No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

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As you may know, one of my rules for investing successfully is "If it's too good to be true, then it's not true." When it comes to investing that rule always holds true. To my surprise, however, I just found a pretty amazing exception to "too good to be true" when it comes to spending your money.

I'm taking about the game of super-couponing. The game is a lot more than just clipping some coupons, and those that play really love it.

So how much can be saved with super-couponing?

I have a niece on the East Coast that spends about 3 hours per week at it, which is the norm for those that play the game to its fullest. Last year she sent me a detailed spreadsheet listing all of her purchases for the year. It totaled a retail cost of over $10,000 in food, drinks, shampoos, cleaning supplies, drugs and so on for her family of 4. For all of this she paid only $218! Several weeks ago she sent me her 2012 year-to-date spreadsheet. The retail cost for the items she has purchased is $9760, but her cost was negative $9! She got it all for free, and that's super-couponing at work.

On my radio show recently, I introduced everyone to super-couponing with the help of a terrific national expert,Cindy Livesey of Living Rich with Coupons. You can listen to the podcast (the November 27th show) on my website.

What you'll learn is that the game involves combining multiple discounts from the retailers and manufacturers so that you end up paying little to nothing. The work is in clipping and organizing coupons and tracking the deals. You'll also learn that there are loads of terrific websites that do most of the work for you, laying out the discount combinations to go with. Some of these sites specialize in certain chains such as Wal-Mart, Rite Aid or Safeway. Others cover most of the large stores or chains in a given state or metro area. There are many online resources with tips on how to get started, keep it organized and keep it simple.

Think about what $5,000-10,000 a year means to you. Apply these savings to eliminating your credit card debt or take a great vacation. How about a guaranteed great retirement or perhaps financial freedom even sooner than that? $5,000-$10,000 a year added to a tax deferred account becomes $7,500-$15,000. Invested at a 6% return, that is $283,000-$566,000 in 20 years, $609,000-$1,200,000 in 30!

So what are you waiting for? Go check out super-couponing!

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