{Crew Review}Christi the Coupon Coach
Nearly 4 years ago a dear friend of mine introduced me to couponing. I tried it for awhile and gradually let it slip away. Sometimes it could be quite addictive (and fun!) and it is wonderful to look at a receipt and see how much money you saved.
Recently, the Molly Crew, a branch of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, had the opportunity to review Couponing Made Simple from Christi the Coupon Coach. As a member of the crew, I received a PDF copy but you can purchase the physical book ($18) or Kindle version ($4.99) if you prefer an e-book version.
Because I did not receive a version of the book that is available for sale, there may be some differences between my PDF version and the Kindle or Paperback versions. My PDF has 64 pages. It looks (according to the “see inside this book”) like the paperback version has 129 pages including lined pages in the back of book for notes or listing your rock bottom prices for the items you buy.
Christi the Coupon Couch aka Christi Bassford, is a Christian mother of four who lives in Florida. She and her husband, Robert, “have a heart for helping people live a life of financial success.”
This easy to read and understand book contains 10 chapters:
Chapter 1 Success Stories
Chapter 2 A New Way to Shop
Chapter 3 The Language of Couponing
Chapter 4 Organization System
Chapter 5 Step-by-Step Process
Chapter 6 Tips & Tools
Chapter 7 Couponing Ethics
Chapter 8 Networking & Communicating
Chapter 9 Bonus Section
Chapter 10 Beyond Couponing
Throughout the book, Christi sprinkles success stories to encourage the reader. She also includes photos with those success stories giving a visual context for the savings. She gives clear definitions and easy to understand step by step directions for how to organize your coupons as well as how to keep track of all the newspaper inserts.
In addition to sharing about couponing, Ms. Bassford also shares how yard sales and thrift stores have helped her to save money.
Chapter 10 Beyond Couponing, isn’t really about couponing at all. It’s an Evangelical Protestant presentation for accepting Christ. As and Orthodox Christian, I skipped over this chapter, but I admire her for sharing her faith.
My Thoughts:
I don’t know that I would be willing to pay $18 for the paperback version, however, I might be willing to pay $4.99 for the Kindle version. She clearly defines couponing terms such as “blinkies” and “stacking” which I found helpful and I appreciate her appeal to integrity. I was very happy to see a whole chapter dedicated to Coupon Ethics.
I don’t know that an experienced couponer would find anything new in Couponing Made Simple, but those who are just beginning or inexperienced might benefit from suggested organization tips. I was introduced to the “binder method” of storage years ago and found that I like Christi’s box method and accordion file system better.
I don’t think she and I define “extreme” the same way and purchasing multiple newspapers isn’t something I am comfortable doing, nonetheless her book has reminded me to be more aware of sales and store coupons.
I am going to try to apply these steps and principles to items such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste etc. We earn reward points at our local pharmacy store with prescriptions. We cannot use those rewards to pay for prescriptions. Couponing Made Simple has reminded me that I could combine sales with coupons to bring the cost down and then *pay* for those items using rewards. This would greatly reduce my out of pocket spending for shampoo allowing me to have more money to buy the items that are harder for me to coupon.
The Details:
- Vendor: Christi the Coupon Coach
- The Author: Christi L. Bassford
- The Product: Couponing Made Simple
- The Format: Available as a physical copy or as an e-book in Kindle format from Amazon.
- The Price: Paperback book: $18.00; Kindle: $4.99
Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to read what others have to say about Christi the Coupon Coach.
You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews by clicking here.
Nice job on this review. I concur with much of what you are saying and think we probably see eye to eye here. :)
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