NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Giles resident offers strategy for being frugal. Wendi Meredith teaches workshops and is writing a book about her "common sense" approach to saving money.

By Amy Matzke
540-381-1674

**One of the money-saving tips Wendi Meredith offers is even when products are buy one, get one free, shoppers can still use a coupon.**

Wendi Meredith of Giles County uses a large binder with clear plastic baseball card holders to organize coupons. Meredith provides workshops to teach people how to save money and is writing a book filled with her money-saving tips.

A half-gallon of name-brand ice cream, a double pack of name-brand baby food and a pack of baby nail clippers -- all for 57 cents.

With prices rising and the country's economy in turmoil, everyone is trying to stretch their dollars, including Giles County resident Wendi Meredith. Thursday's 57 cent grocery store trip was a combination of coupon use, advertisement comparisons and a sharp eye for sales that Meredith has been using and perfecting for more than 20 years.

Meredith said her shopping strategy is simple. She makes her shopping list, scans the sale ads and checks her coupons, plans a shopping day and visits the stores with the best prices for what she needs.

Her personal best shopping trip, of which she has photos, was $1,000 worth of groceries for $162, she said, a savings of $838.

She started giving scheduled frugality workshops about six months ago -- she had been giving them informally for years -- and is writing a book filled with her money-saving tips.

"The best advice I ever got was from my grandmother," Meredith said. "She always said, 'It has nothing to do with how much money you make, but how you manage it.' "

Meredith spends about an hour a week comparing sale ads for the best prices. She cuts coupons from the Sunday papers and organizes by function -- baking, beverages, breakfast, canned goods and so on -- in a large binder using clear plastic baseball card holders so she can see them easily in the store. She also trades coupons with friends and neighbors, and donates other coupons to military bases for soldiers to use.

But coupon clipping is only part of the process, Meredith said. Her overall goal is simply to help people with what she's learned through the years, especially people who are in debt, she said.

Meredith said her system of saving is one of "common sense" -- she combines all her errands into one trip so she doesn't waste gas, she makes sure her coupon binder is up to date and organized and she shops ahead for holidays and other events, buying gifts when they're on sale.

"The one thing is, there has got to be a sense of balance," Meredith said. "If you spend hours trying to save just pennies, you're much better off just spending the money."

The best tip Meredith teaches is that even when products are buy one, get one free, shoppers can still use a coupon, said Danielle Mandell, who attended two of Meredith's workshops about four months ago at Riverview Baptist Church in Ripplemead.

Mandell had heard about the workshops through others who had attended and decided it sounded worthwhile.

"The time that it takes to cut the coupons is the biggest time spender, but she has made that pretty easy," Mandell said.

The idea for the book grew out of the same grain of thought as the workshop -- teaching others what she's learned, Meredith said.

"People have been saying I should write a book for years," Meredith said.

The working title of the book is "The Art of Frugality."

"She has a very worldly outlook ... but she has been in a spot where she has had to pinch pennies, and that is very fresh in her heart, I think," said Catherine Leonard, Meredith's informal editor. "She's worked hard to achieve what she has."

The two met through their sons' basketball league, and Leonard agreed to edit the book after hearing about it, even though she isn't a professional. Meredith, who is self-publishing and trying to keep costs low, welcomed the offer.

"She likes to tell me she is full of stories, and this book is full of her stories," Leonard said. "Even if someone is not trying to pinch pennies, I think people would enjoy it because she's just funny."

Meredith's book is expected to be out by the end of 2008. The cost has not been set yet, and copies can be pre-ordered. The cost to attend a workshop is $10 per person. For more information, contact her at artoffrugality@hotmail.com

Photos by Matt Gentry, Roanoke Times