Colorado Springs Sun
It won't happen overnight. But if you're faithful and cut out every single coupon you see, you may be able to purchase $101 worth of groceries for $8.61 just like Susan Samtur, who is known nationwide as the "coupon queen.'' Mrs. Samtur, on a tour to promote couponing and refunding, made several appearances in Colorado Springs last week including morning and evening demonstrations at Chapel Hills Mall For 10 years the coupon queen has been clipping, saving swapping and mailing coupons and refund certificates. Mrs. Samtur told the large audience of mainly women that 10 years ago she and her husband were both working full time as teachers in New York. After they purchased their first home they were making a "decent income" but "it just wasn't quite enough." Then, Mrs. Samtur began couponing and refunding ... and saving money. Last year she saved $1,500 from receiving cash back from manufacturers alone. Couponing is actually a 100-year-old idea, Mrs. Samtur said. C.W. Post, who manufactured cornflakes, began offering a one-cent coupon in his product. The promotional idea was so successful that by 1980 more than 100 billion coupons were in circulation. 'The manufacturers thought that couponing was a better way to promote the products than by lowering the products by the amount," Mrs. Samtur said. Apparently manufacturers were right. Couponing can consist of the small coupons which allow the customer to purchase an item with the refund given at the cash register; receiving money back, in the form of cash or checks in exchange for proof of purchase of an item; or receiving free prizes. After Mrs. Samtur cuts out every single coupon that she sees, she categorizes the ones she feels she may use according to which food group they fall into. Next she picks up her grocery store's flyer which lists the items on sale for that week. She matches items on sale that she has coupons on. She then plans her shopping trip by making a list of what she wants to purchase, with the size and the price of the item and whether she has a coupon on it or not. After shopping, Mrs. Samtur saves the box tops, box bottoms, jar labels or lids for possible refunding. She said that she cuts out every single coupon, regardless of whether she will use it because coupons are useful to trade. Unless a person has time for comparison shopping, she suggests people patronize the same market each week, the one they normally use. "Each week the grocery store will have 10 to 15 items on sale that you can take advantage of," she said "The next week 10 to 15 different items will be on sale and in about six weeks the cycle will start over so you're shopping will be equalized." To count exactly how much money she receives from cash back refunds, Mrs. Samtur has opened a separate savings account, where all of the checks and money are deposited. As for postage, the coupon queen said she mails 100 items a month which adds up to $20 in postage. She uses the interest earned on her savings account to pay for it. To pay any extra postage, she takes it out of her cash back money Although the mailing process may seem to take more time than it is worth the trouble, Mrs. Samtur said she spends only six to eight hours a month because her system is organized. Such a system will take at least a few months to organize but, "If you lake advantage of what's there, you can't help but save money.
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