Coupons have always been a great way to save cash at the grocery story, but many shoppers hate the effort involved.
There's the searching, the clipping and then carrying around all the coupons.
"I use them occasionally when I have time to grab them," shopper Leigh Ann Romack said. "I don't always think to get them before I come."
But numerous Web sites such as SmartSource.com allow shoppers to search for the same coupons found in the paper. The site presorts the coupons by brand to eliminate tedious coupon hunting. Once you find the coupons you want, you simply print them at home.
If even that sounds like too much work, other sites, such as Shortcuts.com, will find coupons for you based on a shopping list you create.
Many coupon sites will alert you when your favorite coupons become available and then automatically load them onto your grocery chain rewards card.
"For the average person, you could save about $12 to $15 a week just by loading on those coupons," said coupon guru Laura Thornquist.
She runs a Web site called MyDFWMommy. She said the coupons that get loaded onto reward cards are great because it eliminates the possibility of forgetting the coupons.
But she warns, "Give them a few days to load onto your card, because they may not always be there."
