Coupon Savings Books -- see them in a new light!

I want to share with my readers today about a savvy shopping choice you may be overlooking. Coupon books.


I know, I can feel your pain. But please don't stop reading! You're going to want to hear this.

Children used to come to the door selling them, and to help them raise money, we always tried to buy the coupon books, cookie dough, or candles. We’d flip through our book, pull out a couple of coupons, then put it in a drawer, and forget about it until the coupons had all expired. Except for the fundraising part, it was wasted money.

But when my daughter sold the books to raise money for our school, I discovered I had it all wrong. This time I was determined not to “waste” the coupons, so I put the book in my purse. The next time we needed lunch on the go, I flipped to the book's fast food section. Right there, buy one-get one free at Chick-fil-a! The book “paid me” for 1/4 of its purchase price with that first coupon.

The following Sunday afternoon, she wanted to go out to lunch. Neither of us really knew where we wanted to go, so I flipped through the book. Hmmm … lunch special at a Mexican restaurant we’d never tried, buy 1-get 1 free. Trying a new place sounded like fun, so off we went. I would probably never have gone there if I hadn’t had that coupon, but I must say it became my all-time favorite Mexican restaurant! (Cazadores in Pensacola -- the flautas are to DIE for!) And I'd just saved enough to pay for the book. We were on a roll!

Working our way through the coupon book, we discovered MANY new places with fantastic food, and got to try them at half price. We had new favorite places to go, and the one or two that didn’t measure up … well, at least we only paid half as much to find out. It solved the dilemma of “Where do we eat today?” and made me feel MUCH better about eating out … at half price it comes out to pretty close to the cost of cooking at home.  That year my daughter was involved in so many activities, it was hard not to eat out a few times a week so it was a win/win situation. 

Not only that, but there were other offerings in the book as well. We got half-price movies, half price mini-golf, and discovered new fun things to do in our community. I even got my oil changed at a discount. The book paid for itself many times over, and we had a much better knowledge of what was offered in our community. The merchants benefit as well by getting new patrons, since we enjoyed so many of the places we visited so much that we became regulars, and recommended them to our friends as well.  And the fundraising really helped with her schooling. I made it a point to tell everyone we sold a book to my experiences, and remind them to USE the books, and we had return customers for years.

Now, a little about the particular book we used. Published by FundRays, Inc., it is used exclusively by schools and other local non-profit groups as a fundraising tool, for which they earn 50% of the sales price. Their area includes Escambia, Baldwin, Okaloosa, and Mobile counties in Florida and Alabama. New books are due to be released February 8^th and will include between 170-220 coupons (depending on which area) with most of them being buy 1-get one free. Some of the merchants are TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Sonny’s BBQ, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Sonic, Marble Slab Creamery, Big Kahuna’s Water Park, as well as many local-only restaurants, golf, and more. 

If you live in one of these counties, we would strongly urge you to find a local school to support by buying a book, and treat yourself to great savings as well as a fun incentive to visit many new places and discover new favorites as we have done. And if you live in another area, give the local coupon books there a try as well. Whatever you do, don’t put them away in a drawer and forget them. Take them out and USE them and you will find they are well worth the cost!