I used to clip coupons. I admit it-I was a coupon junkie! I searched high and low for coupons, sorted them into groups and by expiration date. Sundays were coupon day in my local paper and I clipped and filed, filed and clipped. I carefully spread them across my purse in the grocery cart and wandered the aisles for hours, looking for the 17 oz Grandmama's Pasta Sauce with $.50 cents off. I seldom found it. Some shopping trips I could actually save over $50! Other times, I came home highly frustrated-either the store was out of the item or had the wrong size or the price was still outlandish. Then, after I wasted time looking for the missing product, I would have to retrace my steps back to pick up another brand of the pasta sauce to go with the $.15 off rotini that I DID manage to find.

Coupon shopping was the rage for several years-and manufacturers and stores were generous with their offerings. Many grocery chains offered double-coupons, and buy one cereal, get bananas free. Store coupons were only good at the corresponding store, of course, and that meant a whole bunch of extra travel between stores, two items here, and four items there. But, with a limited budget and teen-agers, I spent a full day each week shopping coupons just to save a few dollars.

The heyday of couponing didn't last long: Actual food coupons came fewer and farther between. Instead, we became inundated with $.50 off fancy dinner napkins, $.55 off antihistamines, $.40 off feminine hygiene products. That rush I felt when the clerk discounted my coupon items at the end of the tally became less of a high-and less of a savings. My medicine cabinet was overflowing with un-needed analgesics and cough syrups and I had enough Kotex to last a platoon past menopause. I was still spending too much money-mostly on items I bought because I had a coupon!

These days, I'm much wiser-or, maybe just older. I still look at the coupons-and actually even clip the occasional great deal. But, most of my pre-shopping planning involves checking my usual grocery store weekly ads on-line, seeing who has the best deals on cuts of meat and checking my cupboards to see what I actually need.

I make a list-and stick to it rather closely. If one of my usual local stores has an especially good deal on a particular item I know I'll use, I may buy extra if it can go in the freezer or is shelf-stable. But I've learned the discount grocery stores and chain dollar stores have some very good daily deals on

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