One of the keys to successful couponing is being organized
By Mark Ranzenberger
The Morning Sun (Mount Pleasant)
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Shelby Thornton is a perky, bubbly university senior who gets a lot of free cat food.
She gets a lot of other free or incredibly low-cost other stuff, too.
“My mother said I could go into a store with $2 and come out with $5,” the Central Michigan University advertising major from Clinton Township told The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant. Thornton said she’s always had a knack for stretching her budget, and she’s become an expert in using coupons to get a lot of stuff for not a lot of money.
“I kind of hid it for a while. I kind of kept it quiet,” she said. Then along came the “Extreme Couponing” reality show, and Thornton took her coupons out of the closet.
“I was always a broke college student, like we all are,” Thornton said. Then people started noticing that even though she was as broke as everyone else, she could leave a supermarket with money left in her pocket.
“I’ve actually taught quite a few people how to do it,” she said. Thornton said she’s now sharing her expertise through a Facebook page — facebook.com/iwantcouponsandfree stuff — and it’s collected more than 700 likes.
“I created it a couple of years ago, but I never did anything with it,” she said. Now, as she approaches graduation, she’s posting regularly with ideas, bargains and advice.
Her first piece of advice is to know the rules the manufacturers and stores set for their coupons.
“You can get a lot of them on their websites,” Thornton said. Sometimes, though, it’s in the fine print on the coupons themselves.
One thing that usually holds true: It’s possible to use both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon for the same item. That can lead to some incredible bargains.
If the store puts an item on sale, has a coupon for that item that hasn’t expired, and there’s a manufacturer’s coupon for the same item, it’s possible to get the item for next to nothing — or sometimes for free. Sometimes, stores allow coupon overages to apply to other items.
“You can always make money off cat food,” she said.
Thornton said she always buys two newspapers on Sundays. When she’s in Mt. Pleasant, she’ll get the Morning Sun and the Grand Rapids Press.
“The Grand Rapids paper, I get strictly for the coupons,” she said. At home in Clinton Township, she gets her hometown Macomb Daily and the Detroit Free Press.
Other people give her coupons, too.
“My parents send them to me,” Thornton said. “My boyfriend’s parents send them to me. “
Thornton said she won’t buy coupons, even though there are sites online that sell them. She’s not sure where they come from, and people in the newspaper and direct-mail industries say coupon theft is a problem for them.
Besides, why spend money when there are so many freebies out there? Thornton checks store fliers, ads, coupon dispensers in stores and service desks, looking for deals.
One key: She doesn’t use them right away.
“I’ve learned to be very organized,” she said. Thornton files coupons in a binder, using baseball card holders, and sets them up by expiration date and type of item.
“I organize them pretty much by aisle,” she said. Even though supermarkets are laid out differently, they all keep paper products together, toiletries together, and pet food together.
Thornton also joins stores’ savings clubs. Her favorite is Meijer’s MPERCS program, but she’s also got cards from many other stores.
People using coupons shouldn’t be shy when checking out. Sometimes, it takes a manager to come over and approve something, but with knowledge and a smile, Thornton gets the discounts she wants.
“Employees are just so helpful,” she said. “They’re willing to help.”
Thornton understands customer service. Besides going to school, she’s part of the wait staff at the Mt. Pleasant IHOP restaurant.
She said she particularly likes new products — because marketers give consumers strong incentives to try them.
“If it’s a new product, it’s going to have a high-value coupon with it,” Thornton said. Usually, the new products are pretty good, but there have been exceptions.
“There was a type of cereal I got, and it was horrible,” she said. “But I got it for free.”
Thornton hopes to graduate from CMU this year, and while she doesn’t have a job lined up yet, she’s hoping for an advertising or marketing position where she can use her knowledge of couponing. “I would absolutely love that,” she said.
