The Journal News
Saving money at the supermarket by redeeming cents off coupons and by sending away for manufacturer refunds has been getting a lot of publicity lately and for good reason, says a Yonkers housewife who by "couponing" and "refunding" over the last few years has been a averaging a 50 percent discount on her weekly grocery bills. "Can you use an extra $50, $100 or more each week? Of course you can," says Susan Samtur, a pert brunette in her early 30s and a very determined-to-save-money" mother of three small boys (the youngest a month-old baby). What's more the four-feet-nine-inches high Mrs. Samtur, whom the media has dubbed the "queen of couponing and refunding," tells everyone how to do the same in her book "Cashing at the Checkout," now available in paperback (Warner Books. $1.95) after edition last year sold 80,000 copies. OH, NO! Who has time for all that, this reporter groaned as visions came to mind of the hours it must take to clip, soak (labels), address and mail, fill out forms and file away coupons and labels in shoe box after shoe box? And who has room? And anyway, you can make a lot more money than you save by spending the same amount of ------------. Wrong, says Mrs. Samtur, who demonstrated to this reporter, and as she will to any skeptical homemaker, that it is not necessary to spend long hot stuffing envelopes and keeping elaborate records to save a great deal on your grocery bill. "You don't have to spend any more than an hour a day as part of the time you ordinarily would spend planning your shopping anyway. You don't have to change the way you eat or the way you shop." she adds, "You don't buy anything you wouldn't normally buy and your menus are the same In fact, you can eat better, if you want to put back the money you save each week into more groceries The point is, with very little work its all done with a little organization you can get the manufacturers, who continue to raise prices, to start paying you for a change." A former New York City elementary school teacher, Mrs. Samtur got started couponing and refunding seven years ago when she and her gym teacher husband Stephen moved to Yonkers from the Bronx and she quit her job following the birth of her first son. Shortly afterward, when they saw how much money they were saving, the couple began publishing "Refundle Bundle," a monthly guide for refunds that had 13 subscribers its first issue and now boasts more than 35,000 nationwide IN ADDITION to providing news about currently available refunds and free or discounted gifts and coupons, the Samturs' 24-page guide offers advice and tips on manufacturers' procedures and idiosyncrasies (one universal quirk: no company likes to be told you heard about its offer through a publication like Refundle Bundle), plus news about refund groups and clubs, and a classified "swappers" column. Since then, Mrs. Samtur has appeared on many radio and television talk shows and has been the subject of dozens of magazine and newspaper articles In her appearance on the Today Show two years ago, the television camera actually followed the young housewife into a supermarket where she demonstrated her system by purchasing $130.18 worth of groceries for only $7 07. In subsequent months Mrs. Samtur repeated this action for local television programs and newspapers in other parts of the country Here at home she is available for local shopping trips dining which she will show anyone in person how her system works. How is it done? First of all, says Mrs. Samtur, a shopper has to understand what is meant by couponing and refunding "People don't always know the difference between the two. Coupons are what you see mostly. They appear all the time in newspapers and magazines; they come in the mail and they are often inside the packages of things you buy. Refund forms are a little harder to come by They are usually found in the stores. You'll see whole pads of them attached to displays and sometimes to the shelves below the product containing the qualifier." (A qualifier, Mrs. Samtur describes as the portion of a package or label a manufacturer asks that you send in with the form in order to get the refund.) Sometimes a refund form is on the product itself, and you will have to soak it off or cut it out with a pair of scissors along with the qualifier. MANUFACTURERS do not always insist on a form before mailing out a refund, says Mrs. Samtur, who lists in Refundle Bundle the names and addresses of companies that send cash or a check for qualifiers only, "A lot of people are unaware of this and throw out money with the empty packages simply because they see no printed refund form. For example, several baby food companies will send you a dollar bill for every 25 labels you send them. This refund has been available for years, but very few people know about it because there is nothing on the label. The same is true of a leading packager of fig newtons, only with this company you get a dollar for only three 'proof of purchase' seals." With couponing there is no refund from the manufacturer; a shopper gets a discount from the store at the time he or she goes through the check out counter with the coupon. "You take coupons with you when you go shopping," says Mrs. Samtur, who offers tips on efficient couponing in her book. "First make a list of what you need before you go to the store and stick to it. Then check the sales for that week in the newspapers and shoppers. Clip any store coupons, but at the same time 'know' prices, know what is a bargain and check to see if another manufacturer maybe has a better price; the store just may not be touting it. "ALWAYS PICK a store that offers 'double couponing,' which means that the store will double whatever discount is promised on the manufacturer's coupon. Watch for 'triple couponing.' Yes, some stores do it occasionally, and I tell you which ones in Refundle Bundle. At the same time, watch out for Stores that offer doubling but place a limit on the amount they are willing to double. "It is often in the fine print in the ad," she says, mentioning that one supermarket chain in the metropolitan area will not double any coupon exceeding 80 cents. MRS. SAMTUR says it is also a good idea to become familiar with all the supermarkets in the area, as some always seem to be "out" of your coupon products. "Avoid the stores with the empty shelves." she cautions, as gasoline consumed in visiting too many stores on a single shopping trip must be reckoned in the cost of shopping. To increase the effectiveness of couponing, the homemaker suggests, too, that you shop often during the week and take coupons each time "Forgetting to bring coupons on just one trip will substantially cut into your savings for that week." "To profit from coupons, you also have to be able to find them easily," she says. "I keep mine in an envelope in a kitchen drawer filed alphabetically according to the type of product rather than by brand name. For example, if I need to buy Pampers. I look for the pack marked 'baby products,' and if I need toothpaste. I look for 'drug items.' It's a good idea, every time you look through a pack, to check the expiration dates, too. You don't want to be stuck with a lot of dead paper." One of the secrets of success at couponing and refunding lies in "swapping," says Mrs. Samtur, or finding another couponer who will trade coupons, qualifiers and refund forms. In the Samturs' Refundle Bundle are the names and addresses of dozens of swappers all over the country who will exchange these items, usually on a one-to-one basis. As manufacturers often try discounting selectively, that is, in certain parts of the country and not in others, swapping can save money on many items for which you might not always find coupons and refund forms in your area, she says. WHAT ABOUT the checkers in each store? How do they feel about a customer who hands over a wad of coupons of all sizes and shapes and amounts of fine print? "Checkers are usually not annoyed by couponers as it is a break in the routine for them," says Mrs. Samtur. "The people you might bother are the customers in line behind you who have to wait a little longer to check out. But even here, I've found they're usually so fascinated that somebody might be saving real money with coupons they don t notice the time." The store itself makes money with couponers, she says, "Not only do they get customers inside the store with doubling, but also the manufacturers pay the stores hefty handling fees for deemed coupons." Testing Mrs. Samtur's system, this reporter dug into his family's meager backlog of coupons and trotted off to his friendly "double-couponing" supermarket armed with a sale sheet Surprise, surprise: At the tail end or the cash register tape there was $11 and change misused off what would have been a $28 grocery bill. The only problem was the $16 or so of the weekly grocery money had been blown on a month's supply of Kleenex, Pampers, toilet paper, dog food and breakfast cereal, plus about three months supply of instant coffee not exactly a well-rounded selection of groceries. "That's the way it is in the beginning, the way it is with everybody when you first start out," says Mrs. Samtur, who explains confidently that after about six weeks of couponing you begin to catch up "This week it's Pampers and instant coffee; next week it could be noodles and canned vegetables. Just as new and different coupons are issued from time to time, so do the items stores place on sale change from week to week After a while you'll find your larder is well-stocked with just about everything you'll need." AFTER SEVEN years of couponing, does Mrs. Samtur ever bat 1,000? It happened to the author once, she says, at a supermarket in Philadelphia when she went through the checkout counter and the tape showed a minus balance. "The store actually owed me $1.67," she recalls "But I was big about it I didn't collect. I just walked out of there with $65 worth of groceries free." For more information about couponing, refunding and Refundle Bundle, write to Mrs. Samtur at P.O. Box 141, Centuck Station, Yonkers, N.Y.10701.
|
