Shell Fruscione

[...]
Rating: 5 / 5

I’m not going to give away all the secrets here. I’ll just say that these really aren’t “secrets” and the Krazy Coupon Ladies are not selling anything other than this book–there are no gimmicks, no additional purchases necessary, no expensive special kits to buy, and no overpriced seminars to attend. Everything you need to know is in this book. And it’s more than just advice on how to use coupons to save a couple of dollars on peanut butter, mayonnaise, or ketchup–it’s practical financial advice on how to protect your wallet, how to stockpile for emergencies, how to prepare for your future, how to provide you with lasting financial security in times of adversity, and also how to have some extra money for fun–to take vacations or whatever you want to do with it. Coupons are vital for such times as when the economy is bad, or as the Krazy Coupon Ladies explain, when gas prices are high:

The price of oil directly affects the price of groceries. The more it costs to transport groceries, the more you’ll have to pay to get them. The shipping and oil industries are often unpredictable, so it’s comforting to have a stockpile. If truckers go on strike, if gasoline prices quadruple, you can insulate yourself from the effects by having a stockpile. It’s nice to think that if gas prices jumped to $15 per gallon tomorrow, I wouldn’t have to drive to the store twice a week for overpriced cereal. I could just walk out to my garage and congratulate myself for stocking up when boxes of cereal were $0.50 each.

What I didn’t expect from this book was to find out that Coupons Are Fascinating!–really! I had no idea about the history of the coupon from its origins in the late 1800s to its Internet printable versions and the fraudulent scams they have engendered. Did you know there are coupon clearinghouses operated by prisoners? Did you know what all those numbers and symbols on a barcode mean? You will learn all this and more in “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey.”

And what about that title? It’s funny. It describes how shoppers will have to wait a little longer while you use all those coupons, but so what? You’ll be saving tons of money. The authors’ many stories about their shopping and couponing adventures are equally priceless for their humor. And throughout are numerous wonderful cartoons depicting Krazy Coupon Ladies doing what they do best–savings tons of money.

Every step from finding great coupons, to how to use them to double and triple your savings, and what to do when checkout cashiers and store managers argue with you–how to educate them actually since you’ll know far more than any store manager about coupons–is all provided here. And to top it all off, a lot of additional and completely free information is available on the Krazy Coupon Ladies’ website.

This book may be the best financial investment you will ever make. You can easily earn back one hundred times the price of this book within one year–and if you follow all the advice in “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey,” you may even earn back five hundred times the price. So get ready to save, and even make money.

– Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and author of the award-winning Narrow Lives

Rating: 5 / 5

The book itself is very easy to read. The authors have a very light-hearted, fun writing style. However, I felt like the book was geared towards people who’d never used coupons before. Over and over again throughout the book, I felt like the authors were trying to convince me to jump on the couponing bandwagon. This was frustrating to me, because given that I spent over $15 on a book about couponing, I don’t really need the authors to convince me that using coupons is a good idea.

I could have lived with “preaching to the choir” sort of feeling if their had been more useful information in the book, but honestly, I didn’t learn that much. Most of the information provided was stuff I had figured out all on my own just by using common sense. I don’t really need a book to tell me that some products are still over priced even with a coupon or that you save more money if you use a coupon on something that is already on sale.

There is some information in the book that isn’t purely common sense stuff, so I did pick up a couple of new tricks. That’s why I gave it an average rating of three stars rather than a lower rating. However, my gut reaction was that this book was not worth the money. When I reached the end of the book, I actually let out a frustrated sigh and said “that’s it?!”

My opinion is that this book would be great for a total couponing novice…someone who has never seriously considered how to use coupons to drastically lower their grocery budget. But if you’ve already been using coupons somewhat effectively and have a few of your own tricks, you may find this book is full of information you’ve already figured out on your own.
Rating: 3 / 5