Kansas City Star
Susan Samtur cuts her family of four's grocery bill in half each month by using coupons, refunds, sales and double coupon day simultaneously when possible. She says you can do it, too, although you may start out with only 5 or 10 percent savings and increase that as you learn the tricks. The author of "Cashing In at the Checkout" embarked on a shopping expedition at an area supermarket recently to prove her point. The groceries, including non-food items such as paper products, totaled $77.48. Then the coupons and refund forms came out. The new total: $2.36. Mrs. Samtur admits you can't save that much every time. She put her best coupons and refunds together to stage that grand shopping coup. But she doesn't think the $100 that comes in her mail each month through refunds is anything to sneeze at. This $100 trickles in to her from the food companies$3 or $4 a dayin the form of actual cash or checks. This $100 doesn't even include the substantial savings she makes when she presents coupons and refunds in the store, allowing her to trim her normal food costs of about $125 to about $63 every two weeks for a family with two small children. It doesn't account for the free gifts she also receives in the mail T-shirts, a wagon and a barbecue set. The homemaker and former teacher, who lives in Yonkers, N.Y., was in Kansas City this weekend on a visit sponsored by Macy's. Her book, written with Tad Tuleja, is published by The Stonesong Press (a division of Grosset & Dunlap Inc.). It sells for $6.95. The book was not the first manifestation of a coupon and refunding madness on the part of Mrs. Samtur. In 1973 she began producing "Refundle Bundle." a monthly refunding bulletin she co-edits with her husband, Stephen Samtur. After two appearances on the "Today" show, the subscriptions to "Refundle Bundle" climbed from under 3,000 to about 32,000. Mrs. Samtur's story makes for exciting dinner-table conversation among those who intend to survive inflation. Here is how she happened upon a habit which takes up about five hours a week of her time time that one fear "paid" the year's heating bill and another year provided a Florida vacation trip for the family. "I was teaching and we teachers were drinking Lipton's Cup-a-Soup on our breaks," Mrs. Samtur recalls. "Lipton was offering a $1.50 refund on each variety. I sent in for the refund. My friends thought I was nuts. Next, Kleenex had an offer. Immediately I liked the whole idea of it." But can a busy person take the time to send for refunds and use coupons? "When I started refunding and using coupons I was teaching full-time and also going to college at night," the homemaker said. "I was refunding during my lunch hour at work or during my little bit of time before work. You can do this while you watch TV or while you wait for the water to boil. You can do it while the wash is in the dryer." "We're getting doctors and lawyers who are subscribing," her husband, in town with her, added. Refunding and saving, or even trading, coupons becomes a nice pastime for an older person with time on his hands or a young mother at home or even a substitute for a part-time job. "One woman said she was considering going back to work out of necessity, but she didn't really want to because she had two young kids. This refunding and use of coupons gave her just enough savings that she didn't have to." Approach it like a game. With strategy you can double even triple your savings on a single item. That's how you achieve big savings at the checkout. Organization and a filing system are the keys to success. Here's how you can do it: Designate a kitchen drawer or shoe box for your file. File coupons by product type. For example: coffee, body needs, house hold goods, cereals. File labels, boxtops and seals that you save alphabetically. And save them routinely. The point is to have them handy when a good refund offer comes along offering, say, a free box of cereal if you send in the boxtops of three you've already purchased. You simply go to your alphabetical file. Chances are you already have bought and used the cereals and are ready to send in for your "reward." "Heinz had an offer for $4 off on hamburger meat." Mrs. Samtur explained as an example. "I went to my file under the H's and looked under Heinz. I sent in my labels and got back $4 of hamburger coupons (good for free purchase of the meat)." Keep refund offers in a separate envelope. Often you will need to write a company and request the refund offer. Set a goal for yourself of how many refund orders you will send in each month. Her goal is 100 a month; a new refunder might try for 25 a month "you can increase that as you build up a backlog of qualifiers (labels, boxtops, etc).'' To double or triple your savings: Team up a coupon, a refund and a store sale. If possible, also use the coupon on a double-coupon day. Look at all the items of the same brand on the shelf before you select one to buy one box of stuffing mix might offer a $1 refund while another from a different shipment might only offer 10 cents off purchase. It's obvious which one you wish to buy. By playing your coupons and specials right it's not unusual to pay less for a national brand than even a generic brand, she said. Just open your eyes. It's surprising how many persons will not even notice that on two items of the same brand, one says "7 cents off" and one does not. "It's Important when you use coupons to always see if the smaller size doesn't come out cheaper. For example, the 2-ounce jar of Folgers here is $1.24. I have a Folgers coffee coupon worth a dollar off on any size. A dollar from $l .24 leaves 34 cents, or 12 cents an ounce. Now the 4-ounce jar of Folgers is $2.15. Take sway a dollar and that s $1.15 left. Divide by 4 ounces and that's about 29 cents an ounce. So the small size was cheaper with the coupon. Everyone always goes for the big size, but I have learned that with couponing it's not always true." Plan your shopping list ahead, but be flexible for new savings you see at the store: "I'll take my stores flyer and see what good specials they are advertising. Then I go through my coupons by product type to see if any correspond to the sales. I look at the flyer, paper towels are on sale. So I go to the product type, paper towels, in my filing system ... I always work my shopping around what is for sale and use my coupons at the same time." Trade coupons you don't want or can't use with other collectors. Do the same with refund forms. You can do this with neighbors or friends or through a swapping column in a refundingcoupon newsletter. Though it takes Mrs. Samtur five hours a week it will take a beginner even more time if he approaches these money-saving techniques seriously. Far information on the Samturs' monthly bulletin write: "Refundle Bundle." P.O. Box 141, Centuck Station, Yonkers, N.Y. 10710. The annual subscription rate is $9. Some manufacturers offer more coupons than others. If Mrs. Samtur likes their products well enough, she prefers to buy regularly from among the products they offer. Perhaps you're wondering if you won't end up using a lot of products you don't really need or like simply to "save" money. Mrs. Samtur said the experimenting with new products "adds variety into shopping patterns and gives your family a chance to try something new." "I don't feel that I've cut down on the quality of our food." Mrs. Samtur said, pointing out that it's not unusual to pay less for a national brand than a generic brand if you use team coupons, specials and refunds. Do coupon and refund offer drive up the price of groceries? Mrs. Samtur believes that major food and other product manufacturers designate a certain percentage of their budget to advertising and promotion. She believes the companies would increase spending on other forms of advertising if coupons and refund offers were not effective. She reasons she may as well take advantage of coupons and refunds if they are available. Not to do so is to throw money away, she maintains. "I never would stop refunding because I enjoy it," Mrs. Samtur said, "almost everyday I open my mail and get at least a dollar or a dollar or a refund certificate instead of getting a bill in the mail, I get this," she said waving a refund certificate like a red "go" flag in the supermarket aisle. Curious shoppers eavesdropped and scrutinized their shopping carts, showing all the symptoms of refunding fever.
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