Coupon clippers stockpiling items, saving hundreds on food bills

On a recent shopping trip, Tara Whitaker watched the tally on the register climb to more than $543 while the cashier scanned enough items to feed her family for weeks.

But then she handed over her coupons, and watched that number fall - all the way to below zero. She actually had to grab a carton of milk to bring the total to $1.23.

That's right. For the price of a pack of gum, Whitaker bought enough meat, dairy, rice, pasta, snacks and pantry items to keep her family of three fed for a long time.

The 29-year-old mom is one of a new wave of coupon-clipping enthusiasts - most of them women who scour the Internet, newspapers and sales ads with the goal of paying next to nothing for groceries.

"I was spending around $150 a week," said Whitaker, who began using coupons around five years ago and now teaches classes several times each month. "Now we spend about $20 to $30 each week."

There's much more to it than clipping a coupon or two from the Sunday newspaper.

Scoring such deep discounts involves knowledge of store policies, sales cycles and a little bit of planning. This is 21st century Home Economics.

Hundreds of websites, many run by young mothers like Whitaker, have sprung up online in recent years. There's the Krazy Coupon lady, the Coupon Mom, the Coupon Queen, Coupon Diva, even a Coupon Dad.

The Learning Channel aired a program called "Extreme Couponers" a few months ago. People featured on the show spent hours clipping coupons, planning shopping trips and stockpiling items they purchased for pennies, in some cases. One man had a stockpile of more than 10,000 items in his garage with an estimated worth of $50,000 to $75,000. That included more than 1,000 bottles of body wash and more than 1,500 sticks of deodorant.

"There is no reason to get carried away like that," Whitaker said at a recent class. "You should only get what you'll need for the next month. It will go on sale again, I promise."

Her shopping trip that resulted in more than $500 of savings wasn't typical. She planned a big trip to demonstrate for The Tuscaloosa News how many items can be purchased for so little. She planned to donate more than half of it to charity. During that trip, she bought 363 items and used 317 coupons. She purchased the coupons used on the trip online for $10.

To get all those groceries for such a low price, Whitaker used the techniques she teaches in her classes. She used the coupons to buy items that were already discounted at the store. A lot of the coupons were worth more than the store's sale price. For example, she bought 89 packages of yellow rice at a sale price of 64 cents, and used 89 coupons for $1 off. The $31.59 overage went toward other items such as chicken, meat, strawberries and milk.

During a typical week, Whitaker uses about 40 coupons or fewer. The coupon use only results in an overage every five trips or so, she said.

She has an ample stockpile of items she bought with coupons while they were at their lowest price, which helps cut down weekly costs. Stockpiling is the key to lowering your grocery bill, she said.

"It takes awhile to stockpile, because not everything is going to be on sale the first week that you start off," she said. "It will probably take about two months before you get the hang of it and start seeing a difference in your budget."

Whitaker, who works as an accountant by day, said that a lot of people are turned off or intimidated by the idea of couponing because they think it takes a lot of time.

"I spend about 30 minutes a week organizing everything," she said. "That 30 minutes is worth it to me because I save a lot of money."

Azia Patrick, 28, began using coupons a few months ago when she realized her family was spending a lot of money at restaurants on top of $150 to $200 in groceries. Patrick, a property manager at an apartment complex in Tuscaloosa, said that her family eats out often and she uses coupons to cut costs in other areas.

"We are an eating-out family, so that's the reason I do it," she said. "I think that you have to have a reason, or you're going to get burned out. I know that we're going to spend money at restaurants, so I figured that cutting costs for groceries would be a way to save."

She was a little frustrated at first, but soon became hooked.

"When you have that really good first transaction where you save more than you spend, that's when it just clicks and the light bulb comes on," she said. "You think 'I've got to do better next time.' "

Her first major haul happened when she used a $25-off coupon for transferring a prescription for free medication to Publix. She used coupons on top of buy-one-get-one-free sales and ended up spending $7 and saving $82.

She started a Facebook group called Tuscaloosa Coupon Friends and plans to hold coupon swaps each month. The group has a class planned today, followed by a swap. She said she spends about an hour or an hour and a half on Sundays clipping newspaper coupons and about an hour on Monday mornings printing coupons online. She enjoys sharing her new hobby with friends who are amazed by her smart shopping.

"I think a lot of people relate because they see a real person doing this, not someone on television," she said. "It's realistic. If I can do this, you can do this. It really is not that hard. You just have to have a game plan and put a little bit of time into it."

As the price of food continues to climb, people's interest in saving money will very likely do the same.

Food prices at the wholesale level rose 3.9 percent between January and February, the biggest monthly jump since November 1974. Wholesale costs jumped 7.3 percent over the last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The government reported that for individual consumers, the price of food prepared in the home has increased 2.8 percent in the last 12 months.

Food costs are expected to rise even further, with record-high energy prices, a weak U.S. dollar and rising labor costs all adding up to increased costs to the consumer. Gas prices are soaring. People have lost jobs. For many who haven't, pay increases are an expectation of the past. It makes sense that coupon use has gained in popularity as people are forced to make ends meet with less.

Source http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/f85f5dbd72574080842642317fd770bd/AL--Coupon-Shopping/

Fairfax savings become spending

Fairfax County wins the Ben Franklin award of the day for saving their pennies – more than $12 million worth of them, in fact. The savings came from third quarter 1 percent cuts across most agencies, resulting in actions like taking a couple of ambulances off of overnight duty.

In addition, the county stocked up another $12.4 million in unexpected third-quarter revenue increases, boosted in part by a bump in local sales tax driven by holiday spending that was up 10 percent over last year.

But as old Ben's adage goes, "a penny saved is a penny earned," and a penny earned often is turned around and spent.

More than $9 million was promised elsewhere before the savings came in. Another $4 million was spent on the county's computer systems, and $2 million went toward higher-than-anticipated workers compensation claims and self-insurance losses.

At the end of it all, the Founding Franklin may still have given a nod of approval: The county forwarded along about $4.7 million to the general fund.

Source http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2011/03/fairfax-savings-become-spending

Pennies for her thoughts

Tara Borgilt wants to write a poem for you on her typewriter, about anything you want, for any price you want.

On sunny days, the Ashland High School senior sets up a mobile poetry store in Lithia Park, writing poems on a 1950s typewriter using prompts from strangers.

"Your poem, your price," reads the sign on her typewriter case.

"I'm sending my poems out to who knows where," said Borgilt, 18. "It just feels good to get them out."

After taking a few minutes to write a poem, she hands the only copy to the customer.

"Sometimes that's the sad part, but it's also one of the best parts, because the person gets it, the one and only copy," she said.

Passersby have paid between $1 and $5 for her poems, which are typically half a page long and sometimes written on painted paper she recycled from a high school art class.

The exercise is more about making a connection with strangers than collecting money, Borgilt said.

"I do it for the unlikely connection with people who you would normally just smile at on the street as you passed, and that would be the end of it," she said. "This has taught me how little it takes for people to open up to each other. It's one of the most fulfilling things I've done."

She's saving the money she earns for next year, when she plans to travel to Spain and perhaps work on an organic farm.

The following year, she will attend Reed College in Portland, which has accepted her and allowed her to defer her enrollment for a year.

On Friday, Ashland resident Zach Davis stopped by the Poetry Store to request a poem "about the lifecycle of water."

"I saw this was the Poetry Store and I thought I'd go shopping," he said.

The poem was for his eight-year-old son, who was interested in the process of evaporation and condensation as a younger child, he said.

"I'm a good poetry fan," Davis said. "There are some uses of words that can really connect with people and what it means to be human."

Borgilt took a few minutes to type the poem on blue-painted paper and then asked Davis if she could read it to him.

"It begins in the black well / where your dreams / crawl from their skins into your / skull "…" she read.

Borgilt began writing public poems in August 2010, after buying her typewriter for $25 from a Medford thrift store.

"I like typewriters because you can see what's happening," she said. "It's all right out before you and it's very textural and I like the sound. It's almost like a character itself."

She got the idea from Jacqueline Suskin, who writes poems on a typewriter at the farmer's market in Arcata, Calif. Suskin wrote a poem for Borgilt about "self" that used a metaphor of a saffron bloom when Borgilt visited Arcata in October 2009, with the high school's Wilderness Charter School.

Borgilt began seriously writing poetry in eighth grade and for the entire year of 2008 she wrote a poem a day, which taught her to free-write quickly, without going back and editing.

"When I start out, I kind of wonder where I'm going and hopefully by the end I've reached somewhere," she said.

She has received a range of requests from customers. One woman asked for a poem about "Ascended Master Saint Germain." A little girl asked for a poem about "a little girl who loves her daddy very, very much," and then the girl read the poem to her father, Borgilt said. Many people request poems about someone else, and then give the poems to the person as a gift, she said.

"That feels really good, to write poetry as a gift to someone, who sometimes I haven't even seen." Borgilt said.

She intends to keep writing and to bring her typewriter with her on her travels, she said.

"I want to do more of this," Borgilt said. "I'd like to definitely go to San Francisco and do this this summer. And it'd be amazing to do this in Spanish."

Until then, expect to see her typing in the park on weekends or after school and downtown at First Friday's ArtWalk.

"This is definitely something I see myself doing for awhile," she said. "This is just the beginning. This is just trying it out."

For more information on Borgilt and her poetry, e-mail her at tarskie@gmail.com.

Contact reporter Hannah Guzik at 541-708-1158 or hguzik@dailytidings.com.

Source http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110307/NEWS02/103070304/-1/NEWSMAP

$1 Billion Yandex IPO Set For This Summer

Anyone who would like to invest in Russia's most successful search engine may want to start saving pennies and talking to his (or her) stockbroker.  Reports indicate that Yandex, which has had little trouble fending off Google in its home market, will go public and try to raise $1 billion this summer.

A post on the Quintura Blog stated today, "The leading Russian search engine and contextual advertising company, Yandex plans $1 billion IPO on NASDAQ in June - July 2011, reported newspaper Vedomosti.  The company hired investment banks Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley to manage the IPO."

It's possible a serious rush will result.  Yandex's search engine has a market share of about 64 percent, which is seriously impressive given the competition.

Yandex's finances aren't in bad shape, either, considering that the company reported a 43 percent increase in revenue between 2009 and 2010.

Then there's the simple fact that the move's well timed in relation to the overall economy, since investors are starting to take their money out from underneath their mattresses once again.

It should be interesting to see what happens.  Unfortunately, no additional details are available at this time.

Source  http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2011/02/21/1-billion-yandex-ipo-set-for-this-summer

Whose Kingdom for some saving grace?

It has been well said that the true mettle of leaders is tested by a baptism of fire. People in positions of power and authority who perform well under trying and testing circumstances are more likely to be remembered kindly by history as well as their subjects. Grace under pressure. Mercy like a river. Power with passion and purpose. Wait, don’t turn that page!

This is not empty prose. It is meant to provoke, challenge, stimulate. How you respond, dear reader, will test your heart. And mind. And resolve to act. Rather than merely pontificating and laying the blame for the tragedies unfolding around us at the feet of the state and a generation of lazy, wasteful, crooked, corrupt politicos…

Where is the need the greatest?

Unless you have been living in cloud cuckoo land these past few weeks and months, you could not have failed to notice that large tracts of your country are under water. If you are hoping that this will all go away soon enough so that you can enjoy the Cricket World Cup in peace – go ahead, and please shut the door after you when you flip the page to more appealing sections of your favourite weekly newspaper. What? Are you still here? Good…

Whom are you seeking to benefit?

Chances are that if you’re still with us (look around, folks, at this faithful little remnant), you’re more than a mere spectator. You belong to that rare and select breed whose heart is moved by the misfortune of their brothers and sisters. Hope springs eternal that even the handful of you who are awed by the forces of nature and shocked by the devastation it has wreaked in the recent past are do-gooders, not onlookers. Those who will recognize where the neediest segments of our populace live, identify with their need, and respond in a tangible way. They’re at their wit’s end, standing in a foot of mud and gunk and slime – and but for grace it could have been you in a camp…

Why me? Why you? Why us?

Because if you’re lazing it out on a balmy Sunday morning such as this, cocooned in creature comforts in your urban condo or luxuriating on the lawn or verandah of your suburban bungalow, then need I say more? You’re literate, worldly-wise, pampered and cosseted, probably spoilt for choice, wealthy, privileged, dutiful, noble – all right, I don’t need to rub it in! Noblesse oblige, dears – and don’t be the kind of noble folks who don’t oblige! We have too many of those passenger-patriots and pseudo-democrats as it is, no?

What do you have that is of value?

In addition to the riches itemized above, there’s your money and your contacts and your influence and your other resources. So let’s spare the “my kingdom for a horse” business, shall we? Everyone except the taxman knows how much booty you have stashed away… you keep telling us often enough, eh. But there’s no point flaunting it in words, dear, it’s deeds that count in the short to medium turn. As that nice economics-minded man said, “In the long run, we are all dead.” So get with it. Pronto.

When is the time to act?

See above. Pronto! Get with it… If you had a penny for every time someone blamed the state of the nation on the nature of its statesmen, how many pennies would you have? Now the buck stops with you!!

Which way should we be moving?

Go east, young man (and woman, and child). And north and south and wherever else an ill wind has blown your island). The media these days will give you a clue as to the lie of the land (submerged, washed away, harvests devastated). But lest the flesh faint and the spirit be weak, neither fear nor fail. Even if you can’t go in person (which would be ideal but unrealistic perhaps), your treasure can, must, and shall follow your heart. The state is reputed to be waking from its traditional stupor to lend a helping hand. The private sector has a public agenda in playing the Good Samaritan. And you too can get in on the act. Donate. Encourage others to do so. Contribute with skill and discernment. You don’t want to throw good money after bad, do you?

How have you responded to the soul-searching above? Are you a mere reader only… or is the leader in you stirred to action? The fate of millions of your fellow citizens is literally in your hands! Now, not merely the elected and appointed representatives of the people can let the population down. You, too, have a hand in the destiny of the nation!

Source http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110213/Plus/plus_18.html

Salem schools join Pasta for Pennies fund raiser

City schools are participating in the Pasta for Pennies program sponsored by the Olive Garden.

The program supports the fight against blood-related cancers, helps fund important life-saving initiatives and provides critical services to patients and their families according to the Olive Garden website.

Both Chelsey Hostetter and her daughter, Karlie, 5, who was diagnosed with leukemia last Feb. 7, attended Monday's kickoff assembly at Buckeye Elementary School to share their story with the school.

"And," Hostetter said, "to help everyone know the importance of this, what it is like to have cancer and the importance to donate to this program."

Along with 38 other kids, Karlie is an honored hero for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Northern Ohio, Hostetter said.

Buckeye Principal Denny Niederhiser said Karlie will be a Buckeye student next year and for all the children in the assembly to see her there, someone who has been diagnosed and is being treated for leukemia, it really hit home.

"So next year, she'll be one of our kids," Niederhiser said. "It was good for our kids ... it was a learning experience."

There are 420 schools registered to participate in the campaign to raise money to help patients like Karlie and fund to research and find a cure for blood cancers.

The goal is to raise $378,000 from all of the schools from this campaign.

"Since 1994, Pasta for Pennies has raised more than $53 million to fight leukemia and lymphoma and to provide a wide range of services to patients and their families.

Each year, schools choose a three-week period when students fill collection jars in their classrooms with donations of spare change.

The class collecting the most money at each school is awarded a pasta party delivered to their classroom by their local Olive Garden restaurant. The program will run through Feb. 25.

Niederhiser said students have collection jars with thermometer charts so they can track their contributions.

Hostetter said it's a great way to spread awareness

"I am proud to say that all of the Salem schools will be participating in this program." Hostetter said.

Source  http://www.salemnews.net/page/content.detail/id/539027/Salem-schools-join-Pasta-for-Pennies-fund-raiser.html?nav=5007

Fill Your Bellies But Save Some Pennies

Exeter City are introducing a number of food and beverage special offers ahead of the busy home fixture schedule in February in a bid to help fans save a few precious pennies. 

Whereas the club's loyal fans have, on average, a single home game to budget for every other week, due to postponements this season and the club progressing to the area final of the Johnstones Paint Trophy, the Grecians have no fewer than five home games during the next month. 

"Ideally of course the fans would like to see a reduction in gate prices," said marketing manager Ross Trant.

"However, it is a very difficult situation. It was a monumental effort to get the game against Sheffield Wednesday played, but due to the extreme weather conditions the attendance was significantly smaller, add the Boxing Day postponement of the Swindon game into the mix and we have taken a fair old hit in the budgeted gate income. 

"That is the reality of the situation. We have a lot of games coming up and many fans will not want to miss out. If you are a family attending the park, it may only be a couple of pounds saving as you walk away from the kiosks, but over five games it suddenly stacks up. 

"It is important that we do something, however small, to recognise that our fans will be stretching their wallets and purses in order to watch us during the next month, which potentially on the pitch could be very exciting." 

Source  http://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10436~2280955,00.html