowest priced items and then followed up with each store including: Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, and Sunflower Market to see if there are additional ways to save.

I found out all three take coupons, and incentivize costumers who bring their own bags. Sunflower Farmers Market and Whole Foods, will give you .10-cents back on every bag you bring into the store, and Whole Foods gives you the option of donating your savings. Natural Grocers is completely bag-free, and will donate .05 cents to the local food bank for shoppers who bring their own bags.

Each of the stores also offer food in bulk, which is a great way save especially if you just need a dash of this, or a pinch of that this holiday. You will only pay for what you need.

Whole Foods shoppers looking to save are encouraged to shop on Wednesdays to take advantage of their “One day sale” on select items throughout the store. When Heidi shopped on Wednesday, she found fresh cranberries on sale for $1.50 and opted for that instead of the canned cranberry sauce. 

Sunflower Market also encourages shopping on Wednesdays by offering double ad items on Wednesdays only. And, for those who are willing to spend a little more, $49.99, compared to our $32.11, Sunflower offers already prepared Thanksgiving Meals that serve up to 8 people. Whole Foods also offers full meals or sides for the holidays, for those looking to spend a little less time in the kitchen, or who have a surprise guest or two this Thanksgiving.

For the vegetarian this Thanksgiving, I found a great deal at Natural Grocers on a complete Tofurke meal that feeds 6 people and includes: Tofurke, gravy, stuffing and chocolate cake for 19.95.

Natural Grocers also had a great deal on organic russet potatoes for $1.69 and pie pumpkins for .88 cents verses, $6.19 for a frozen pumpkin pie.

I also found that most of her items purchased at each store were on sale. Her final totals where: Whole Foods $52.05, Natural Grocers $39.42, Sunflower Farmer’s Market $32.11.

The Shopping Mom
By Jennifer Ryan, Gregg Moss, Heidi McGuire | November 21, 2011
http://www.9news.com/money/231135/344/9NEWS-Great-Grocery-Race-puts-consumer-team-to-test

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1275358508001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAABvZFMzE~,IXjx0MpOF0qHfTIEtR9waUv2PW09mbEY&bctid=1267606180001

1. Research. Know your local store’s coupon policies. Most grocery chains in Colorado have a “three like” coupon limit per transaction, so you can’t use, say, five Cheerios coupons at the same time. Grocery stores usually double coupon values up to a dollar, and some stores also price match.
2. Stock up. A coupon discount on top of a sale price is known as a “stock-up price.” Or, combine two coupons—the store’s and the manufacturer’s—to save even bigger. If you like a store’s savings booklet, grab three and reuse the same deals again and again.
3. Pace yourself. You don’t have to be an extreme couponer. Figure out what works with your schedule. Maybe your “express” clipping saves you $20 a week as opposed to $200. But hey, savings are savings.
4. Be efficient. Choose two stores—go with a grocer and drugstore, as they tend to have different product deals—and stick to those for your regular routine. It’s not worth it to run all over town for a couple of items.
5. Stay organized. A “coupon caddy” with accordion-style filing lets you label the sections with store names and file your coupons so you can efficiently access them at checkout.
6. Don’t waste. If your “couponed” items start piling up beyond usability, or you don’t need the additional item from a “buy one, get one” offer, donate your extras.

5280.com The Denver Magazine
By Betsy Defnet | November 1, 2011
http://www.5280.com/magazine/2011/11/savvy-spender

Extreme couponing can sound enticing! Who wouldn’t want to save hundreds and hundreds of dollars on their groceries? We’ve all got to eat, right? And it’s easy to become a little addicted to the savings when you learn that you can be getting some things for free! But it is time to dial it down a bit and take a closer look. When TLC’s Extreme Couponing shows massive savings, you have to wonder what on earth they are going to do with all that food! Sure, they saved a ton of money, but was it true savings? The pictures of their pantries and garages filled to the brim with groceries does make one think twice. How can one family consume all that food? The answer? They don’t. Unless they are donating the majority of it, it is going to waste. And waste does not lead to savings. There will always be another sale and another coupon, and the trick is in knowing how to find a balance between savings, time and effort. “Not so extreme couponing” can still lead to huge savings for your family.

There are certainly some tricks to the trade when it comes to couponing. Multiple coupons and stockpiling can help you save the most! No gigantic pantry or garage devoted to the stockpile is required. Use a few copies of the same coupon, meaning 2 or 3, not 50 or 60. Buy enough for your family when the price is right. All items run on sales cycles, so the item your family enjoys will go on sale again. Stock enough to get your family through the high price time frame, and then restock when the sale comes back around. The goal is not to make your pantry look like Armageddon is on the immediate horizon! A balanced, realistic stockpile is best.

While getting items for free is fun, there is no need to go and steal coupons in order to accomplish your savings goals! Once you tell your friends and family that you are couponing, coupons will come from every direction. Also, coupons now come in many different forms, leading to easy savings. Internet coupons, downloadable coupons, even scannable coupons on your phone can help you save more than ever, without having to resort to unreasonable means.

Another big waste in extreme couponing is time. A balanced stockpile comes from an hour or so a week, especially if you use Coupon Sense (a program that matches your ads to sales and has an easy filing system). A “not so extreme couponer” will not get every single deal and chase savings around town going from store to store. A good average is one grocery store and one drug store a week. Time is money, and if you spend your time chasing free mustard around town in order to have a lifetime supply that will expire in a few months, you’ve just lost the time to money ratio. Balance, balance, balance is the key.

Another essential aspect to “not so extreme couponing” is making sure you only buy the items your family wants and needs. A sugar cereal (that you would normally never purchase) may be on sale with a coupon for $.50 a box. That’s a great deal, right? Wrong. That cereal is $.50 too much for your family. Unless you would normally purchase that item, it doesn’t matter how much it costs. It is not a good deal unless it is an item you will use and enjoy for a great price as well. Purchasing items you will never use, even at a smash, bang up price is still a waste of your time and effort, and does not equal true savings. True savings come from getting items you will use at the best price possible.

Couponing can be rewarding financially and even fun! Set realistic goals and do not expect to receive your entire grocery list for free. A realistic savings percentage can vary from family to family, but it can easily average 50% in savings. Think about it! Cutting your grocery bill in half is huge! Ignore these claims of 90% and higher savings percentages. They are not true savings. Can one family exist on free toilet paper and mustard? Of course not! A balanced grocery list includes items that can be had for free, a great deal, a good deal and at full price. Equaled out, it leads to fabulous savings and well worth the effort and time it takes to coupon.

If you would like a helping-hand with couponing, try CouponSense. It is tried and true for over 12 years and is a sane way to coupon like an expert! CouponSense takes the hard work out of coupon clipping by aggregating all of the local store coupons for you. It helps shoppers save 50-70% off their grocery bills, which amounts to thousands of dollars over the course of a year. It is $14.99 per month. Members can comparison shop because it helps them find the very best deals, and organize their coupons. It re-shapes the grocery experience and help you shop like a pro. Just think of what you could accomplish with all that extra money in your pocket! You can see more at www.couponsense.com

The Shopping Mom
By Jen Runge | Sept 7, 2011

http://www.theshoppingmom.com/not-so-extreme-couponing-can-still-equal-huge-savings/

wgntv.com
By Natalie Rivers | Posted August 24, 2011
http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/ac8a7c94-ed1c-492b-a26b-0a2880f111c4/News/Midday-Fix-Menu-Planning

San Tan Sun News
By Ann N. Videan | August 20, 2011

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1tmk6/STSIssue82011/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.santansun.com%2F

Normal consumers don’t buy 150 candy bars in one trip, go recycle-bin diving for coupons or delight in countless hours of calculating discounts because even the most savings savvy know they don’t have to—couponing is anybody and everybody’s industry.

It’s all about doling out time, effort and fiscal expenditure accordingly: Extreme couponing equals extreme time, which most sane people simply won’t sacrifice.

Jill Bender, a single mother of three sons, and founder of the blog singlemomonabudget.com, saves an average of 62 percent on her groceries without sacrificing family favorites or her family’s health. Still, she heavily criticizes the practice of extreme couponing.

“It ruins the benefits of the whole process, not only for us as consumers, those that go to the grocery store, but the manufacturers, the grocery stores,” Bender said. “It’s taking advantage of a system that isn’t financially set to be taken advantage of.”

She spends $250 to $300 a month on groceries, she said, without emptying store shelves or stockpiling deodorant for a couponing apocalypse.

Pam Oden, a Boulder mother of four who prefers to feed her family organic foods, saves about 50 percent on her grocery bill without stockpiling or wasting her days clipping coupons. She works full time and said she finds Extreme Couponing unbelievable.

“I’ve got four kids, so I really have staples I’ve got to purchase each week whether I’ve got coupons or not,” Oden said. “I don’t comprehend the fact that there’s things these folks on TV can absolutely get for free.”

Couponers brave enough to delve into Dante’s nine circles of couponing hell should use Couponing Like Momma Couldn’t (Page 60) to learn the ins, outs and etiquette of couponing.

The less intense, but just as desperate to increase disposable income, should read on.

As couponing resurges in a broken economy, social-couponing sites profit and grow by doing consumers’ footwork for them. Price-conscious consumers intimidated by even 45 minutes of reliving the oh-my-god-I’m-my-mother moment during kitchen-table coupon clipping, however, have countless social-couponing options that follow a simple formula in which effort is pretty proportionate to savings and spending.

For the über-frugal, sites such as The Grocery Game, Single Mom on a Budget and Coupon Sense serve as a toe-in-the-water middle ground for coupon clipping. Coupon Sense, for example, researches sales, policies and coupons, and provides an organizational system for clients’ Denver Post sales inserts.

“So I get my Sunday paper in my driveway and I log into Coupon Sense and it tells me exactly where to file the coupons,” said Jen Kugler, Coupon Sense Colorado director.

Then consumers use the website to find products on their grocery list, locate ads and clip only coupons they know they’ll use. The site shows them the best prices on products they would otherwise pay full price for, taking all of the research and guesswork out of the couponing process. Fees for such services range from none to $10 on average.

The fees pay professionals to keep updated store policies. Coupon Sense provides updated copies of its featured stores’ policies (including those on rain checks and coupon stacking) as they change and encourages its clients to print those policies for potential run-ins with uninformed employees.

Outside of stricter policies, Bender said she’s encountered mostly positive changes in the coupon industry, including more opportunities for healthy food. Potential couponers often believe coupons are only for junk food, she said.

“That’s not true at all,” Bender said. “There are a lot of coupons for healthy foods.”

Oden spends five hours couponing before each three-hour, two-store shopping trip, but her couponing has evolved recently, too. She used to shop primarily mainstream, corporate stores with bigger discounts, she said.

“We eat a lot of organics, so there have not been a lot of coupons available for that for a long time, but things are starting to change in that respect as well,” Oden said. “Now that organic food stores are putting out coupons, and stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts are putting out coupons, I’m going back there again more than I have before because when they have a sale and you can use two coupons (store and manufacturer) on top of that, it’s cheaper than buying organic at King Soopers.”

Bender invests 45 minutes to an hour a month with an advanced couponing system, and promises great organizational systems are key to couponing without sacrificing personal time.

But for the fearful consumers uncomfortable committing to clipping coupons all together for fear of floundering, sites such as Groupon, Google Deals and Living Social make it simple: log on, get deal. These companies’ popularity and usage exploded while other companies’ growth remained largely stagnant following the economic downturn in 2008. Groupon launched in Chicago in November of 2008 and has spread to more than 43 countries since, said Kelsey O’Neill, the consumer public relations representative with Groupon.

Groupon deals typically last six months to a year, which allows users more freedom to redeem them at their leisure than a typical coupon. Groupon also allows consumers to shop for specific deals, such as skydiving—a huge hit, O’Neill said.

Groupon is spreading from Denver to Boulder and expanding its overall business to include a travel partnership with Expedia—Groupon Getaways—and a Groupon Now! option for immediate deals.

Google Offers, launched in April—shortly after Groupon turned down Google’s $6 billion purchasing offer—looks nearly identical to Groupon, including the link to fine print. It offers similar, although considerably fewer, deals. Google Offers is available in NYC (downtown, uptown and midtown), Portland, Ore., Oakland/East Bay, Cali., and San Francisco, but promises Denver is coming soon.

For the free-spirited, Groupon’s Groupon Now!, which launched in June, offers coupons that must be used within hours or a day of purchasing but can be automatically refunded if they’re not spent.

“These are real-time, location-based deals,” O’Neill said. “It’s just another way to explore your city by popping into a yoga class or grabbing a quick bite to eat or even getting a reduced price on some dry cleaning. They’re the kind of deals you’re getting with Groupon, just more in the moment and spontaneous.”

Facebook Deals allows iPhone users to check-in at a location and view nearby stores offering deals to users who check-in there or present their phone to the cashier. Available in San Diego, San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin and Dallas. Facebook touts that it will surge ahead of Groupon and Living Social with its group coupon deals.

So, give a social-couponing site personal information and get personalized deals, but time-consuming hunts proved unsatisfactory for couponers such as Ashley Kingsley, chief executive mom with Daily Deals for Moms.

For the finicky: Even after providing demographic information to social-couponing sites—a must-do for all deal seekers—couponers often seek more personalized services. When Kingsley found herself among the dissatisfied after she had her second child, so she founded Daily Deals for Moms in Denver in April of 2010.

“I started to see some of the bigger conglomerates…offering deals that didn’t resonate with me as a mom,” she said. “I wasn’t out skydiving or taking limo rides at this particular point in my life, and I realized the mom market is extremely powerful.”

Moms make roughly 85 percent of household purchasing decisions, Kingsley said, so she created a business that caters to moms and small businesses while working to keep capital local.

“We started hiring moms in other cities because they were connected to their communities and they’re the ones that know the businesses in their city,” Kingsley said. “I don’t want to live in a Walmart world.”

But consumers continue to push to save: Limited income means eating cheap cake, even if it’s from Walmart. So local businesses continue to fight for ways to push back, promising higher quality while placing increasing limits on deals and discounts to protect profit margins from threats such as the ever-more-broken economy and savvier couponers.

Daily Deals was the first social-couponing site to allow struggling businesses to cap how many of their coupons or deals would be sold, Kingsley said. Popular social-couponing sites such as Groupon protect businesses with per-customer purchasing and gifting limits and rules disallowing the combination of Groupons with other deals.

But everyone’s protecting a profit margin. Industry leaders Groupon—possibly the fastest-growing business in the world right now—and Living Social face threats from strong companies joining the social-couponing race—including Google Offers and Facebook Deals. Consumers need only take advantage, plucking from the plethora at will.

But what about when half of the skydiving group cancels or that half-off top looks better all of the way off?

For the fickle couponers who bought vinyasa flow yoga classes, then realized they hate pretzel girl: In lieu of tackling the instructor, sites such as Lifesta, Coup Recoup and DealsGoRound buy unwanted vouchers.

Professionals suggest keeping receipts for two weeks after making a non-perishable purchase. Bender writes that shoppers should never fear returning any item the instant buyer’s remorse sets in. Store policy abuse is emptying a shelf, not using the existing system. Couponing can benefit all parties involved, Bender said, so take advantage.

“Your car payment is not negotiable, your house payment is not negotiable,” Bender said. “I think it’s a positive thing to teach people how to save money (where they can), especially in these times.”

Yellow Scene Magazine
By Brandy Simmons | August 19, 2011
http://yellowscene.com/2011/08/19/pick-a-poison-drop-a-dime-save-a-smidge/