The Denison Herald
Armed with bits of paper, consumer across consumers across the country are storming supermarkets, waging war against high prices and claiming victory, as they triumphantly stroll from the skirmishes pushing carts full of groceries they paid only half-price for. The common enemy? Inflation. The paper weapons? Cash- ------------ and refund forms. -------- potential soldier ------------ for her family. Sound too food to be true? That's what Sandra Aynes of Dension thought when she first learned about a new grocery-shopping strategy from a guest on the Phil Donahue Show televised in the fall. The speaker was Susan Samtur of Yonkers, N.Y., who had written the book "Cashing In at the Check Out." The author also publishes a refunders' newspaper "Refundle Bundle." Mrs. Aynes admitted at first she was skeptical. "Where's the catch?" she wondered. She kept waiting for Ms. Samtur to say that a lot of work was involved or that the promotion of some product or gimmick was necessary. The author didn't say that. In fact, she made the idea of saving money while shopping so enticing that Mrs. Aynes sent a request to the television show for a transcript of that day's broadcast. While awaiting the arrival of the transcript, Mrs. Aynes began saving her trash – all those cartons, boxes and labels which are called -------------------- refund forms. An aunt from California sent her Ms Samtur's book, and soon Mrs. Aynes was "in business." In a nine week period, she had amassed $180 in free food products, cash-off products and refunded money. She and another Denison consumer, Sue Craver, began learning all they could about refunding and soon set up refunding workshops to teach the concepts of refunding and how to organize trash, coupons and refund forms In fact, Mrs. Aynes claims she spent about 30 hours and $40 to gather the information she shares with prospective refunders. "Graduates" of these workshops are then invited to join a round robin club started by the two women called "Save Our Selves." The club was started with a nucleus of 10 women, and in three weeks has grown to 52 members from Pottsboro, Bonham, Denison, Sherman, Irving, Calera and Durant. These women get together periodically to trade coupons, refund forms and qualifiers. For Diane Zimmerman of Kingston, Okla., refunding has become a way of life. "I couldn't quit if I wanted to," she said. "Every time you walk down the aisle at the supermarket, you see items you know you can get for less or free." The native Californian moved to Oklahoma last year, and even though she lost three months during the year to the move and to a vacation, Mrs. Zimmerman says she still made $600 to $700 in cash refunds alone. She hopes to hit the $1,000 mark this year. "I make refunding work, because I work at refunding," Mrs. Zimmerman said. And, work she does. In February, she calculated that she spent 15 to 16 hours a day working at refunding. Most of her time, however, was spent answering letters from advertisements she had placed in five refunders' newspaper, asking to trade refund forms. She replied to each of the 150 letters she received. The Denison women say they spend only three to four hours a week on refunding. But, this time does not count the workshops they give and the time they spent initially organizing their trash, coupons and refund forms. All three women however use similar organizational methods in refunding. - They save all their trash, whose wrappers, cartons and labels are filed alphabetically in boxes. - Coupons are filed in a separate box, alphabetically - Refund forms are filled according to expiration date. Mrs. Zimmerman told how refunding paid for a $5 turkey she purchased. From one turkey wrapper she made $5 in refunds, because each refund form asked for a different part of the wrapper. One form asked for the work "turkey" and it returned $2; another form asked for the word "star" and it returned $1; and another form asked for the words "Butter Basted" and it returned $2. In order to make most of refunding, Mrs. Zimmerman says, "You have to be flexible and willing to try new products." Usually, the women advise against purchasing products just to get qualifiers to send in with refund forms. "It defeats the purpose of saving money," they say. However, Mrs. Zimmerman explained. "At some time you will buy what you don't need." She said she purchased $3.50 worth of aspirin and toiletries in order to have the right qualifiers for a form which produced a free night at a Marriott Motor Hotel. For all the smooth sailing the woman have encountered in refunding, they have also run into their share of problems. Mrs. Aynes said when she first began to save trash, she stuffed the empty boxes, cartons, labels and wrappers into garbage trash bags. She decided when she learned how to file the trash; she would sort through the items and transfer them to boxes. Her husband beat her to the punch, however, and before she had a chance to file the gold mine of qualifiers, be threw the trash bags out with the rest of the garbage. Mrs. Zimmerman learned the hard way how NOT to soak off labels. She had collected several detergent bottles and though she would save time by placing the bottles in the dishwasher and running the rinse cycle. The labels came off, all right, and the left over detergent in the bottles formed enough suds to cover the kitchen floor, requiring new tiles in some places. These inconveniences have become amusing anecdotes to the women, who have learned from past mistakes and enjoy what tome call a hobby and others call "necessity." The habit of refunding has made Mrs. Zimmerman a better shopper, she believes, because she has become "more conscious of pricing." She has also become a more active consumer, writing companies if she likes or doesn't like a product. Mrs. Aynes and Mrs. Carter tell fellow refunders not to use two cash-off coupons on the same product or to give expired coupons at the check out register. "We want refunders to have a good name;" they said "What we're doing is honest." What they're doing is in self defense, they added "Inflation is eating us alive."
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