Column Jill Cataldo
- Extreme Couponing Tips: Come shopping with me
- By Jill Cataldo/CTW Features
- Dear Jill: In one of your recent columns, you featured a letter from a reader who stated that she spent $45.81 and saved $47.36 with coupons.
I have read numerous articles over the years where people say they get their order for free or for a very l... Full story
- Tales from the rebate front
- By Jill Cataldo/Content That Works
- Readers continue to weigh in on the pitfalls of mail-in rebates. The anti-rebate emails I receive far outnumber those singing their praises. Here's a sampling.
Dear Jill: I feel like companies make rebate rules hard to follow so fewer people try to ... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: What do stores do with the coupons?
- DEAR JILL: You recently wrote about stores getting reimbursed by the manufacturer. As a long-time couponer, it's interesting to learn about couponing from the store and manufacturer's ends. Do the stores hire people to submit coupons to each manufact... Full story
- Help! My groceries are shrinking
- By Jill Cataldo/Content That Works
- Has this happened to you? You're walking down an aisle at the supermarket and you pick up a product you've purchased many times before. Dish detergent, deodorant, a cake mix — it looks the same as it always has, but something just isn't right.
... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: A senior discount moment
- Are senior discounts a right or a privilege? This week, readers share their concerns about shrinking, changing and vanishing discounts. Also, a creative reader offers her save-smart tip for cheaper meats. Take a peek inside my email inbox.
Dear Jill... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Save money, no scissors required
- DEAR JILL: I do not have a clue what you mean by "load-to-card e-coupons." What card, where do you get the card and how do you load them? How do you load e-coupons via the Internet? — Jean T.
JEAN: I'd be happy to review the ins and outs of e-... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Walking on shopping's wild side
- DEAR JILL: I can barely stand to read the letters from rabid — excuse me, avid — couponers. In one of your recent columns, we heard from a shopper who was unhappy because she wasn't able to cheat the store on sales tax and she wants to ha... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Grocery aisle give and take
- DEAR JILL: I really enjoy your column. I work in a grocery store and we are experiencing problems with coupons. When we feature displays with coupon pads, if we do not remove the tear pad of coupons some customers will take all of them. This means th... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: How good is your deal?
- One of the questions I hear most often is, How do I know I'm getting the best price? Here's my standard. Whether buy a bottle of barbecue sauce or a winter coat, my goal is always to cut the price by half or more. While I love to get "crazy" deals (s... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Shoppers' unhappy returns
- DEAR JILL: A big toy store is also big on tricks. It was running a sale: buy two video games and get one game free. I selected three games and put them in no particular order on the counter when I bought them. As it turned out, I needed to exchange o... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Are we all entitled?
- Recently, we heard from readers who feel it's unfair that manufacturers and retailers use electronic coupons. They argue that consumers without computers or smartphones are unfairly excluded from these discounts. This week, readers continue to weigh ... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Fraud or unethical?
- Have you ever seen another shopper using a coupon in a questionable manner? Decide for yourself: Are the scenarios below fraud, or simply unethical?
DEAR JILL: I shop at a drugstore every week to do the coupon deals. There is a woman who comes in an... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Taking on ‘battle of the brands’
- Last week, readers frustrated with the increasing number of low-value coupons shared their views. One said that if a coupon doesn't make a large enough dent in the price of a national name-brand item, she doesn't use it. She buys the retailer's store... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Are values dropping?
- Dear Jill: I've noticed that companies have reduced the dollar amounts on their coupons. If we have a need to reduce our food bill each week, why are the papers and magazines loaded up with makeup and lip/eye and hair products? The pet food, cleaning... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Couponer asks, ‘Where’s the beef?'
- DEAR JILL: I'm tired of finding mostly coupons and discounts in the papers for women's beauty products, toys for kids and junk food. What gives? In this economy we need food coupons! Where are the meat and produce coupons? Just to buy some vegetables... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: TV show ruined everything
- DEAR JILL: I don't know if there's anything you can do, but I have to vent. I have been a couponer for many years. It's something my family needs to do to make ends meet. But ever since the TLC "Extreme Couponing" TV show came around, it seems a lot ... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Pesky tax situations
- Last week, I featured an assortment of emails from readers who shared some of their coupon frustrations. There's more where that came from! Claudia has a question on coupons and sales tax.
Dear Jill: I enjoy reading your "Super-Couponing Tips" every... Full story
- Super Couponing Tips: Readers share their gripes
- My readers continue to share many coupon tips, stories and complaints via email. Here's a sampling of what has landed in my inbox lately! First, Rick offers a strategy for dealing with coupons that a cashier incorrectly refuses to honor at the regist... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Free samples can come at a personal cost to you
- DEAR JILL: I like to get free samples of products online. I visit a couple of sites that are reliable for freebies. But sometimes when I am surfing the Web, I see banners offering a free sample of something like a free bottle of shampoo or free laund... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: When restrictions go too far
- Recently, I shared an email from a reader who believes there is a conspiracy going on with electronic coupons. My reader feels that companies offering coupons online and via phone apps are deliberately excluding discounts from the people who need the... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: When restrictions go too far
- As couponing has grown in popularity, some shoppers have sought to push the limits and maximize their savings by using coupons in improper ways.
Manufacturers and retailers are aware of coupon misuse and many have responded by adding more restrictio... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Knowing right from wrong
- Last week, I shared an email from a couponer anxious to determine if it was OK to photocopy coupons. It isn't. Photocopying coupons violates the "Coupon may not be reproduced" clause in coupon redemption policies. It's also the most common form of co... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Stop bending the rules
- I receive a fair amount of email from readers who attempt to justify why they should be able to bend the rules. Aren't the deals we get using coupons in a legitimate fashion good enough?
DEAR JILL: I know that it is a definite No to copy manufacture... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Sharing success stories
- I always love hearing about the ways Super-Couponers are implementing coupon shopping and savings techniques into their lives! Here's a sampling of success stories I've received recently.
Dear Jill: Since reading your column I have been shopping dif... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Stores wary of printable coupons
- Dear Jill: I read your column in our local paper, so you are the only one I know who can answer a question about ethical couponing. I downloaded a PDF file of a coupon from a company's website, and printed multiple copies. I went to the store to stoc... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: The case of the phantom coupon
- DEAR JILL\: I am growing frustrated with manufacturers that require shoppers to input a fair amount of personal information before we are able to print a coupon. More often than not with manufacturer websites, I hand over personal info but then never... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Coupon pictures cause confusion upon checkout
- When a coupon carries a declaration that it's good on any variety of a product, you'd think that explanation would be sufficient. Coupon shoppers know that while a manufacturer may show a specific variety of a product on a coupon, the text contains a... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: Getting a deal at the world’s biggest store
- DEAR JILL: Do your readers know you can use competitors' store coupons at Walmart? I do this all the time but sometimes they get denied, which is why I'm writing. They said I can use a coupon from another store with a price on it, but they disallow c... Full story
- Super-Couponing Tips: World’s biggest grocer raises many coupon questions
- DEAR JILL: Is it true that you can get cash back for a coupon overage at Walmart? I'm afraid to try to do this but I'd love to! — GLENDA F.
DEAR GLENDA: Absolutely! Coupon overage occurs when the value of your coupon exceeds the cost of the it... Full story
- Jill Cataldo: E-coupons, and what shoppers need to know
- Dear Jill: I need advice. I have used coupons since 1980. I found it easy; get the Sunday paper, clip away and check sales. Now I find myself 55 and disabled, and discounts are sent to shoppers via cellphones. So, my daughter got me a cellphone. I ga... Full story
