Among all the coupon queens and kings out there, Crissy Thompson is true royalty. The Gainesville, GA woman sometimes spends as little as $10 per week to feed her family of five. To really understand her methods you may have to read the full transcript of the TV news report about her, but here are a few of her money-saving moves. At the most basic level, she clips coupons and tries to match them with advertised sales on the same items, thereby maximizing her discount. Another approach involves buy-one-get-one-free offers. With such a promotion on cereal costing $3.79 per box, Crissy demonstrated how to save even more. She had two three-dollar-off coupons, one for each box. And the store allowed her to use both, thereby generating a more than $2.00 credit on her tab. According to the story about her, it’s a common misconception that “one coupon per purchase” means one per transaction, but it really means “one coupon per item.”
Thompson acknowledges that her methods take time—about an hour of prep time before heading to the store, and up to four hours of actual shopping that involves stops at multiple stores. However, since food is one of the highest-cost items on a typical family’s budget, the savings generated can make it time well spent.
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