I’ve been teaching shoppers how to save money with coupons for a decade, and the most common complaint I hear is that it takes too much time to clip, organize, sort and find coupons when you need them. Most shoppers give up in frustration after just a few weeks of trying to use coupons. It’s no wonder that 99% of grocery coupons are thrown away each year!
If you’d like to get your share of the over $300 billion worth of grocery coupons thrown away annually, then I suggest you take advantage of easy tools on the Internet to simplify using coupons. Last year we saw the greatest annual increase in coupon usage–a staggering 27% increase in coupon redemption. I believe this was partially due to the fact that more shoppers are using the Internet to find and organize coupons. More…
Every holiday season I do a segment on “Today” to show viewers some of this year’s hottest gifts—and lower priced alternatives to fit almost any budget (miss the segment? You can check it out here). I love doing this segment, but there’s just one problem: there are always too many great gifts and not enough time (or space on the set!) to show them all. Here are some of the gifts that we loved, but didn’t quite make it into the segment:
Are you looking to give some of the season’s hottest gifts without breaking the bank? We searched high and low for this year’s “it” items and found them at price points that will fit almost any holiday budget. Check out the video below to see how you can get everything from infinity scarves to iPod speakers for less.
Last week I was on Today with Stacy Morrison, editor of Redbook magazine. We talked about things you can do to keep that holiday budget of yours under control (the first thing, of course, is to actually have a budget. If you’re not sure what the appropriate amount is for you to be spending, use my holiday budget calculator).
I bring up this segment again because I love some of the tips Redbook collected from its readers, and I wanted to share:
“I buy sets of things and break them up. Last year on QVC, Valerie Parr Hill was selling sets of holiday candles that came with gift bags, tissue, and tags. I bought a set of five and broke them up into five individual gifts.” —Denise Gaylord, 55, New Bern, NC
“Board games make great family gifts: one gift for four people! I once gave Scrabble to a family, and they loved it because they began spending a lot more time together. Monopoly is another classic.” —La’Tonya Hocker, 34, Bowling Green, KY
It’s Thanksgiving Tuesday, which means most of you are busy shopping for your turkey and all the trimmings. Others of you have an entirely different kind of shopping on the brain: Black Friday shopping. To help you map out your Black Friday shopping strategy, I went right to a pro—The Coupon Mom, Stephanie Nelson. Here are some of Nelson’s favorite tips for getting the most bang for your buck on both Black Friday and all holiday season long.
Shop online. “Shopping for gifts online is a stress-free way to shop for the holidays because you avoid traffic and crowds, and you can get a lot done in one sitting,” says Nelson. According to Nelson, the web is a great place to save thanks to things such as coupon codes, free shipping offers and printable mail in rebates. “For example, Amazon.com notes in the item description if there are any “special offers” that go with item, so pay attention. The Special Offer section will list specific coupon codes, free shipping, or rebate details,” she adds.
Search for printable coupons. “When I go out to local stores, I always search for a printable coupon by entering the name of the retailer and the term “printable coupon” in a search engine,” says Nelson. She also makes a habit of scoring her newspaper flyers for department store coupons.
Change it up. According to Nelson, many people don’t realize that some coupons are interchangeable between different stores. “Craft stores tend to More…
I’ve been teaching shoppers how to save money with coupons for a decade, and the most common complaint I hear is that it takes too much time to clip, organize, sort and find coupons when you need them. Most shoppers give up in frustration after just a few weeks of trying to use coupons. It’s no wonder that 99% of grocery coupons are thrown away each year!
The gift: 
It’s Thanksgiving Tuesday, which means most of you are busy shopping for your turkey and all the trimmings. Others of you have an entirely different kind of shopping on the brain: Black Friday shopping. To help you map out your Black Friday shopping strategy, I went right to a pro—
