She clips coupons, but it isn’t to fill her own pantry
Heather Marshall uses coupons to buy groceries and other other items to donate to S.E.R.V.E. in Stafford on February 2, 2012. She spent about $63 for about $1,300 in supplies to give away. (Suzanne Carr Rossi/The Free Lance-Star)
BY ROBYN SIDERSKY
Heather Marshall doesn’t like being called an “extreme couponer.”
She watches the grocery store ads with an eagle eye and wakes up at the crack of dawn to get the best deals, but she’s not doing it to stock her own pantry.
The Stafford mother of four, who is also a Fredericksburg police officer, donates the items she gets with coupon deals to Stafford Emergency Relief Through Volunteer Efforts (SERVE), a nonprofit organization that helps the less fortunate in the Fredericksburg region.
On a recent shopping trip, Marshall paid $63.09 for $1,290.40 worth of groceries. She got paper towels, cough drops, dog food, napkins, water, aluminum foil, lip balm, razors, toothpaste and various other goods—which she dropped off at SERVE Thursday afternoon.
The donation was her fifth to the organization and it amounted to 216 pounds worth of items.
Marshall, 31, keeps only about 1 percent of the items she buys with the coupons for her own family, she said. She’s been taking advantage of the coupon deals for about six months now, she said.
She does it because she knows it makes a big differ ence to those who need it.
Cindy See, the intake man ager for SERVE, said the organization is extremely grateful for Marshall’s donations.
“We’re very appreciative that you take your time to do it,” See said to Marshall when she dropped the items off Thursday.
Every time Marshall drops off another load, she tries to top the amount from the last time. The most recent trip— her fifth—amounted to 216 pounds of items, and it was her biggest to date.
When she visits local stores—mainly Wegman’s, Shopper’s, Bloom and Gi ant—the clerks recognize her and know why she’s there.
When she gets in line to pay for her items, she often hears a familiar groan and sees an eye-roll from the person behind her. But she doesn’t feel bad about spending the extra time at the register because she knows she’s doing a good thing.
She generally hits the stores early in the morning or late at night—when most shoppers aren’t there.
She budgets about $80 per month for her coupon missions and uses it wisely. She tries to take advantage of double and triple coupon days the stores offer.
Marshall said that if every body used just one or two coupons and picked up a few things to donate, it would make a difference at organizations such as SERVE. One of her tips is to pick up the free items that Wegman’s offers in its coupon books and donate them to charita ble organizations.
Marshall buys a handful of copies of The Free Lance-Star every Sunday for the coupons. Family members, friends and members of her church, Regester Chapel United Methodist in Staf ford, know what she’s doing and send additional coupons her way.
She said without the extra help, she wouldn’t be able to make as much of an impact.
She said she emphasizes to those that help her that she only wants the coupons that they won’t use themselves.
Marshall said she tries to teach her four daughters— they range from an infant to 13—that they should be grateful for all they have.
While they don’t do the actual shopping with her, the girls often help her pack up the items to bring to SERVE and they understand what their mom is doing.
“It’s not about what you have. I teach my kids to share what they have,” she said.
Robyn Sidersky 540/374-5413 rsidersky@freelancestar.com
COUPON CLASS
The Free Lance–Star is offering a couponing class for subscribers from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 25 at its offices at 616 Amelia St. Coupon expert Tiffany Cutts will talk about how to get organized, how to save at Fredericksburg-area stores, coupon etiquette and more. The free class is open to the first 200 who make reservations. To sign up, call 540/374-5002.
