It's too bad ordinary people can’t print extra money like the US Treasury Department when times are tough. Cash is in short supply. And so is credit.

You probably have a drawer full of odds and ends and a bunch of expired coupons you had the best intentions of using. It’s time to turn that drawer into something useful.

Start by clipping the coupons from the Sunday paper, and sort them by category. Have an envelope for dairy, one for beverages, canned goods, etc. That will keep the drawer a little more organized!

The bottom line is, don’t think of coupons as nickel and dime savings. It really ads up.

Jennifer Clarke of Coupon Sense says a good place to go to save money on toiletries is CVS. They have an excellent Extra Care Bucks system, which is an immediate rebate on certain items. It’s like a rebate system without the waiting. You only have to pay out of your pocket the first few times for the items; after that just cycle the ECB’s through the system. There are two ads at CVS; monthly and weekly. Both have ECB items in them. Next time you stop in, grab one of each! One thing to note: ECBs are particular to your CVS card.

By day, Amy Yates-Garmatz is an NBC human resources manager, but when she leaves the office, she is a super saver, saving hundreds of dollars a month. Saving money has become a social event for Yates-Garmatz and her friend, Laura Hanlon.

"We can go in and have $150 worth of products and walk out for $1.38," Hanlon said.

Like so many savers, the two women start by clipping coupons, but then they go one step further, checking online blogs to find stores where those same items are already on sale.

"We just go to the blogs and look at the sales that are going on that week and match our coupons up," Hanlon said.

Some of their recent deals include 19 cents for a four-pack of toilet paper, rolls of paper towels for 3 cents each, and shampoo for free.

"You're crazy if you don't do it. It's too easy. Anyone can do it," Yates-Garmatz said.

While coupons have always been popular, they are even more so today. The availability of a coupon can really make or break a sale. Aside from the money-saving aspect, people enjoy the feeling of gaining a bargain and being treated as special.

In this troubled economic climate, if you’re not using coupons in the marketing mix of your water treatment or bottled water business, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

For print, online and direct
Everyone's familiar with coupons in newspapers and flyers, but coupons also are now an established part of electronic marketing. Go to a search engine, type in “water softeners” followed by the word “coupon” and you might be surprised how many water treatment businesses (perhaps including your competitors) are using online coupons. Visitors to Web sites with coupons increased an incredible 38 percent from March 2007 to March 2008, whereas overall Internet traffic grew only 5 percent during the same period.

Compared with other marketing efforts, coupons don’t cost businesses a lot of money. Although fewer than 3 percent of all coupons are ever redeemed, that fact doesn’t mean you can’t gain the benefits of coupon marketing.

Having a coupon establishes credibility and awareness for your company, your products and services, and your brand. Distributing coupons to new prospects is a quick and efficient way to build interest and goodwill.

Coupon use is very prevalent in the grocery industry, but many non-grocery retailers publish their own coupons both online and in newspapers. You can generate coupons for salt and bottled water delivery, water testing and any combination of water treatment products and services you offer.

Be creative. Adapting your own coupons to products and services not typically associated in the public’s mind with this proven marketing technique is an opportunity waiting to be seized.

Easy to measure
One of the great things about coupon marketing is that it’s easily measured and a valuable component in any marketing program.

Seeing who redeemed coupons, where the user found the coupons, and tracking print coupons can pinpoint what ads, marketing vehicles and communications are working best. All that’s required is using different codes for different placements. Source codes can be printed on the coupon itself or coded online with redemption codes or Web-page tracking.

If you are considering using coupons to be printed from your Web site, look into Promo Code Software (www.promocodesoftware.com), a new software package (introductory price: $77) which is compatible with all Web sites and blogs and allows you to generate unlimited, self-expiring, one-time, limited-time, or permanent coupon codes. It’s quite a clever application and well worth checking out.

Coupons on ‘forward’
Here’s an idea: Make pass-along e-mail coupons part of your referral system.

Encourage “coupon sharing” via coupons delivered by e-mail — that can be quickly forwarded to friends and neighbors. Today many marketers are replacing mailed coupons with e-mailed ones to save on postage expense.

Coupons are a cost-effective way to grow your customer and prospect e-mail files. Here are the numbers: Sixty-five percent of consumers forward coupons from consumer packaged-goods company e-mails to friends, and 55 percent forward retail e-mail offers, according to a recent Epsilon survey.

Coupons via multiple channels
There are more ways than ever to distribute lead-generating coupons, ranging from e-mail to customers, “marriage mail” (shared print mailings), online yellow pages Web sites, dedicated online coupon distribution Web sites, printed flyers, door hangers, newspaper ads, invoice stuffers, “preferred customer” sale offers and customer appreciation events.

A way to reduce coupon mailing costs is to take advantage of low-cost “marriage mail” programs that mail out multiple coupons in envelopes or booklets. Many are local or regional services. Others are national programs, including Valpak (www.valpak.com), Money Mailer (www.moneymailer.com), and Save on Everything (www.saveoneverything.com). Check out pricing for placing online coupons on the Web sites of these same services.

If you use pay-per-click advertising via Google, Yahoo, or other search engines, try including a coupon in your “calling card” ad. If you use online directory ads (such as in yellowbook.com or yellowpages.com), don’t forget to add a coupon.

A myriad of dedicated coupon Web sites have sprung up in recent years; some focus on specific product sectors, others will contain offers from all sorts of merchants.

For example, Couponcode.com is a coupon Web site that ties specific retailers to non-grocery product offers, including discount coupons. Sears features special offers on water filters and water softeners on this site.

“Thrift is the new normal,” says Lance Saunders, executive vice president and head of account planning at Campbell Mithun Advertising in Minneapolis.

It's easy to see why coupon advertising is sweeping the country. Regular use of good “couponing” strategy can provide a steady stream of new customers and high-quality sales leads.

There are two main types of coupons: Store and Manufacturer (MFR) coupons. Store coupons are put out by the grocery stores/pharmacies, and can only be used in the location where they have written on the coupon (for example if it is a Walgreens store coupon, I can only use it at Walgreens.) Manufacturer coupons come out in the Sunday paper, on manufacturer web sites, on coupons.com, in grocery store dispensers, in coupon fliers (found at stores) etc. They can be used anywhere that accepts coupons. Most places do.

What a lot of people don’t know is that you can combine store and MFR coupons. The big savings occurs when you combine the two (especially if they are combined with a sale). If your store takes competitors’ coupons (store coupons from another location, i.e. Home Depot and Publix), you can save even more. I save an average of 70 percent. Last month I saved $1,071.15 and spent $321.27 – a savings of 77 percent for the month. This included my family’s groceries, beauty supplies, cleaning, entertainment, going out to eat, etc. December looked a little different – we spent $711.06, and saved 1,499.07 – a savings of 68% for the month. I do admit our family is not going out to eat much at this time. This savings also does not include gas, though there are some great gas gift card offers available (these take a lot more time.)

The other common complaint is that it's hard to keep coupons organized. Any tips for that?

Organization is a must. When you coupon you end up with A LOT of tiny (in size) coupons. On my web site, I offer a location where I show you how to stay organized couponing. I keep the Sunday coupon fliers dated in a three-ring binder (newest in the front). The coupons that are pre-cut (because they came from store dispensers, they were printed offline, etc) are kept in an accordion-style folder (labeled by the store or by type (beauty, cleaning, food, etc.). I keep all of this together in a carrying bag in my car.

Where do you find coupons, and how would you recommend others do so?

I find out about coupons reading blogs each morning. Instead of visiting each web site individually, I add the web sites I prefer as “subscriptions” on Google reader. Google reader is a free tool that lets you see hundreds (if you wanted that many) of web sites in one place. They only post the newly added material to the web sites, so you are not reading the same thing over and over. I also belong to a couple of Yahoo groups (made up of my friends) who send out great advice daily. Anybody can do this. If a member of the group sees a great bargain, coupon, or sale, they email the group to give us a heads up. Combined with reading other blogs (using Google reader) this allows me to learn from others….why reinvent the wheel?

Any other thoughts or advice for readers on saving money?

It is completely worth it, especially in this economy. You can decide how much or how little you would like to invest (time-wise) in your savings. I go to the store and look at shampoo and toothpaste (two things I no longer pay for since I get them free couponing) and I think about how much money I wasted over the course of my life time paying for these. No one should be paying full price for anything. In addition, using coupons does not hurt the stores – for every coupon you use, the store usually makes money off that coupon. For example, if I give use a $1 coupon, once that coupon price gets back to the store the manufacturer ends up paying $1.08 (the extra money is usually due to a handling and shipping fee. Keep in mind, the store is not hurting; they appreciate your additional business.

Another rule of thumb is you cannot be loyal to a brand. If you are brand loyal you will miss out on many deals. You can not invent the deals yourself. As an example, I cannot say I need Crest toothpaste – tinstead I look at the sale and go to get the coupon. There might be a great deal on Colgate this week.

You will also not find yourself buying store brand items anymore. With couponing you are able to get the expensive Proctor and Gamble, Kellogg’s, etc. items. All the big money brands you find yourself getting cheaper than the store brand items. Don’t get me wrong, when I am in need of cooking spray and I cannot wait until the next sale, I do go ahead and get the store brand cooking spray. If you must be brand loyal, choose what it is that is important to you….is it your morning cereal, your mouth wash, your granola bars? Try to limit your loyalty. The most important thing I want you to take away is to shop the sales and if you can, shop the sales with a manufacturer coupon combined with a store coupon. This way you get items cheap, free, or even make money!

Coupon clipping is become the hottest trend in shopping once again. While studies show the Sunday newspaper circular is still the most popular way to clip, the Internet has made discount shopping more lucrative for many.Smartmoney.com has released its five top sites for clipping:

• coupons.com allows you to enter your zip code to find the best deals near your location.
• smartsource.com answers questions about your shopping habits and provides printable coupons.
• Shortcuts.com , a free service from AOL, allows you to click on the coupons you want, and then the site synchronizes up to your Smith's frequent shopper card and redeems those coupons when swiped at the grocery store checkout.
• redplum.com has free print-out coupons. The site allows you to save them for later and e-mail them to someone else you know can use them.