South Bend Tribune
Grocery shopping with Susan Samtur is depressing. She carries a complete shopping list. Without hesitation, needed items are selected from shelves. Having entered the store at 8:45 a.m., she was through shopping by 9:55 a.m. and wheeled two overflowing carts up to the checkout counter. Her grocery bill was $128.20. However, she had a bundle of coupons. Refunds and rebates numbered 101 And her husband, Steve cheerily said. "I'll pay It" upon hearing the total turned out to be 12 cents. Twelve cents! Needless to say, the clerk and a few curious bystanders were in disbelief when the total bill was announced. "Aw, gee," said one observer in amazement. (And I was dismayed. Having arrived earlier than our appointed meeting time, I hurried into the Kroger Co. store to buy a few needed items. My five purchases in one small bag totaled $14.57.) Mrs. Samtur is a professional coupon shopper. From Yonkers, N.Y., she was a school teacher from 1965 to 1976. After the purchase of a home in December 1972, she and her husband, also a teacher, became interested in refunding, a method to save money. She went to school an hour early and stayed an hour late. Her objective was to clip coupons. The interest quickly became so great friends were calling for advice. In July 1973, Samtur suggested they start a news-letter. From that meager beginning in November 1973, "Refundle Bundle" now has a circulation of 150,000 copies a month. Mrs. Samtur no longer teaches school. The couple has three children, ages 4˝ 3˝ and 1 Samtur, a high school teacher in the New York City school system, is on paternity leave. Books have been written on the subject, too. She is the author of “coupon Magic,” “Cashing In at the Checkout” and "The Great American Rebate," just released. A writer for Family Circle magazine, she also has appeared on well known television talk shows. More than 150,000 letters were received after a 1978 appearance on the Today Show with Betty Furness. There, she demonstrated how $130 18 worth of groceries could be bought for $7.07. Mrs. Samtur was in the city Saturday to make two appearances at Scottsdale Mall. The appearances coincided with a Refunders’ Convention, also taking place at the mall. Mrs. Samtur chatted while going from aisle to aisle appearing not to be flustered at all by shopping in a strange store. Her little bag of coupons was propped in the cart and she solely relied on the shopping list. In the list were the items she needed by categories, frozen and meat items are picked up last to avoid defrosting or spoilage before arriving at her destination. Through rebates and refunds she normally reduces her $100-a-week grocery bill to about $50. Shopping; once a week and not always at the same store. “My eyes are sort of trained to pick out refunds,” she said, displaying total recall on what the refund was on each item as well as pointing out offers on labels. The petite, 4 foot 9˝ inch home-maker didn't stop a minute. Name brands were selected: One-half pound Land O' Lakes butter, four cans of Pillsbury Hungry Jack biscuits, two-liter bottle of Pepsi soft drink, five pound bag of Cycle 1 dog food, king-size box of Oxydol laundry detergent, bottle of liquid Woolite cold water wash, box of Kleenex facial tissues, two boxes of Johnson's disposable diapers, etc. At the checkout counter, 10 minutes were spent to total the actual bill and 10 minutes to deduct the coupons. For this trip, Mrs. Samtur admitted the list did contain the purchase of a number of products for which she had free coupons. Thus, a further reduction of the total cost of the normal weekly shopping trip was possible. It wasn't fun to watch the Samturs and Steve Webb, promotion director at Scottsdale Mall, load all the groceries into the trunk of Webb's car. I returned to my car and shoved the small bag I had purchased to the side
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