Coupons can be found in many places

Dear Heloise: Even during difficult economic times, there are many ways to save a lot of money, including coupons.

With many coupons having expiration dates months or even years away, numerous usable coupons can be found in stacks of free magazines at yard and garage sales. Other great sources of coupons and discounts are printed on the inside of cereal, pasta and rice boxes, and other packaged items. Often, they are available on the bulletin boards at grocery stores, laundries and discount stores.

Coupons also can be discovered in old giveaway magazines in doctors’ offices, printouts from the Internet and as promotional advertisements in the backs of phone books and school newspapers, just to name a few.

With coupons often offering from 10 cents to $1 off things most of us use every day (some stores even double the face value of coupons for special promotions), this is a great way to save. Weslyn-Marie Dye, Belle Center, Ohio

Dear Heloise: There are countless cell phones that share the same feature as mine: Each person or business in my contact list has a space for a photo. For each business, I take a photo of the posted hours of operation, and then I assign the photo to that business’ space on my cell-phone contact list. So, if I’m not sure what time the business opens or closes, I just pull up the listing on my cell phone and voila! I don’t even have to phone the place, I just look at the photo. Try it — I think you’ll find it very convenient. Mychael Patrick, Wailuku, Hawaii

Dear Heloise: Whenever we buy bottles of vitamins or other over-the-counter drugs that have screw-on lids, we save them. Then when we buy a medication that has a childproof cap, we put one of the saved caps on the bottle, thereby no longer having to deal with childproof caps, which are so difficult for us to open. (If you have children or grandchildren visiting, you’ll want to use childproof caps on all medications. Heloise)

Also, my husband and I use nose spray that is pretty pricey. After a while, the sprayer would not work. When opened, we found quite a lot of product that was unreachable by the spray hose. When a bottle no longer works, we save it until we have more than one in that condition, then we empty one into the other with a funnel. Now we spend a lot less money on nose spray, because by this method we ultimately are able to use all of the product. Jessie, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: When doing laundry, wash darks first, lights next and whites requiring bleach last. The washer will get an extra cleaning boost and smell fresh after the bleach cycle. R.M. of Ohio

Be sure to carefully check the laundering instructions for whites before adding bleach. Many whites and towels have laundry instructions saying “no chlorine bleach.” Heloise

SBlt 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