Just ran across this online article that mentioned Hotcouponworld as a resource for coupons and coupon information!

Shoppers cut grocery bills with coupons, planning

By Bronwyn Turner
Correspondent
Published December 26, 2010
In this post-Christmas reckoning, count your blessings and clip your coupons, experts say.

“I may sound like a pain, but I can’t tell you how many times I have been thrilled that I had coupons with me,” said Kim McGrigg, spokeswoman for the nonprofit credit-counseling agency Money Management International.

The mother of two has dispensed financial advice for 16 years for the agency headquartered in Sugar Land, with offices in cities across the United States, including Texas City.

McGrigg keeps coupons organized in a kit in her car, alongside her reusable grocery bags.

“So I am ready to roll at anytime,” she said, speaking by phone from her Denver office.

Coupon clipping is not a dying art, she stressed.

“If nothing else, it’s growing. With the way economy has been, I don’t think anybody can afford to overlook the money they can save.”

McGrigg estimates she saves at least 10 percent each shopping venture using coupons. She signs up for store e-mailing lists to receive regular coupons, combs Internet coupon sites and also uses her smart phone to search out online coupons.

Michelle Lee, a League City mother of two, started couponing after seeing a television feature about a Katy woman with three children who spent only $800 annually on groceries.

“I began to keep a huge binder with baseball card holders for my coupons,” Lee wrote in an e-mail interview.

Lee organized coupons into categories and subcategories then set out for the grocery store, binder in hand.

“When I first started, I’d be so into the coupon usage that I often got home with a bunch of great deals, but nothing to really cook for dinner,” she said. “But, I got better.”

Now she files coupon inserts by month and name and preplans shopping trips. She scours blogs and websites to find tips on what insert contains the coupons for specific items she wants.

“It is almost like an addiction in a sense because now I almost feel guilty if I don’t have coupons with me and need to get something,” the former teacher wrote. “I keep thinking: Did I have a coupon for this? Should I wait?”

Houston coupon clipper Lisa McAdams cut her monthly grocery bill by more than half when she started using coupons two years ago. She files inserts by date and source and considers the Sunday paper a treasure trove.

“If someone delivered $100 to your house every Sunday, you wouldn’t throw it in the trash!” she wrote in her blog, Southwest Coupon Clipper.

“No matter what income bracket you fall in the bottom line is that money is money and why would anyone want to pay more for something they might get for 75 percent less or even free.”

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Tips From The Coupon Experts

• Set up an organization system, using envelopes, accordion folders or other filing methods.

“You have to find your own method of couponing and organizing or you’ll burn yourself out,” Michelle Lee said.

Websites like Hip2Save - Not Your Grandma's Coupon Site have coupon newbie sections with advice.

• Make a weekly menu or grocery list by looking at the weekly grocery sales ads first. Combine store sales and promotions with matching coupons.

“Coupon clipping is one strategy, one piece of the overall puzzle,” Kim McGrigg said. “It takes a whole mindset — planning what you’re going to buy, how you’re going to pay for it, researching places that have the best prices — before you consider using a coupon.”

• Learn the lingo.

“It is like learning to understand your teenagers’ texts,” Lee said.

B1G1 or BOGO is — Buy One, Get One free; FAR is Free After Rebate; “stacking” is using both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on one item.

• Try new products; don’t just stick to name brands.

• Beware coupon fever.

“The downfall of couponing is that it encourages people to buy products they wouldn’t normally,” McGrigg said. “This is all about figuring out what you want and seeking the resources that will help you get it cheaper.”

• Know store policies about whether they double coupons or if they take competitor’s coupons; read coupons carefully.

• Couponing is not just for groceries; crafts stores, movie theatres and other retail stores often post coupons.

• Donate your excess.

“If you feel the need to coupon to save and never have before, just imagine how those who were already struggling are dealing with this,” Lee said. “The number of families visiting food banks has increased.”

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On The Web

• Money Management International, Money Management International Consumer Credit Counseling Service - Debt Management and Financial Education - Money Management, provides a range of counseling help, including a free budgeting class in January, and a free eBook titled “Cheap Eats,” about saving money on food.

• Coupon websites, including www.hotcouponworld.com, Coupons and Hip2Save - Not Your Grandma's Coupon Site, provide a coupon database and other information.

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Coupon Jargon

B1G1 or BOGO — Buy One, Get One Free

B2GI — Buy Two, Get One Free

DEAD — Offer No Longer Valid

DND — Do Not Double

EX or X — Expires On

FAR — Free After Rebate

FILLER — Item Purchased to Reach a Minimum Total in Order to Get a “Deal”

GC — Gift Card

H2S — Hip2Save

HTH — Hope That Helps

IP — Internet Printable

Jedi — the cashier you want

MC or MQ — Manufacturer’s coupon

MIR — Mail In Rebate

NED — No Expiration Date

OOP — Out of Pocket

TMF — Try Me Free Offer

YMMV — Your Mileage May Vary — Deal may work for someone else, but it may not work for you

Source: Hip2Save - Not Your Grandma's Coupon Site

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Big Saver

The Galveston County Daily News plans to add to the savings with a special coupon clipping promotion. Beginning in January and running for nine weeks, the Daily News will pay $100 each week to the biggest saver using Daily News newspaper coupons that week. Entry forms and rules will be published each Sunday in January and February.