Clipping coupons can save thousands

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Couponing has long been a way to rack up savings. There are coupons for everything: restaurants, clothing stores, tolietries and of course groceries. There are all kinds of deals to clip out or even print off, you just have to know where to look.

For many like new mom Tawny Smith, there is one problem: Couponing can be time consuming.

"I really have never had the time to do it," said Smith. "I work full time and so I think you have to be very dedicated in order to do that."

Austin 'coupon guru,' Shellie Deringer, is fighting that stigma.

Deringer began couponing to save up for a trip to Europe. Two years later, as another challenge, she spends only $40 a week on all household items including food, toiletries and even beer.

The blogosphere helped get her started. But Deringer found there was no local coupon blogger, so she started her own.

“There’s been a surge of people wanting to coupon and save money,” said Deringer. “People do it for a variety of reasons. Some need the extra money to pay the bills and some just want to do their part to help the community by not living beyond their means.”

Here are her easy tips to get you started on saving.

Tip 1: Start small.

"If you go into it guns blazing you're going to get overwhelmed," said Deringer. Concentrate on using coupons at only one store or for only one area of your monthly household budget.

Tip 2: Use e-coupons to keep things simple.

"Plan out what your family is going to eat,” said Deringer. “Take stock of what you have and only buy what you need. Find coupons for as many of the items you plan on buying as you can." Web sites like Cellfire.com, Shortcuts.com and pgsaver.com offer coupons you can download right to your store card. Just scan your card and save. Get a little more advanced and you can combine those coupons with ones you print out or clip from the Sunday coupon inserts for extra savings. Some stores also allow coupons to double or even triple.

Tip 3: Shop sales

Deringer went shopping at Randalls grocery to show how couponing can pay off. The total bill came up to more than $60. After scanning her coupons, Deringer paid only $14.70 out of pocket. She also earned $5 to use towards her next purchase as part of Randall’s Home for the Holidays promotion.

Deringer also says to save time she does not clip and file coupons. Instead, she saves the whole insert in a file folder. When she needs a coupon, she goes to that insert and clips just the one coupon.

“If you make your list before you shop and then collect all your coupons, it’s not a matter of organizing huge amounts of stuff,” said Deringer. “You just have to organize that one shopping trip.”

You can find her organizing method plus the latest deals and steals around Austin on Deringer’s blog.