John Ewoldt and I spoke to a crowd at Ridgedale Library last night about saving money. The tips apply in any economy, but the library asked us to head over because of the large number of folks who are currently out of work.
John had a list of tips a mile long, and perhaps he'll share those on his blog . Here are a few of my favorite ideas.
Embrace coupons . For those who know me, it's no surprise that this is tops on my list. And I'm not alone. According to a story in the Northfield News :
National coupon processing company Inmar forecasted that more than 3 billion coupons will be redeemed this year by American consumers, after the company recorded a 23 percent increase in coupon usage during the first half of 2009.
| Movie Finder |
John, who isn't a big fan of coupons, did point out that Cub still accepts expired coupons. That's an important point because the best way to get the most savings is to hold onto coupons and wait until a store also puts the item on sale. It isn't often, but sometimes getting the best deal involves an expired coupon stacked on top of a store sale.
Coupons have also headed online. Sites such as coupons.com and redplum.com , as well as manufacturer web sites are good places to go to look for savings. And as online coupons have become more sophisticated, with their own barcode and other features, I've not had trouble getting merchants to accept them.
By signing up at my favorite store web sites, I even receive coupons for mall stores such as Ann Taylor Loft, The Gap and JC Penney. Annoying to have to print out coupons and drag them to the mall, yes. ButI'll do it to save $10 or 25 percent off.
You may be thinking that culling all of these coupons must be a royal pain and a time suck. In some ways, yes. But there are some sites Ifrequent that do a lot of the dirty work for me. Here are my faves, in no particular order: