Metro

COUPON POWER/ON THE COVER

I e s

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Senior Writer

ustomers who catch a glimpse of
Melanie Gorman in the super-
market checkout aisle, with her
full grocery cart, clutching her mini accor-
dion folder full of discount coupons, may
choose to back away.
But they would do well to spend the
extra five minutes staying put and getting
a small lesson on what she buys and how
she pays for it.
Dubbing herself "the Couponista," the
West Bloomfield resident's recent grocery
bill of $209.25 cost her only $116.67. She
saved 592.58 by organizing her list to buy
items that saved her the most money.
And during these tough economic
times, she shares her cost-cutting shop-
ping expertise through seminars, talks
and an online forum.
"We are all living in such a hard eco-
nomic time," she said. "Everyone needs to
save money. My seminars just seemed like
a great way for me to make a difference in
people's everyday lives:'
Gorman has tons of secrets she shares,
but says the initial, all-inclusive one
involves getting to a point where you
shop for what you can get a great deal on
instead of what you need for the week.
To start a money-saving lifestyle, she
says spend the first few weeks stocking up
on the items you'll need, like pasta, peanut
butter and cereal
— but buy them on
Melanie Gorman
sale.
tosses paper
"After the first
into her cart.
month, shift the
focus so your shopping list will not neces-
sarily be made of things you will be using
immediately, but rather the things you
can buy at the best price, in quantity," she
said."You already have the basics from the
first month's shopping, now it's time to
shop for — and stockpile — things you
can get a deal on, plus produce and other
perishables that you can't buy too far in
advance.
"And even those can be bought on sale,"
she said. "If asparagus is the best-priced
vegetable, that's what we'll eat."
Because she's not shopping for any spe-
cific items, she can narrow her groceries
to those with extra incentives, like items
on sale that also have a money-saving
coupon, or even two.
"Approximately 85-90 percent of what I
buy is on sale," Gorman said. "If there are
things that aren't on sale that I absolutely
need, I only buy them in the amount I
need right now."

Sta ff p hoto s by An

Cost-cutting tips for tough economic times.

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Priceless on page Al2

May 14 2009

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