And the Survey Winners Are…

Before I get to the winners, I just want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey last week. You all gave me lots of helpful information. Hopefully I can use it to make the site better and more user friendly for you. Since there were some recurring themes in the comments, I thought I would address the most common concerns you have.

:: I Want HEB Matchups!

There are several reasons why I don’t cover HEB.

• HEB is not the most coupon friendly store. Per their coupon policy, they can refuse any coupon if they don’t like it. I frequently get emails from readers frustrated that they cannot use their coupons at HEB. This problem primarily occurs with internet printed coupons and not as often with the manufacturer coupons that come via mail or in the newspaper.
• HEB will not allow you to use a manufacturer coupon with their yellow in-store coupons. Most of their sales revolve around these in-store coupons and therefore finding sales that do not use yellow coupons is more difficult.
• HEB sales vary greatly by region. I live in the Austin area and San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi readers and others would not be able to find all the same deals at their store. The other stores I provide matchups for offer nationwide promos so regional differences aren’t as great.
• I actually don’t have an HEB near me! I live in a small town outside the city and I currently drive more than 30 minutes to shop at HEB. Since I have to drive so far to shop there, I usually find myself shopping at stores with better deals or ones that will take my coupons. HEB is opening a store in my small town in less than a week so I may be able to offer more frequent HEB deals.
• I always post any good deals I find at HEB on the Saving with Shellie Facebook page.

:: I Want to Be Able to Print Your Matchups!

I actually have a really cool print feature that I’ve had in the works since Christmastime, if you can believe it. I have been experiencing technical difficulties having it adapt to different Internet browsers. I hope to have it complete sometime this fall. I think you will be very pleased with it.

In the meantime, below each post is a “Share and Enjoy” option. The last icon is a print friendly option. If you click this icon, it will format the post into a more printer friendly version.

:: I Want a Coupon Database!

I actually have this in the works as well. Developing a coupon database is very labor intensive and is taking much longer to get going than I anticipated. I should have this up and running sometime in the fall as well.

:: I Want to Know How Many Coupons to Use and How Much Each Item Is!

Done! If you notice the matchups this week, I started letting you know if you needed to use more than one coupon in order to get the deal. I also started letting you know what the price per item is in addition to the total for all items. I hope this will help you with the math on the deals.

:: I Want My Emails Earlier!

I will look into changing the time my email goes out this week. Right now it goes out sometime between 7pm and 9pm. I will get with Feedburner and get things switched to the 5pm to 7pm option. This means you should get it about 2 hours earlier than you usually do. It may take a few days to take effect.

Those were the recurring concerns, but there were lots that were only mentioned by one or two readers. I’ll do my best to address those if possible. And as always, if you are having trouble navigating the site, can’t find an old post or just have a question, please email me. I’m more than happy to help!

Now, on to the winners….

The two winners of the $10 Starbucks gift card are Ana M. and Amanda S. I have contacted both ladies and they have 48 hours to provide me with their mailing address before I select a new winner.

Thanks again for taking the time to complete the survey and for reading Saving with Shellie. I’m so grateful to have such fabulous readers!