Community Corner

After Couponing Helps Her Out of Debt, This Clipper is Giving Back

Coupon class to benefit Infant Jesus food pantry.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. For Gia Pendergast, financial distress spawned an obsession that helped her get her family out of debt and inspired her to launch a new business, Long Island Coupon Queen.

The self-proclaimed reigning Queen of couponing on Long Island was at in Port Jefferson on Thursday evening to share all that she has learned about the art of clipping coupons. And all the money she raised from the seminar, she’s using to fill the shelves of the church’s food pantry.

Pendergast came to live in Port Jefferson Station as a teenager, graduating from in 1992. Since then she married, moved to Coram and had two baby boys. When she was pregnant with her first child, Pendergast was unexpectedly put on bed rest for her entire pregnancy. She had to leave her job earlier than expected, causing the family to struggle financially.

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“We were even using credit cards to pay our utility bills because we just couldn't afford it,” she said. “We couldn't afford day care so going back to work wasn't an option for me.”

That struggle lasted for years before Pendergast went back to work part time but it wasn’t helping much. She decided to give couponing a try, and after one week she noticed a significant savings.

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“I told myself that this is how we were going to get ourselves out of the hole we have been in for five years,” she said.

After all her hard work and years of suffering, the family is now debt free and she owes it all to her coupon clipping. Although people have to put in the time, it’s not something that will take over your whole life, unless you want it to, according to Pendergast. The more you work at it, the more you save.

“How much people can save depends on how much they are willing to do,” she said.

In order to help people get started, she launched her own website, Facebook page and Twitter account and now spends her time doing what she loves, saving money and sharing her tips and techniques with others.

On her website she posts deals throughout the week, gives advice on how to save money and even how to earn money through loyalty programs.

“Loyalty programs are huge right now,” she said. “Since June I’ve probably earned over $1,000 just from loyalty programs and promotions. “

She once even made money on a purchase through couponing but most of the savings is 50 to 90 percent off the total bill. One of the keys to saving so much money with couponing says Pendergast is to match your coupon with the best price out there to get the maximum savings.

Couponing has been so good to her that she decided to give back to the community and use her skills to do it. This past Christmas season, she contacted Infant Jesus church to contribute to their Adopt-A-Family program, the first year she was able afford it because of the couponing. Then she decided to hold a class to benefit the church’s food pantry.

“Infant Jesus has been my parish since we moved out to Port Jeff Station in 1990,” she said. “Both of my sons were baptized there as well and I figured it would be a good way to start giving back to the community and helping out in any way I can.”

With the proceeds from her class she'll put her skills to work filling the food pantry on a shopping trip.

Pendergast is open to helping out any food pantry that needs it or even individual families. In December she donated funds from a class to two single mothers who were just moving out of a shelter.

For now she mostly teaches her classes at various Panera Bread locations or at a client’s home as long as it’s from a personal referral.

Pendergast says that one of the biggest things people have to overcome is the time investment it takes to clip coupons and find sales. When she first started out Pendergast said it took her up to three hours a week to cut coupons and research deals but it was time well spent.

“That three hours they spent can cut their monthly grocery budget by over 50 percent,” she said.


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