Devoted to deals, these bloggers really love coupons

Sundays are the one day Ashley Nuzzo takes a break from blogging about coupons.

The other six days, she's up before dawn, scouring newspaper circulars, grocery Web sites and other blogs to spot deals - cross-referencing discounts into hyperlinked charts for her all-consuming, spiritually motivated project, FrugalCouponLiving.com.

"I'm up early working at it, then during the kids' nap times, then until 11 at night in my jammies," Nuzzo said. "If I don't have to be out and about somewhere - let's just say the hair's not being done every day."

But day-in, day-out, her 8,000-plus online readers can find which stores have which deals and print coupons themselves. On a $100 grocery bill, Nuzzo considers 50 percent off "just a good start. I'd want to get 80 percent, or free - or even better - get some cash back. I can do that."

As millions of Americans endure budget cuts, furloughs and layoffs, more are turning to hundreds of coupon blogs to save suddenly precious dollars. "Coupon" ranks among the most-searched words on Google.

Each blog differs, but peek behind the blogger's biography and readers likely will find some common themes: A stay-at-home mom, her household income suddenly cut, marshalling her organizing talents to stretch every dollar and driven by a deep spiritual urge to help others endure tough times.

She goes online, and like the Biblical woman who rejoices upon finding a lost coin, these bloggers celebrate every BOGO - buy-one, get-one-free deal - as a religious virtue. CoinsInTheCouch writes in her online bio: "She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness," Proverbs 31:27.

Grocers may advertise buy-one, get-one-free deals. But to these bloggers, that's just a starting point. They relish the triple play.

Take a typical $4 jar of Jif peanut butter. If a grocer offers a BOGO deal, the price effectively becomes $2 per jar. Bloggers then hunt coupons from other stores because Publix and others honor rival coupons and advertised prices. Using two 75 cents-off Jif coupons from Albertsons, the price falls to $1.25 per jar.

Bloggers then add two manufacturer coupons from Jif for, say, 50 cents. Presto, the costs falls from $4 a jar to 75 cents each - 81 percent off.

"My average is about 70 percent off my total bill," Nuzzo said, "and that's just because some things don't go on sale often, like meat or produce."

Her blog is full of such grocery battle plans.

But then these bloggers take the method a step further and effectively make a profit. Take CVS's Extra Care Bucks - ECBs, as they're called by bloggers - rewards given on the receipt at the register.

The blogger Christina at CentsibleSavings.com recently wrote about a pile of medicines from CVS that would have totaled $26.99. But she used three Advil coupons, minus $5; two Robitussin coupons, minus $4; a $3.50 Glade candle coupon; and a $5 coupon for completing an online quiz about influenza. New total: $9.49.

Then she used $10 worth of Extra Care Bucks from previous purchases. After buying a couple of drinks, CVS credited her with $16.99 in ECBs, "for a $6.99 moneymaker."

In her online bio, she tells readers, "I have enjoyed learning how to be a better steward of the money that God has given us by learning how to use coupons and play the 'drugstore game.'"

As the blogger One Frugal Mama writes, "My prayer is that other people will be able to spend wisely and give greatly by tips offered in this blog."

As The Thrifty Mama writes, "I'm a coupon clippin', cloth-diaperin', fun-lovin' and God-fearin' mama."

These bloggers sustain a focused, religious devotion to their labors.

Finding and organizing all those deals into one blog post takes a lot of time and effort for bloggers. It means scanning hundreds of Web sites for deals: A $4 off diaper coupon on Amazon.com, free prints on Kodak.com, a Tide detergent deal on Target.com that another blogger suggested and alerts about free chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Bloggers subscribe to dozens of mailing lists run by grocery stores, restaurants and online vendors to receive members'-only deals they can repost online.

The most elaborate blogs take all the deals they find, then include hyperlinks to printable coupons, digitally tag every deal and use databases to reorganize discounts by store: Publix, Kroger, Target, Walmart, so readers can sift through deals before going shopping.

The blog IHeartCVS.com offers downloadable Excel spreadsheets to track coupons, expiration dates, reward points and taxes - with embedded formulas to synthesize savings by brand and budget.

Bloggers tell their readers how they started coupon clipping only when they dropped a business career to raise their children full time, of living with relatively meager pay working at churches, of working several part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Occasionally, some perks come their way.

Manufacturers regularly send free product samples to bloggers to review and write about, building word-of-mouth publicity. Nuzzo recently got a Dyson vacuum cleaner to use for a few weeks, and special kid-size tongs to pick up food.

This fall, the Federal Trade Commission issued new rules requiring bloggers to disclose freebies they review online.

Readers come to rely on the bloggers each week.

Savvy shopper Paula Uebele of St. Petersburg pours through CouponMom.com and blogs specifically on CVS and Walgreens to find deals, then piles up reward points and dollars, so she rarely pays anything near retail price. Last week, she bought $20 worth of cold and flu medicine for almost nothing.

She has closets full of merchandise bought at a discount, waiting to be used.

"Considering you walk out of the store with $40 worth of merchandise for $3, that's better than anywhere else," she said. "It's just the tax that kills me because you can't get away from that."

Like scrapbooking parties that grew amid the economic boom, coupon parties are growing in popularity in the downturn as women turn their scissors toward saving money. The Web site eHow.com includes a step-by-step guide on how to throw a coupon party, including "Step 5," charging a fee of $15 to $20 to attend "depending on where you live."

For bloggers, a wide reader base doesn't automatically mean revenue akin to a full-time job, and virtually every blog is free to users.

And by no means are all bloggers motivated by religion alone.

Putting ads on a blog can bring in a few dollars, but they add up to only a full-time income for the nation's most popular sites. Some bloggers run seminars and sell books on couponing. Susan Samtur, who calls herself the Coupon Queen, tours grocery stores nationwide for publicity drives.

Other bloggers try to work their way up the couponing food chain, such as the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Lisa Batdorf, who run MojoSavings.com from Largo.

"I have a Marine Corps background, so luckily I don't require a lot of sleep," Michael said. He's up at 2 a.m. looking for deals he can post fresh for when others wake up. He'll nap a couple of times a day, make a kid's soccer game and blog in between.

Working from their home office, Michael will sometimes find a deal on his computer, then recite it to Lisa to upload to their blog "because she types in faster than I do. ... We get the scoop and get the credit first," ahead of other coupon bloggers.

With revenue from affiliate deals and advertising, they hope to grow the blog into their primary household income.

For now, the top three coupon sites by traffic remain those run by for-profit corporations, including Coupons.com, EverSave.com and RetailMeNot.com - each with several million hits a month and growing, according to comScore.

Each autumn, Google tallies a dramatic spike in the use of "coupon" as a search term because of the holidays, and this year, another jump is expected from an already high level compared with past years.

But for many bloggers, devotion brings its own rewards.

"The very nature of (my) site lends itself to a person who has a passion for sharing, helping others," Nuzzo said. "I am someone who has to share my knowledge from the rooftops. ... My purpose or calling is to use my talents or gifts to benefit or help others."

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE COUPON CLIPPING

Collect from:

• Sunday newspaper circulars

• Mailed circulars such as RedPlum and SmartSource

• Topic-specific Web sites, such as BabyCenter.com or DiabeticGourmet.com

• In-store coupon dispensers

Subscribe to:

• Grocery store magazines such as Publix, Sweetbay or Target

• Drugstore membership cards

• Facebook and Twitter feeds from manufacturers, such as "Pampers Village Twitter Feed"

• Mailing lists from manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft and others that often include deep-discount coupons

• Coupon publishers such as Valpak

• E-mail coupon services such as Groupon

Online searches:

• Coupon blogs

• Web sites of manufacturers of products you use regularly

• Terms for specific companies, such as "Pizza Hut coupon"

Organize:

• In a way that works for you, such as by type, store, expiration date

• For use at rival stores that honor competitors' deals

• For extra help, consider a spreadsheet to catalog coupons and tabulate savings