Tri-Staters cash in on couponing sensation

HUNTINGTON -- Heather Blackburn remembers sitting on the living room floor as a child and helping her mother cut out coupons.

She also remembers the frustration when her mother would forget to take them with her.

Today, Blackburn is a mother herself. Not only does she take her coupons with her, but she takes them in a binder, organized in categories such as baking, meats, cleaning, medicines and baby. She knows the coupon policies of several local retailers, and the best ways to "stack" a store's coupon for a certain product with another coupon by the product's manufacturer to get the best deal.

It's safe to say she's taken the practice of cutting coupons to a whole new level.

Blackburn is not so extreme that she'll show up on a cable television program soon with a bunker full of toilet paper and deodorant, but she can feed six and provide toiletries for her family for about $160 a month. And she has a reasonable stockpile of must-haves, such as toothpaste and cereal.

She's one of many Tri-Staters who reflect a national trend of shoppers who have mastered the art of "couponing" by doing some serious organization and planning.

Blackburn shared her coupon techniques on Tuesday during a workshop at the Cabell County Public Library. It's a workshop she's been offering for a couple months now at the Barboursville Branch of the library, and it's drawn 25 or 30 people each month. The next workshop at the Barboursville library is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2.

People can always use a few extra bucks in their pocket, Blackburn said, but not everyone knows how to maximize their savings through coupons.

"Everyone needs a budget," she said. "These are times when money is tight, and if I can help them get their grocery bills down and save some extra money, that's great. Anybody can do it if they start on a small scale."

It can be very overwhelming, she said. So to the dozen or so people who attended the downtown workshop, she provided a number of worksheets. They included spreadsheets so that they could start tracking and comparing prices on basic items at various local stores. If you don't know what you're paying now, you won't know how much you're saving.

She also offered up a breakdown of a typical family budget, printouts of stores' coupon policies, a list of websites that help shoppers determine coupon deals, and where they can download coupons.

Blackburn also offered up her technique for tracking coupons and organize them in her binder.

She said she gets five copies of The Herald-Dispatch each Sunday and spends a couple hours each Sunday getting organized. She also said a critical piece is to plan your meal menu around what's on sale.

"Look at meat sales," Blackburn said. "It's a whole lot cheaper to buy a whole beef roast or pork roast."

Consider the coupon deals, the sales, and what your needs are each week, and piece them all together for the most savings.

Some stores require member cards to give extra savings and some don't. Some will match the lowest prices if you can prove a product is cheaper at another store.

Coupons that aren't used, Blackburn donates to the Barboursville library, which has a coupon collection that is available to the public. And she recommended sending expired coupons to Coups for Troops, because military families can use coupons that have been expired for up to six months.

Don't fill your house with products you won't use, but if they're free with coupons, don't hesitate to buy them and give them away to a church, pantry or even your child's school.

"If you're not going to use it, donate it," she said. "Somebody will use it."