You can spend your Sunday afternoon clipping dozens of coupons out of the newspaper or you can find printable manufacturer’s grocery coupons online. However, you have to know where to look so that you don’t end up on a website where you are signing up for things that will wind up bringing nothing but spam to your e-mail inbox. In fact, some of these sites can be a little scammy and spammy themselves. So, in an effort to save you from spinning your wheels, let’s talk about the top 10 websites to find printable manufacturer’s grocery coupons.

1. www.CouponMom.com: CouponMom has become a very popular place for people to go in the last few years. A lot of that has been due to the fact that she was on Oprah and has gotten a lot of great press for her website. The site is really good because it offers links to many other sites where legitimate coupons are offered. It also gives you up-to-the-minute information on the best sales at local grocery stores and drugstores.

2. www.SmartSource.com: This site offers free coupons and discounts for many top brands as well as online coupons. They are very easy to print using the site’s online coupon printing software.

3. www.GroceryCoupons.com: This site has a free program that allows you to print your own coupons from thousands of name brands, but it also offers a coupon clipping service and local coupons as well as a deal finder.

4. www.RedPlum.com: Many people will know Red Plum from their circulars in the Sunday newspaper each week. They offer grocery store coupons as well as restaurant and drugstore discounts.

5. www.CoolSavings.com: Cool Savings offers printable name brand coupons as well as online coupon codes for consumers who want to save more money.

6. www.PPGazette.com: This site offers coupons from a variety of sources that you can print such as Valpak, SmartSource, RedPlum and Coupons.com. The site says that you can print them all from one convenient location.

7. www.Coupons.com: No list would be complete without a site called Coupons.com, right? The site is a virtual clearinghouse of coupons from a variety of different sources.

8. www.CouponDivas.com: This site is for the coupon diehard who wants to learn how to save big money using coupons. They have a retail coupon list, kids eat free list and coupon database as well as 70 hours a free tutorial videos.

9. www.GrocerySmarts.com: This site is for someone who likes a much simpler method for finding coupons as they are laid out by the week according to the manufacturer name. The site is definitely not hard to maneuver like many of the other coupon sites.

10. www.Kroger.com: Surprisingly, many of the grocery store chains have manufacturer’s coupons right on their websites. Some of them also have customer loyalty cards where you can electronically load coupons on your card so you do not even have to clip them and bring them with you. Kroger is just one grocery store at that has this option. You can certainly check at your local grocery stores to see what kinds of deals are offered on their websites and whether or not they have a loyalty card where you can load your coupons.

Couponing does not have to be the hard and arduous task that it used to be. You don’t necessarily have to carry a big envelope or binder full of coupons as long as you are careful in your planning before you make any shopping trips. Knowing in advance what you’re going to get and what coupons you have can save you a lot of time and money.

One of the very attractive features at Overstock.com is their flat shipping rate of $2.95. How many other retailers do you know that will ship furniture at that price? Their inventory changes continuously as they bring in new merchandise to liquidate.

So what does an Overstock coupon code do for you? It makes a great deal even better. Here are some extra ways to save:

Overstock online coupon

You can find online coupons to use at overstock.com at the following site:

http://www.offers.com/overstock/?path=b9q-b9x-gls-100b1a. I saw coupons with up to 40% off values on there.

Club O

By joining Club O, you get an overstock discount in the form of a 5% reward on any purchase except book and media purchases totalling under $25. Club membership costs 19.95 per year. So if you plan to purchase merchandise totalling over $400, it is worth joining Club O.

Overstock free shipping

As if a $2.95 flat shipping fee isn’t good enough, you get free shipping if you are a Club O member. Overstock.com also has a coupon page. Currently, it features a coupon for free shipping on orders over $50.

Clearance bin

Overstock.com does have a section where they have slashed their prices even more. Check it out. I have some seen some amazing clothing deals in there. They have over 800,000 products on their site, you just might find what you are looking for.

Refurbished products

Overstock.com does sell refurbished products such as laptops and waffle makers. You can usually save money this way, but be aware that you are purchasing a refurbished product. I have had some good experiences with refurbished products, but you never know how old the parts in there are that didn’t need to be refurbished at the time. Buy with caution.

Redline deals

This section features products that Overstock.com has put on sale for a limited time. So for this section to benefit you, you need to visit the site regularly, so you actually see the bargain that appeals to you when it is offered.

Overstock.com offers some great deals. If you are a bargain basement Walmart shopper, you may not find the deal you are looking for, but if you like higher end merchandise, then definitely check out Overstock.com. They have products ranging from furniture, to clothes, to jewelry and electronics all the way to sports and books.

They even have a section for businesses where you can find commercial equipment, like sandwich making stations or office equipment. http://www.o.biz/ is the commercial site. They have sections such as restaurant, catering, janitorial, medical and builder supply among others.

Club O offers coupons up to 20% off on occasion. They have received awards for their customer service and their revenue has grown a hundredfold over the last decade. Their customers appear to be happy and continue to shop there. That is always a good sign.

Signing up for their e-mails with online specials isn’t instant as at most online merchants. Expect a one or two day delay before you receive anything. Club O may be faster since you pay for that one. If you need your discounts instantly, click on the links in the article above and make use of the overstock coupon codes listed there.

Moneydance

Moneydance is an application for personal finance that was developed by Reilly Technologies. The user interface is geared towards non-accountants although it is a double entry bookkeeping system. Moneydance can be run on multiple operating systems such as: Linux, Mac OS, OS/2, Unix, and Windows.

Online Banking: You can synchronize transactions with your records with the support of OFX, QFX, and QIF files.  You can also pay your bills instantly using its online bill pay option.

Schedule: Be on time with your payments, bills, and paychecks.  Moneydance tracks all of your overdue bills and calculates interest for your loans.

Budgeting: Budget your monthly expenses to your actual income.  Moneydance will show you where you are over or under budget.

Portfolio: Track your investments and keep your portfolio up to date.  You can view the total value of your investment accounts such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and CDs.

Import: Any program that exports data using the QIF format will be imported by Moneydance.

Compatibility: Moneydance can run on almost any operating system.  This gives you maximum flexibility.

International: Moneydance is used in over 75 countries and offers support in eight languages.  It makes it easy for tax reporting by tracking and calculating VAT and GST.

Privacy: You will be able to encrypt and password protect your data for increased security and privacy.

Quicken

Intuit Inc. developed Quicken as a personal finance management tool.  There are various versions of Quicken available such as: New user, Basic, Deluxe, Rental Property Manager, Premier and Home & Business. Most versions of Quicken are specialized for United States and Canada.  Although it can be used more widely no matter what country it is.  Quicken operates on Macintosh and Windows.  As you can see Quicken offers more options than Moneydance depending on what version fits your needs.

Quicken is a better choice for business’ or anyone that needs more options.  Moneydance is an alternative for individual needs.  It also depends on what operating system you are using.  Try to keep all this in mind when choosing your product.

Fingerhut.  Depending on who you are and how old you are, the very mention of the name conjures up one of many specific images.

I remember the Fingerhut catalogs of the 1970s.  They weren’t as thick or interesting as the Christmas catalog from Sears or the even glossier one from Penney’s.  The merchandise selection was limited and not much, if any, of its contents appealed to a kid.

My mom liked it, though.  They sold those latch hook rug kits (hey, I told you it was the 1970s) and she’d order the patterns and the stubby little bundles of yarn you used to make them.  Fingerhut would send them, along with a payment book.

That book consisted of a dozen little slips of paper.  Each of them had a payment amount printed on it, along with the Fingerhut mailing address and the buyer’s account in formation.  Once a month, when my folks gathered around the kitchen table to “do the bills,” they’d take out the booklet, tear off the page, attach a check for the amount and send it off to good ol’ Fingerhut.

A little research confirmed that memory.  Those payment books divided the total price of the items purchased (and an interest payment) by twelve.  You had a year to pay off your balance.  It was old school closed end credit.

That’s the Fingerhut I remember.

“In the old days, retailing would have a lot of layaway plans and the local store credit. All those things disappeared over time. And what Fingerhut provided was that access, that credit.”

A Minnesota Public Radio report that details some of the struggles the company faced during a transitionary period in the 1990s includes comments from Rafael Saldana, who was once Fingerhut’s manager of Hispanic Business.  He explained the role the closed credit system once played:

TIMES CHANGE…

Eventually, Fingerhut went through some changes.  They were bought out be a larger retail outlet and started focusing more on online endeavors and order fulfillment responsibilities.  They were still mailing out those catalogs, but they were different, too.

The latch hook rugs and the ugly orange 1970s yarn faded from the front to the back to obsolescence.  The catalog got a little beefier and started featuring electronic items, baby gear, jewelry and all of the other product lines you’d find in a department store.

The biggest change was probably the elimination of the old Fingerhut closed credit system.  They started issuing Fingerhut credit cards and set up revolving accounts.

The aforementioned MPR report will tell you that people weren’t necessarily pleased with the changes.  Old customers started running up bigger bills and people questioned the new ownership’s decision to change the way business had long been successfully conducted.

THINGS STAY THE SAME

Even though Fingerhut did switch to the revolving credit system, like most other retailers, they didn’t change one aspect of the way they conducted their business.  As Rafael Saldana noted, Fingerhut had also made a point of extending credit to those who may not have access otherwise.

That’s something they’re still doing.

Fingerhut extends credit to people who otherwise couldn’t get a credit card.  Their standards are set intentionally low.  They even make a point of trumpeting the fact that they “Often say, ‘YES’ when others say, ‘NO’”.

They do more business online these days, but they do sell a little bit of everything and they sell it on credit to people with surprisingly low credit scores.  They’re the retail equivalent of a sub-prime lender.

NOT QUITE CRAZY

At face value, this strategy might seem a little crazy.  Why would you let people who have a strong risk of defaulting on their purchases buy on credit?  Why would you do that with lower-priced consumer goods that can’t meaningfully secure the debt?

Well, it’s not quite as crazy as you think.  Fingerhut seems to have a plan.

They charge a nice, hefty interest rate to make up for the risk.
They build some of the risk into their business model by charging a bit more than you’d expect for the items they sell.
Much of Fingerhut’s inventory consists of second-tier brands and non-name brand items.
Fingerhut positions themselves as a means of accessing credit for those with limited opportunities.  They undoubtedly hope their “last chance”  lender status will encourage people to maintain their accounts responsibly and that they’ll be utilized by those interested in credit repair or establishing good credit histories.

SHOULD YOU BE A FINGERHUT CUSTOMER?

I’ll be frank.  Most of us probably shouldn’t become Fingerhut customers.  The prices aren’t great (although they do offer some nice sales and online coupon codes) and the product line isn’t any more impressive than what you’d find at a K-Mart.

Plus, based on what I can tell, they don’t even sell those ugly latch hook rugs anymore!

Does that mean that no one should be a Fingerhut buyer?  Not necessarily.

The one thing Fingerhut has going for it is its willingness to extend credit where others won’t.  That’s even more impressive in today’s credit line-cutting marketplace.

That makes the company uniquely valuable to a certain sub-set of the population:

People who want to build a credit history on the cheap. You could apply for a Fingerhut card, make an occasional inexpensive purchase when items go on sale, pay the bill promptly and develop some credit history.  The fact that approval is likely and the fact that it’s easier to resist running up a Fingerhut card than it is a Visa or Mastercard–or a locally available physical store, for that matter–creates one reasonable scenario.

People who believe that a card will help them repair their credit. I belong to the school of thought that believes the best way to deal wit a lousy credit score  is to pay everything off  and to then avoid credit purchases whenever possible.  I’d be reluctant to tell anyone who reaches the point that they can only qualify for Fingerhut credit to even think about becoming an active borrower.  Not everyone feels that way, though.  Those who think that limited responsible use can help boost credit scores may want to recommend applying for a Fingerhut card.

You really like the stuff they sell and you’d like to buy some of it. I’ve been pretty harsh in my criticism of Fingerhut’s inventory and that might not be completely fair.  Different people like different things and have different views of what constitutes quality.  You can see that wide-ranging difference of opinion reflected in the side range of reviews Fingerhut receives online.  If you like what the company sells, feel free to become a customer.  I don’t see why that would justify an application for a Fingerhut card, however.

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE…

People who can’t get credit anywhere else can often qualify for a Fingerhut card.  You can view that as a creepy, predatory business practice or you can see it as a commitment to providing credit opportunities to those who’d otherwise be frozen out.

People get Fingerhut products and use them.  You can see that as a reflection of the company’s offerings and as proof that people are responsibly using their cards for smart purposes.  Or, you can imagine a bunch of people who should be saving their money mortgaging their future for second-rate consumer goods.

The truth of the matter probably falls somewhere in the middle of that mess.

I can’t say that I would recommend anyone to apply for Fingerhut credit.  I’d understand their motivation if they did, however.

Red Plum is one of the many options you have online for searching for coupons.  In my own personal experience of doing this I have found that most of these sites have the exact same coupons available, after all they come from the manufacturer or the store itself.  The real value in this site and others like this is having them consolidated in one place so you don’t have to go looking for them all over the internet.

So what exactly will you find at Red Plum, coupons and lots of them.  Coupons for specific items, coupons for specific stores, coupons to the left of you, coupons to the right of you!  As with most coupon sites you do have to create an account.  Joining is free but membership does have some privileges.  If you do decide to join get ready because you have the option of what types of coupons you want to receive in your email account and they will faithfully send emails.  Personally I am tired of creating accounts because I have enough emails in my inbox that I never read anyway.  However once you have joined you then have access to free giveaways, samples and other great deals.  These are some of the privileges.

When searching the site you can view coupons available but to print them you have to install the coupon printer on your computer.  Again this is how most of these sites work so if you want the coupons you have to follow the orders.  I don’t want you to think I have a negative view of this site because I don’t I just don’t feel I need any more memberships, whether they are free or not, because I can’t even keep up with the ones I have.  Personally you don’t need to join every one of these sites just find one or two you like and just join those.  As I said earlier they will generally have the same coupon information. 

When it comes to coupons the real value is how to use them to get the most bang for your buck.  Coupons give you the most discount when they can be combined with other coupons to get double or triple the savings. I found some good tips on getting the most from you coupons at the sites below:

Get the most out of coupons
Getting the most out of your coupons

If you are up to the challenge there are some savings out there.  Get ready to put in some work but at the same time there is some reward at the other end.

1-      Sign up for the extra bucks rewards program -  Most stores have membership programs that rewards customer loyalty.  CVS’ program is called Extra Care.  How it works is you earn 2% back from every purchase you make in the store or online.  You will also get 1 extra buck for prescriptions purchased in the store or online.  Every 3 months you can either print your extra bucks online or it will print out on your receipt when shopping in the store.  Some other benefits include special in store discounts for select items for rewards program members.  This rewards program can also be used with Upromise if you are saving for college

2-      Make use of the website – If you go to the CVS website you will find some ready to use coupons available to everyone.  Simply go online, put in your zip code and find the coupons for your area.  From there all you have to do is print and use and save money.

3-      Check the circular – Before you go shopping check the weekly specials.  A simple way to save more money is to find what you need and then search online for additional coupons you can use with these particular items.  Some great sites to visit are coupons.com, couponmom.com and fatwallet.com.

4-      Check the online specials – Often there are items available online that will be available only online and not in the store.  You can see again what you need and again decide if it is cheaper to get it online or to get it from the store.  Remember to add shipping charges to your purchase to make sure it is actually cheaper.  Also if you are going to purchase online there are dollar limits that will qualify for free shipping.  If you can try to spend at least that amount to save the additional money on shipping.

In searching online I actually found a good article on making CVS work for you and here is another one on CVS coupons.   When it comes to saving money the main thing to remember is that it takes some work and effort to really get the good deals.  It is quite possible to spend 2-3 hours per week searching for coupons I know I have done it in the past.  However when it comes to saving money and making your dollars stretch then there is nothing wrong with the time spent doing this.  Remember when it comes to coupons the money you save will be your own.

Orbitz

Apparently, it’s tough.  The Chicago Sun Times recently reported that Orbitz has just announced another change at the helm of their marketing and branding efforts.  According the paper, their most recent hiring is “a familiar–and somewhat disturbing–occurrence…”  Apparently, Debbie Italiano will be the third person in charge of battling traveling statues and Captain Kirk in the last five years.

One way Orbitz has been trying to build and maintain its customer base over the last several years has been via the use of Orbitz promotion codes.  If you have a code, you can snag a nice discount on your Orbitz purchase.

Some businesses will offer online coupons that aren’t worth their weight in bytes.  That’s not the case here.  Orbitz promotion codes are often quite generous.  Let’s put it this way–they justify spending the time necessary to find them.  Just in case your past experience with online promotion codes leaves you skeptical, just look at this list of promo codes, all of which were available at the same point last year:

15% off Texas hotels: ORBTEXAS [book by 3/20, travel by 8/31]
$25 off 2+ nights: ORBTHANKS25 [book by 3/31, travel by 3/31]
$40 off 3+ nights: AORB40 [book by 3/31, travel by 4/30]
$75 off 4+ nights: 4ODWR75 [book on 6/1, travel 6/1-8/15]

$100 off 3+ night Grand Bahama Island package: GBI100 [book by 4/6, travel by 12/15]
$200 of 4+ night Grand Bahama Island package: GBI200 [book by 4/6, travel by 12/15]
$200 off 5+ nights international package: GAYPASSPORT [book by 4/30, travel by 6/15]
$50 off 3+ nights air & hotel package: PRIORITY [book by 5/31, travel by 5/31]
$75 off 3+ nights air/hotel or hotel/car package: 75ORBDOT [book by 7/31, travel by 8/30]
$75 off 3+ nights air & hotel package: DEALOVACA [book by 12/31, travel by 12/31]

That’s pretty representative of what’s going on at any given point in time.  If your travel plans match up with an Orbitz promotion code, it can save you a nice little chunk of change.

So, where do you find these?  Shatner isn’t going to help you find them, after all.

I thought I had found the mother lode of promo codes at CouponLoco.com, but it turns out that the only loco thing happening there is pretending that linking to various Orbitz special offers is the same thing as providing a valid promo code.  Obviously, it isn’t.

RetailMeNot.com was slightly more helpful.  They provided links to the special offers, too, but those were clearly marked as “sales,” and not as coupons or promotional codes.  They also had four different Orbitz promotion codes listed on their site at  the time of this post’s writing.  They weren’t all up to date, but they were genuine codes.

Savings.com had a few codes, too.  One of them was an apparently universally-applicable 10% off deal.

Other coupon and promo sites yielded similar, if not downright redundant, results.

I found that big list of last year’s promos at the Flyer Talk Forums.  I wasn’t able to locate a similar, updated list for current Orbitz codes, but I wanted to mention the site because it seems like it offers a real wealth of information to anyone interested in scoring the best possible deals on travel.  It appears to be a very active forum and the “Online Travel Booking and Bidding” area could be handy for anyone planning to set up their travel plans online.

The bottom line:  You’re going to need to do a little digging to find Orbitz promotion codes and many of those that are available probably won’t match your planned itinerary.  However, it is worth doing some investigation.  If you find a code that DOES match with your plans (or one of the generic x% off codes), it will more than compensate your for the research time.

Well, I started playing video games with a Sears TeleGames unit in the late 1970s. That was the name under which Sears briefly sold the Atari 2600. While I was a master of Pong and later even developed some ability in Space Invaders (including discovering the “cheat” involving the toggling of the power switch), my video game skills have basically stalled since then.

I’ve been tempted to get back into the action, but aside from an occasional game of Madden football with my nephew and one failed effort at doing anything but wiping out stolen cars with an early version of Grand Theft Auto, I’ve resisted the allure of those awesome “next generation” game systems.

But now one of the little Lampsens is old enough to have the bug and the formerly video game-free tyke has three letters atop the list attached to the letter she’s sending to the North Pole: Wii.

So, it’s time for me to figure out how I’ll handle the kid’s upcoming stage as an obsessed gamer without going broke buying titles that would be used once and then shelved forever.

Enter GameFly.  It’s the NetFlix of video games.  They have over 5,000 game titles across a variety of platforms.  You add them to your “I want it” list and they send them to you in the mail, as they’re available.  For around $30 a month, you can get the games, play them until you’re tired of them and then send them back in the prepaid envelope.  When they get your return, they’ll send you the next item on your wishlist that they have in stock.

Pure genius.  No late fees.  No risk of sinking a fortune in a game that you don’t like.  Pretty reasonable cost per month, too, if the gamer in your house makes good use of the service.  Based on reviews, it sounds like Gamefly works just the way it should.

And the deal gets even sweeter once you find out that there’s a free Gamefly trial offer out there.  Free is always better.

Actually, there are two free Gamefly trial offers floating around.  One is a ten-day trial.  That’s better than paying full price, but ten days isn’t much time.  When you consider the back-and-forth time in mailing, it’s probably enough time to get one game, play it for a day or two and then send it back.  It’s worth doing if you know you’re going to set up an account anyway, but it isn’t the kind of offer that should blow your away.

There’s also a thirty day free Gamefly trial for people who already have Netflix and would like to try out gamefly.  That’s a much bigger and better deal for bargain hunters–assuming they do the Netflix thing already.

So, that leads us to the big question.  How do you get the free trial deal?

According to AskStudent.com, you can visit the Gamefly site and the use the promo code “BDMHWT4NJKRRW373″  to snag your free thirty days.

MoneySavingDeals.com has links to take advantage of the free ten-day deal, for those who aren’t part of the Netflix family.

RetailMeNot.com also has links to ten-day trial passes.

If you have one or more active video gamers in your house, signing up with Gamefly seems like a no-brainer to me.  It’s a great way to test titles before you buy or to just keep ‘em and beat ‘em instead of plunking down the bigger bucks to own your personal copies.

Netflix proved that the model works with movies.  There’s no reason it shouldn’t be just as handy with video games.

We all realize that there’s some real potential to save money by using grocery coupons.  A quarter here, a 2-for-1 there…  It can add up.  Serious economizers swear by smart coupon use (hitting the stores on coupon doubling days and buying pantry items in bulk when the deals are too good to pass up, etc.).  It’s like a big pile of cash is waiting for you in every Sunday’s paper if you’ll take the time to read through the ad circulars with a pair of scissors in your hands.

And that’s where the deal falls apart for most of us.  We’re either too busy or too lazy t0 make a point of chopping those grocery coupons out of the paper.  It’s one of those great “at your fingertips” ways to save some money that we just don’t use to our advantage.

That’s why coupon books sound like such a fantastic idea.  You can by a book of vouchers for the coupons you want at a fraction of the coupon face value.  For fifteen bucks, for instance, you can get a booklet of vouchers that might offer up to two hundred dollars in coupons.  And the fact that you get to choose the products for which you want the coupons makes it sound even better.

Well, that’s exactly what my wife thought a couple of years ago when a couple of fresh-faced kids came knocking on the door.  They explained the value of the book, the low price and, if I’m not mistaken, there may have even been some sort of vague promise that a worthy cause was going to get a chunk of our money, too.

We’re gonna buy food with or without the coupons an fifteen dollars isn’t a lot of money, she reasoned.  She bought a book.  Who wouldn’t want to trade fifteen bucks for two hundred?

It turned out that this little grocery coupon investment was a disaster.  The Federal Trade Comission doesn’t hesitate to call these things scams.  I don’t know if they’re all crooked, but any grocery coupon book working from this model is definitely not the best deal in the world, to put it mildly.  If Mrs. Dellison had done her homework online, she wouldn’t have made the buy.  The reviews of these babies are generally NOT positive.

Here’s why you should avoid any of these coupon voucher books.

First, you need to list about three dozen products for which you’ll accept coupons for each of the vouchers you use.  If you’re like us, you don’t really purchase three dozen name-brand grocery items on a truly consistent, month in and month out basis.

Second, the list of available products isn’t comprehensive.  So even if you do have several big-brand products on your regular shopping list, the company probably isn’t going to offer coupons for all of them.

Third, the devil is in the details of the fine print.  The company doesn’t really promise to fill your order.  It promises to try.  Trying is nice and all but it doesn’t save you money on lunch meat, if you get my drift.

Fourth, these suckers will nickel and dime you death.  There are handling or processing fees for your vouchers and the book we got even required us to pony up the return postage for when they got around to sending the coupons to us.

We did get coupons.  They “tried” to fill our order and managed about a 40% success rate in getting us the coupons we wanted.  Not so great.  It took forever to get them and unless you’re the most organized and consistent shopper in the whole world (and have psychic powers), waiting for the coupons to show up is a bit of an aggravation.  Oh, and one of the coupons we did receive was on the very brink of expiration (better buy that cereal TODAY!).

We never bothered with a second voucher.  An hour with a pair of scissors and the Sunday news makes much more sense.

Now, if you’re still not ready to do that, there might be another solution.  The Simple Dollar had a post that talked about online coupon brokers.  They gave one a rave review.  These are sites where you can purchase the exact tickets you need for far less than the coupon face value and it might be worth considering.

If those kids come knocking at your door, however, it is not worth considering their coupon voucher book.  This is one deal you should avoid.

STAY OUT OF THE ER. Emergency room treatment costs more than alternatives.  Unless you’re really facing a legitimate EMERGENCY, you should do what you can to seek treatment elsewhere.  While some people hit the ER because they don’t have insurance and know they’ll get some care there, folks should be aware, as Being Frugal notes, that there are many clinics that offer affordable care based on a sliding fee scale.

CALL YOUR DOCTOR. Before you go see your doctor, only to then be referred to another doctor or specialist, call first.  In many cases, you can get the direct referral without making an unnecessary and expensive appointment.  Unless you love sitting around reading back issues of Field and Stream while you wait an hour for a 45 second, “you need to see Dr. So-and-So” appointment, let your fingers do the walking instead.

MORE TELEPHONE MAGIC. Not only can you avoid the dreaded referral (dis)appointment with a phone call, it’s also possible to get actual medical advice via telephone.  Instead of setting up an appointment, see if someone can help you via telephone.  Some hospitals and clinics offer great nurse help lines you can call.  In many cases, they can give you a few simple directions that will keep you from making a money-sucking appointment.  Obviously, you can’t try this technique if you have a railroad spike sticking out of your temple or a snapped femur.  In non-emergency situations, however, it can be worth making a call.

LOOK AT YOUR BILLS. Don’t assume the statement you receive in the mail is accurate.  It might be, but in many cases people find overbilling or billing for services that weren’t rendered on their bills.  It won’t take you that long to read through the itemization and it could save you a great deal of money.

A POUND OF PREVENTION. Stop smoking.  Eat an orange instead of three Cherry Mash candy bars and a large Dr. Pepper (light on the ice, please).  Consider testing the soles on your shoes instead of the world’s fossil fuel supply every once in awhile.  You know the drill.  Most of our medical expenses are avoidable.  If we took better care of ourselves in the first place, we wouldn’t be seeing the doctor as often or popping all of those pills.  We’d be saving on medical expenses by avoiding them.

NEXT TO GODLINESS. Practicing good hygiene and cleanliness can reduce the risk of contracting many illnesses.  Wash your hands, touch items within public toilets only when you’re wearing a HazMat suit, don’t play “give me five” with your nephew right after he wipes is runny nose on his hand.  This is really a subset of the other prevention factors, but I though it deserved it’s own entry because people often overlook this opportunity to stay healthier and to save dough on medical costs.

GENERICS. By now, this should be a second nature to anyone who’s not in the habit of burning cash for heat.  Generics contain the same stuff as the name brands, they do the same thing and they cost far less.  If you can fill your Rx with a generic, do so.

There you have it–seven very practical ways to save on medical expenses.  Following these recommendations won’t end the healthcare debate in Washington, but they may save you enough money to make a trip out there to lobby your Senator or Representative.