Customer Stories
Southern Savers:
Jenny Martin’s Land Of The Free
by Kate Kiefer Lee
Coupons were Jenny Martin's last resort. Right after she and her husband had twins and bought their first home, they realized it needed a new roof. With two babies, a hefty mortgage and a leaky roof, their family had to save money somehow. When a dinner guest mentioned that she saved 400 dollars a month using coupons, Martin's husband was sold. He challenged her to try what they call "couponing" for 30 days, and she agreed to give it a shot—because that roof wasn't going to pay for itself. After one trip to the drug store (which she now calls "the land of the free"), Martin was already in deep. "I went to CVS, got 100 dollars worth of stuff and spent 25 cents on it all," she said at a recent workshop in Athens, Ga. "When I left that store, I was floating."
Now she has five-year-old twins, a toddler, and a successful company dedicated to helping people in the South save money by taking advantage of coupons and sales.
As the face of SouthernSavers.com, Martin sends daily email newsletters and travels around the Southeast leading workshops on effective couponing. Last year alone, she saved more than 5,000 dollars on groceries for her family. She says using coupons is surprisingly addictive. "You'll learn that toothpaste is always free. And a day will come when you go out of town with your family and forget it, and you're going to say 'No, we will not brush our teeth. Because toothpaste is free, and we are not buying it.'"
Martin's workshops draw hundreds of people, who eagerly scribble notes and ask questions in hopes of cutting their grocery bills in half. Her two-hour course is called Couponing 101, and it comes with a workbook that covers everything from where to find coupons to advanced strategies for specific stores. Here are ten of her tips for saving big on groceries:
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Jenny’s Coupon Tips
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Don't buy house brands.
You might think you're getting a better deal by purchasing the Kroger brand cereal, but most coupons are for national brands, so you won't save money going generic.
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Look for buy-one-get-one sales, or at least 40 percent off.
You save the most with buy-one-get-one specials, especially if you use coupons on top of them.
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Shop in cycles.
Grocery stores run on six-week sale cycles, so only buy what you need for the next month or two. "At first, you'll go crazy," says Jenny. "For me, it was glass cleaner. I went in, and it was nine cents a bottle. I bought 15! Five years later, I think we're still working on that 15."
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Buy two Sunday papers.
You need two copies of the weekly inserts because with buy-one-get-one sales, you have to purchase two items—and you're allowed to use a coupon for each of them.
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Sign up for manufacturer's email newsletters.
Manufacturers often send high-value coupons in their email newsletters. You can also call them to request coupons in the mail. Vegans, gluten-free eaters and brand loyalists should get coupons directly from the manufacturers they love, since they can't use as many from the newspaper inserts.
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Stack coupons.
Coupon stacking means using a manufacturer's coupon along with a store coupon—it's allowed. And if there's a buy-one-get-one sale for that particular product, you might even get it for free.
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Shop at stores that double coupons.
You don't have to say anything special at checkout—stores like Publix automatically double coupons under 50 cents. Many grocery stores even accept competitors' coupons, so find out your local store's policies before you shop.
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Plan ahead.
"If you're at the grocery store and decide at 5:45 that you're going to make spaghetti at 6, then you're not going to save any money," says Jenny. Buy your staples when they're on sale, so you never have to pay full price for stuff like noodles and sauce.
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Know your prices.
Sometimes stores try to trick you by listing average or high prices with the low ones in their weekly ads, so make sure you're getting a good deal. SouthernSavers.com has a directory of stores by area, with weekly lists of good prices.
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Don't buy items you don't need.
"No matter how good the deal is, its important to sit back and ask yourself if you really need it," says Jenny, "because no matter what, it'll cost something—even if it's just your time."
