I always tell people that you will save more if you are willing to shop at more than one store each week. Stores offer different items as "loss leaders," meaning items that are sold at a super discount to get folks in the door. If you can train yourself to visit multiple stores and ONLY buy the loss leaders, you will save in the long run.

But a new series of ads from Food Lion tries to counter that point. Food Lion says you don't need to travel to multiple stores to be a great price hunter. The ads themselves are pretty clever. You can view some of them on the Food Lion Web site here. But I'm not quite sure I agree.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the ads or on the practice of shopping multiple stores...

Someone asked me recently if there is a list of companies out there who will send you coupons. To my knowledge, there is no one authoritative list. But I did find this post over on Hot Coupon World that I thought some of you might find useful.

Also, don't forget my story from 2006 detailing my campaign to write 100 companies to ask for coupons. You can find that one here.

Feel free to share other companies you have contacted for coupons! 

It's Memorial Day, and like most of you, I am taking today off.

However, here are a few reminders:

*You have until noon today to enter my Memorial Day Challenge poem contest.

*This will be the final week to sign up for my June 6 coupon class.

*And there are bound to be some awesome deals at area stores this weekend. Feel free to brag if you found one!

Recenlty, I wrote about a promotion from KFC in which the company was giving away meals to promote its new grilled chicken product.

The giveaway, which got a major mention from Oprah last week, was apparently so popular that the chain's restaurants were caught unprepared. Some stores were turning customers away. This reminds me so much of the recent Million Sub Giveaway from Quiznos, in which customers flooded stores and some managers stopped honoring the coupons.

You all know I love a freebie, but if a chain is going to offer a freebie on that kind of scale, I really wish they would be ready.

I heard from a couple of you over the weekend about Walgreens' decision to discontinue its EasySaver mail-in rebate program.

The April EasySaver catalog was the last one that will be issued.

I've held off on writing about it because I wanted to touch base with Walgreens' corporate office. Now I've done that. So click "Read more" for my thoughts on the matter. Also, at the request of one reader, I will share some advice on using the Walgreens Register Rewards program, which is its remaining "instant rebate" program. 

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One of the things I like most about couponing is that it gives me the chance to donate a lot of items to various charities. I collect things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, cat treats and other goodies that I get for free and give them away to folks who need them. I also drop off extra food for the food bank.

I thought I'd have some fun and ask you all to share your favorite charities. If you feel like including a link to their Web sites or a list of items they need, that's fine. Maybe you will inspire some folks to give!

Some of you may familiar with the TV infomercials for a towel-like device called Sham-Wow. They feature a guy named Vince and have quite a YouTube following.

Well Consumer Reports recently tested Sham-Wow to find out if it lives up to its claims. Watch the video report below.

Here's yet another sign of the times.

According to Raleigh research firm Sageworks, sales at new car dealerships dropped 12.85 percent in 2008, while sales at auto repair shops rose 2.34 percent. Personally, I've always been a fan of the "drive it until it won't go anymore" philosophy when it comes to cars. But it seems many of you are putting off new car purchases, too.

It should be no surprise that people continue to eat at home more as the economy continues to suffer. Raleigh research firm Sageworks says sales at grocery stores increased at twice the rate of sales at sit down restaurants last year (6.75 percent versus 3.26 percent).

But here's something perhaps a little more surprising: restauranteurs are responding by creating new lines of celebrity-branded food items to sell in grocery stores. A really great example is a new line of soups, pizzas and other products from Wolfgang Puck that has been hitting shelves lately. I'm not sure this strategy will have the appeal companies are hoping for, but I guess it's too early to tell. To read more on this trend, check out this Restaurant News story... 

A little while back, I blogged about the Subway folks coming to Raleigh and auditioning people for those $5 footlong commercials.

I don't know if you were among the people who turned out for the auditions, but Subway has posted a number of the videos of its most recent auditions on its Web site. You can view the competition and vote for your faves here...