By Consumer Reporter Tak Landrock
t.landrock@krdo.com
Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/taklandrock

COLORADO SPRINGS - In these tough economic times, many of us are looking to stretch a dollar.

One area that's hard to cut back on is the grocery bill.  But Linda Sjostrom of Monument is following the "BeCentsAble" program and has cut her monthly bill in half.

"I've been out of work since March of 2006, so we're working on staying afloat and it's hard," says Sjostrom.  Before starting the money saving program, she was spending about $1,000 a month to feed a family of five.

For the last three months, she's been tracking her savings. In January; it was about 40%, in February; it jumped to 50% and then in March; 61%. Sjostrom says she hopes to get about 68% this month. "I'm almost getting used to it now and it's nice."

We went shopping with here to see how it works.  With coupons in hand, she went shopping for the best deals.  "You want to wait until the sale goes on, then you can add the coupon to the sales price and you get it at rock bottom prices."

She doesn't just rely on the Sunday sales ads. Sjostrom also surfs the web for free coupon websites to help her save even more. "Just because you get the coupon on Sunday doesn't mean you have to go out by Tuesday before the price changes."

She uses sites like couponmom.com and becentsable.net to get the best deals that week.  Sites like couponmom.com actually show you how much you will save when using the coupons and sales at the same time.

Sjostrom uses several of the same coupons to stock up and save even more.

For example, cereals usually go on sale in January and February. She saves her coupons and uses them when the cereal is at the lowest price. On this trip, she bought 14 boxes of frosted flakes, which were on sale for $2.88, with her coupons she saved $7.00.

"This is one example of using both the store coupon and the manufacture coupon so I can get the best deal."

Linda says she shops at all the stores in town to get the best deal. On this trip, she spent $88, before any sales or coupons. When she swiped her club card, it dropped the price to $72 and with the coupons it went down to $52, a 41% savings.

Sjostrom will hold a workshop on Tuesday (10am - 12pm) at the East Library in Colorado Springs to give you more details on how her plan works. The cost is $25.