Bristol Herald Courier
No one stops Susan Samtur when she leaves the grocery store after paying $6.49 for groceries worth almost $90. In fact, the supermarket bags her purchases and helps her get them to her car. She recently bought a box of fabric softener sheets priced at 95 cents, using a 50-cent coupon on double-coupon day at her supermarket. The store didn't pay her a nickel to take the sheets, but she did get them free. She found frozen orange juice on sale for 68 cents. Her 20-cent coupon was doubled to make the total cost of the juice 28 cents. Salad dressing was on sale for 49 her good-on-any-size salad dressing coupon for 50 cents got her the product free. Samtur turned her technique for Cashing In at the Checkout into a book by that name, and a full-time business for herself and her husband. The former school teacher has also appeared on the "Today" show several times and is a contributing editor for "Family Circle" magazine. By sending in labels or proofs-of-purchase, she can often get additional money back dollar bills or more even on the items that cost her nothing. Skeptics give all kinds of reasons for Samtur's savings of 40 percent to 50 percent or more every time she shops, but her system works, with or without a store that doubles the value of coupons. When she shopped at Food ---------- her coupons weren't doubling, but that was where she paid S6.49. No, she doesn't buy a lot of junk food she really doesn't want "Coupon shoppers are too interested in saving to ever fall into that trap," she said. The coupons are available there's never a shortage and all it takes is a little work on the part of the shopper. She saves on everything including meat. "There are a few points to keep in mind about couponing," Samtur wrote in booklet, Coupon Magic. "The first one is that manufacturers' coupons are offered only by the big national companies because they are the only ones who can afford this specialized form of advertising... a major paradox of Supershopping is that sometimes 'More is less.' In the short run you may come out ...head by buying Brand X rather than Green Giant, but in the long run you can only lose, because the savings power of coupons is cumulative, and if you are diligent about clipping them, you're bound to cut the brand name price, item after item, far below what any store line can offer ... "The second point to remember about coupons is that to get the full effect of their reducing power, you must be willing to try different brands from time to time, depending on what coupons you have." Samtur begins with her alphabetized coupon filing system, divided into the same categories the store uses in the aisles baby items, baking items, beverages, and so on. She plans her shopping trip, makes a list, and goes to the store armed with her pocketbook-size filing system. In the simplest form of Supershopping, the shopper finds what he or she wants in the brand that's on sale, looks into the files and pulls out the coupon that will save additional money. "If I go into a (grocery) store and I see something on sale, and I don't have a coupon, I hate to buy it," she said. Beginners soon learn to keep a batch of "complicated" coupons straight in their heads the coupon that gives four rolls of toilet paper free with the purchase of a certain brand of detergent, for example. And don't forget to pull out a coupon to save money on the detergent itself. The mother of four sons, ages 2. 7, 10 and 11 years old, Samtur runs her coupon club and sends out her newsletter, Refundle Bundle, from home. "There was a time when (the children) were all little that I couldn't work at all during the day. I had to work at night," she said. While she tries to ---------- from her 2-year-old ---------- day. he often leaves the ---------- and locates his mother ---------- fice at their home, a ---------- must be done with him ---------- But there are adv---------- being in the coupon bu---------- When her sons b---------- her for a "sugary" cer---------- all the kind she wan---------- have she tells them ---------- have that coupon. "That is for them ---------- the conversation." * - * - * (YOU SHOULD KNOW ---------- Will conduct a free seminar ---------- ing in Norlon Holiday Inn. To ---------- The bimonthly newsletter ---------- $7.50 per year, write: Refundle Bundle, P.O. Box 141, Centuck Station, Yonkers, N.Y. 10710. To rece ---------- of coupons free, send a s---------- business-size envelope with stamp, to Select Coupon ---------- S. Central Ave., Elm---------- 10523.)
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