High tech coupon clipping II: Paperless coupons

E-tickets, e-cards, e-gift certificates, and plastic currency. We're used to spending paperless; now how about paperless savings?

Last month I wrote about the Grocery Game, an online subscription service that can enhance coupon savings by matching grocery store specials with coupons. Grocery Game, and a similar (free) coupon tracker, Coupon Mom, both feature printable coupons on their sites. But our own AOL takes couponing to the next stage of digital evolution with Shortcuts, paperless coupons that you store to your grocery store membership/discount card.

Now we're talking.

Just the other day, I came home from a grocery run (where I realized nearly 50% savings, thanks to coupon/sales matching), and realized I'd left about $5 worth of additional savings on the table. Literally. My kitchen table. Grocery Game or not, it's hard to keep track of all those flimsy bits of paper, let alone clipping and sorting them. I love the idea of having them stored on my Kroger card. No coupon left behind!

Unfortunately, the Shortcuts selection at this time is woefully limited. A measly eight coupons. And while my regional chain, Kroger, is a partner store, the full list is quite limited. But I have high hopes that my cutting and sorting days will soon go the way of the 8-track, so I'll be checking back.

Shortcuts is free to anyone with an AOL or AIM account.

Kyran Pittman blogs about life at Notes To Self, where her musings on culture, soul and laundry have been picked up and published three times by Good Housekeeping magazine.