How to Shop for Free: Shopping Secrets for Smart Women Who Love to Get Something for Nothing

With the United States' economy continuing to spiral downward, a trend that is expected to continue at least through the next four years, women, men, children and even businesses are turning to couponing and other techniques to put food on the table, clothing on backs, fuel in the tank, supplies in the office, take vacations or essential business trips, and even to obtain medical goods and services. In response to the demand for information on couponing and other techniques to reduce costs, reality TV shows on extreme couponing, blogs on couponing and other techniques, coupon websites, and a slew of books on how to meet needs at a drastically small percentage of the top price in the cycle, ideally FREE have come into existence.Having been an extreme couponista for more than 30 years in order to provide for my large family of children, foster children, and now grandchildren in addition to keep costs down at my businesses I recently began reviewing available blogs, coupon sites, and books in order to find the best resources out there to pass along to my growing family and friends.By far, How to Shop For Free, Shopping secrets for Smart Women Who Love to Get Something for Nothing, by Kathy Spencer with Samantha Rose, has been the best primer I have found to learn the ins and outs of extreme savings. Not only does this book, available in paperback for $10.17 or Kindle for $9.66 on Amazon.com, provide instruction on collecting coupons, it also provides detailed instructions on understanding store programs, stacking, and all the other ins-and-outs for maximizing deals.How to Shop For Free is filled with links to websites for printing coupons, manufacturers sites to sign-up for their promotions, sweepstakes, and coupons, detailed explanations of store programs, and sites that do the legwork for you with lists of deals by state and store with links to the coupons built right in.Kathy's book is an outstanding tutorial on transforming shopping from the frequent trips to the store for missing ingredients that result in paying top dollar, to "stockpiling" when prices are at the bottom to carry through to the next time they hit bottom so there is no need to ever pay full price again. Kathy's book addresses the issues surrounding seasonality and 4-6 week pricing cycle with tips to take advantage of these cycles.Kathy's book is not limited to the grocery store for sure. This 247 page tome, includes chapters on, "Get It Together and Make a Plan," "The Business of Buying," "You're Covered: From Diapers to Drugs," and even "Scoring Clothes for Nada," to assist the reader in extending the techniques to virtually all purchasing areas.Of all the books I have reviewed to date on the subject of couponing and other savings techniques, How to Shop for Free is by far the easiest to put into action with great results, as well as being the most comprehensive.Candice Casey is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of RiverValleySun.com.

I struggled with how many stars to give this book (Amazon doesn't let you give 3 1/2). To be honest, some of the reason I'm not overly impressed is that I already am a pretty savvy couponer, have saved thousands of dollars a year doing so, and all but a few chapters in this book were on things I already knew. Nonetheless, if you're new to the get-it-dirt-cheap world, this will open things up for you.Allow me to clarify further:PROS:* If you don't already know how to get things at incredibly deep discounts, then this will show you how* The Author has some good ideas for where to find more coupons and deep discounts* I really like how the author devotes a chapter to honest couponing* The book will pay for itself* It never occurred to me to buy up extra really phenomenal deals and sell the extras on eBay, thereby making your purchase for free...HOWEVER...CONS:* You need to claim your income from sales made on eBay. If you're teetering on the edge of a tax bracket, or if the extra paperwork is daunting, you need to think twice.* Personally, I don't feel the need to pay for a book where someone is swearing. Over couponing. Some will have no problems with this, but for me personally it's unnecessary and doesn't add to the message of the book.* If you already know how to combine coupons with store sales, and roll CVS bucks, then you won't get a whole lot from this book.* The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bill in Half (written by a former marketing exec.) did a better job of explaining how to pay less for non-coupon items, and how to figure out which is the cheaper deal on two totally different kinds of snacks, for example.* One of the ways the Author gets things for free simply won't work here in Northern NJ. For example, if a store has a buy 2 get 2 widgets for $2.49, and I have two coupons for $2 each, I should get $1.51 left over, right? Wrong! The stores in this area keep the overage. The receipt would show the first coupon scanning at $2, but the second only scanning for $0.49. I can't apply the overage towards a (free) head of lettuce. (Bummer)

I found this book when I was browsing for a new read. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being one of the best books I've ever read. It really opened my eyes to how much we are paying for things that are superfluous and unnecessary in our lives.

I liked this book, but as much as the premise of gathering coupons here and there could you save you quite a bit of money, I don't think this is the sort of thing I would like to do. Good book, though.

This book is written for the United States, but can be used here in Canada as well. Though the process takes some thinking and learning, it is well worth it!