This Is the time for Coupons, Hey every lil' bit COUNTS!

Coupon-clipping on the web has become a serious business. And for good reason: Consumers saved roughly $3 billion on food, cleaning products and other packaged goods last year, just by redeeming coupons, according to consulting group CMS.

Here are five worth checking out:

Coupons.com
Find out about the latest coupons and deals through daily updates on the site and its weekly email newsletter. A favorite in our broader e-coupon site assessment, Coupons.com lets visitors browse by food category, or check out offers expiring within the week. Enter your zip code to see even more offers. Click on the coupons you want and print them all at once. Some stores still don’t accept home-printed coupons, so check that your store does before downloading the site’s coupon-printing software.

SmartSource.com
Answer questions about your shopping habits and boost the savings you receive on a range of printable coupons and offers. (For Biz Stain Fighter products, noting your current brand preference and time zone made a $1 coupon jump to $2.50, while saying which baking powder and cornstarch brands you use pushed a 50-cent Clabber Girl baking powder offer to 65 cents.) Enter your zip code, and you’ll get listings of sales in your area.

TheCouponClippers.com
If you’d rather not go the home-printed coupon route, look to this clipping service for more than 1,300 options from Sunday circulars and manufacturers. Load your cart, and they’ll mail you the paper coupons. You’ll pay a small per-coupon handling fee (five cents per copy of a coupon worth 50-cents), plus a 50-cent administration fee per order and 42 cents or so for shipping. Orders must meet the $3 minimum, and most coupons require a minimum of five copies. Given all the fees, make sure you’re saving enough to offset the cost -- or split the price and coupons with a friend or neighbor, advises Catherine Williams, vice president of financial literacy for Money Management International, which oversees nonprofit credit-counseling agencies.

ShortCuts.com
This free service from AOL offers clipped and printable coupons. Simply click on the coupons you want. The online account syncs with your grocery store loyalty card and automatically redeems the coupons when swiped at checkout. The catch: Coupon offerings and participating stores are still relatively sparse. AOL’s ShortCuts is currently available only for Kroger supermarkets, including Ralphs, City Market and Fry’s.

RedPlum.com
Browse the free print-out coupons by category, or enter your zip code to check out store specials in your area. (Parent company Valassis creates Sunday newspaper coupon circulars, so you know you’re getting the most usable fare, says Phil Lempert, founder of Supermarket Guru.) You can also save coupons for later, or send them to a friend. Download the Sweet Saver widget to alert you to new coupons on the site as you surf the Internet.

Make sure you read all the restrictions, because not all retailers accept online coupons.

Source: SmartMoney.com