Efforts pay off royally for ‘king of coupon clippers’

Dear Heloise: I love to read the letters from your readers about clipping coupons. Well, I am married to the king of coupon clippers, and he does the grocery shopping.

Every Sunday morning, he sits with his coffee and clips all the coupons in our two newspapers. He checks the weekly grocery-store fliers and files the coupons he needs in his coupon organizer, giving the remainder to neighbors who can use them. Being retired, this saves us a lot of money.

But this week, he outdid himself. He came home with two bags of groceries: cans of tomatoes, dry-roasted peanuts, lunch and snack items, etc. He showed me his grocery slip — he spent 34 cents and saved $17.39 by purchasing sale items at a store that doubles coupons. Marilyn, via e-mail

Wow! He is a good shopper! And here’s another helpful coupon hint from Gary Modi of Montgomery, Ala.: “At the checkout, I put coupons on top of the items they are for. If the item is a bottle, I place it partially under it, so when the cashier scans the item, she picks up the coupon at the same time. Thus the cashier knows that the coupon is valid.” Heloise

Here are a few handy uses for an acrylic photo frame that stands on its own, from Heloise Central:

UType up a list of phone numbers and post next to the phone for easy reference.

UPut a recipe in it and place on the counter where you will be working.

UPlace directions for a craft and keep near where you are working.

UPut the picture of a jigsaw puzzle in it so you can check on piece placement. Heloise

Dear Heloise: When I was repotting some aloe plants, I found that I spilled more of the mix than I was getting into the pot. So, off to the kitchen I went and returned with a funnel and a chopstick. It fit right in between the plants and put the mix where I wanted it. The chopstick helped move the mix in and around the plant with no damage. This worked really well, since I was using a sandy mix. N.M. in Montana

Dear Heloise: To quickly locate the center of the top bedsheet, sew a few tiny black stitches onto the top edge at the exact center. Cuts bed-making time down a minute or so! In a year’s time, it is a savings of nearly an hour! Deb via e-mail

Sound off

Dear Heloise: One of my sound offs is that address numbers are seldom displayed on highways. When one is looking for a store on a highway, it is often very difficult to find. Marian Renda, Lakewood, N.J.

I agree, and even if they are posted, they are so small that it’s almost impossible to read them! Heloise

X Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate