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Business & Tech

If It's Free, It's For Me.

Local "extreme couponer" shares her secrets for getting free items and big savings.

Have you ever been to a flea market or yard sale and wondered how some folks can sell boxes of brand new toiletries and other items for just a fraction of what they cost in stores like CVS, Walmart and Rite-Aid?

I had the opportunity to speak with Lower Macungie resident Linda King who does just that. She saves a bundle on daily necessities and makes a nice little chunk of change on the "left-overs" as well. All it takes is a little time, effort and research.

King has been an “extreme couponer” since her late teens.

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“I started cutting out coupons when I was in college. I was broke and supporting myself. I remember a box of cereal was $4. The grocery store doubled coupons, so I started buying a Sunday newspaper to get coupons to buy food and have not stopped since,” King explained.

Since then, she has saved almost 50 percent on her monthly grocery bills.

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Fortunately, King is willing to share her secret.

The trick is to match manufacturers’ coupons from the Sunday paper to weekly specials offered by big box stores.

You can buy the Sunday paper for $1 at any “dollar” store. This allows you to get multiple sets of coupons to use immediately and to keep on hand for future deals. In the long run this equals huge savings, for some, thousands each year.

Online blogs can tell you the great deals you can get in combination with each week’s circular coupons.

HotCouponWorld.com has forums for different stores such as Giant, CVS, Target and Walmart. It’s a national Web site that extends to local stores as well. Other coupon sites such as Couponcravings.com and AOL's Shortcuts.com are well-known for their savings.

Coupon blogs relay items available for free or at a very low price when combined with a particular week’s coupons. The bloggers do all the legwork for you, which is a huge time saver.

Let's take Walmart, for example. Johnson & Johnson’s Reach floss is regularly $.97.  The J&J coupons offer $1 off each item. Essentially, consumers get $.03 back for buying it, if other items are purchased within the same transaction.

Items like floss usually have long expiration dates, so that’s an easy one to stock up on, King said.

King added another huge way to save is by using CVS’s Extra Care Bucks - coupons printed at the bottom of CVS receipts. A buyer must register to obtain a CVS Care Card, which is free and can add up to big savings.

By using weekly coupons along with current sales, King is able to build CVS credit, which is then transferred to additional savings on future orders with “Extra Care Bucks." 

A few of the items that King has saved on at local retailers, include razors, toothbrushes, diapers, pain relievers and Kotex.

“The razors were 'buy one, get one free,' and I had $4 coupons for each, so it made them very cheap,” King explained.

She said she might spend $1 per razor, but it’s a huge savings nonetheless. As an added bonus, King said she occasionally receives a free can of shaving cream when she buys two razors.

If something is normally a $1 and a $1 coupon is distributed, King said she knows, “I’ve got five of these coupons, so I can get five free items. If something is 'buy one, get one free' and you have a coupon, you end up getting both for free.”

Kotex will have “buy one, get one free” coupons in addition to a store special where they offer “buy one, get one free,” so you end up getting both for free.

“It’s beautiful,” said King.

King said she’ll stock up on Sunday papers if she sees coupons for “buy one, get one free” deals since it’s inevitable that one or more of the big box stores will offer a good sale at some point.

Clearance sections are not to be missed either.

King makes out like a bandit on products such as hair color. Clairol Natural Instincts and Nice ‘n Easy is occasionally on clearance at CVS for just $2. With a $2 manufacturer’s coupon, King gets these items for free as well, and they still add value to her accumulating CVS "Extra Care Bucks."

A report from another popular couponing Web site, Coupons.com, says "more than $1.2 billion in digital coupons savings was issued in 2010, representing a 41 percent growth over the year before."

That's some serious savings.

Interestingly, the report concluded that "adults with a household income of over $100,000 are twice as likely to have redeemed coupons printed from an online source than adults with household income less than $35,000. Also, adults with college degrees are almost twice as likely to have used coupons in the prior six months as those who didn’t graduate from high school."

“It’s free money the manufacturers are giving out, so it’s crazy not to take advantage of it,” King said.

She admitted it takes a ton of time and a lot of effort.

“There’s no greater thrill than coming home with several bags of stuff for free because you cut out coupons,” King said.

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