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Coupons story: the deleted scene
This happened with the Saturday coupons story. I found a very nice local woman who was kind enough to chat with me by phone, but in the end, her story didn’t fit into the story I was working on. Sometimes when this happens, I end up writing a whole separate article about these editorial leftovers when they go in a different direction.
However, it’s still worth sharing, I think. Pamela Estepp, who works at an Austin drug store, also posts lots of information about freebies and deals on a page she maintains on Gather.com. There, she earns points for posts, comments and connections she makes. She uses these points to cash out gift cards for retailers like Borders, Home Depot and Omaha Steaks.
“Basically, I’m just trying to survive on a budget,” Estrep said, “For years, I’ve been doing coupons and rebates and that sort of thing. I enjoy doing it and it helps my roommate and me; we’re trying to make ends meet.”
Estepp says she spends several hours a night posting items on Gather. She gets tips from friends and relatives and reposts them for others.
She enjoys the freebies and special offers you can get online. One site she also works with is BzzAgent. The site sends her samples and coupons on products and she’s asked to write reports based on her own experiences and feedback she gets from friends. She also earns points good toward gift cards there. Recently, she got to try out a SonicCare toothbrush and got samples of Hershey’s candy bars.
Estepp says she’s been burned by sites that ask people to earn points and then quickly go out of business, but, she says, most of them allow users to transfer their accumulated points in some way to another site.
If you didn’t get enough advice and tips from yesterdays coupon live chat with Rochelle Hamby (the transcript is still available for viewing), here another: Coupon Winner posts promo codes and deals for online shopping. A PR person for the site says they have over 9,000 coupons from 3,142 retailers. It may be worth your time if the idea of hitting the stores in this summer heat turns you off.
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