'Coupon Queen' Shares Her Money-Saving Tactics

OMAHA, Neb. -- Kim Gilmore is the self-anointed coupon queen, but the typical shopper can learn something from her story of saving $890.34 last year, reported KETV.

Gilmore has some savings secrets that cut her bills in half. Gilmore clips coupons from the Sunday paper and she buys coupons in bulk on eBay.

"My mom thinks I'm silly. She says, 'You have a problem.' It's a good problem when I added all this up," Gilmore said.

The coupon queen's biggest savings don't come from coupons.

When she shops at Super Wal-Mart, Gilmore becomes a price matcher, which means she checks the circulars from other area stores before she shops. Wal-Mart accepts competitors' advertised prices.

On one shopping trip, Gilmore bought a pound of catfish for $1.99 instead of Wal-Mart's price of $3.94 by price matching. Kraft macaroni and cheese dropped from $1.97 to 98 cents.

Gilmore also had a coupon for $1 off two packages of the mac 'n cheese, bringing the cost to less than 50 cents each.

Then, she used a price match to another store that offered six boxes for $1, so each box cost 15 cents -- a 67 percent savings. All Gilmore has to do is show each ad to the cashier to get the discount.

"I'm courteous enough," Gilmore said. "I let the people know behind me I am price matching. They don't know what it is, a lot of them, but it saves me money and it's fun."

The coupon queen said saving money takes some work.

She estimates she spends two hours a week finding the best prices.

She puts her grocery savings into a savings account.