This is how they worked. You paid $25.00 for a book that was good for one year. It was a huge book divided into sections, They contained coupons that allowed discounts for restaurants, bakeries, movies, cleaners, cash washs, ice cream shops and much more.
When the new books came out my husband and I would spend hours studying the book, putting in markers to alert us to the places and things we wanted to take advantage of. A year goes quickly, we wanted to use the book as much as possible.
In those days it didn't matter if we had to travel a distances, gas was cheap and my husband was good at finding out of the way places. And did we ever find them!! We used the restaurant coupons the most. Sometimes it was worth the trip, sometimes not.
When we first started using the coupons we would just take off and drive to the place until we started to find some of the restaurants were out of business.
Abandoned Chin Tiki Restaurant-Detroit ( featured in the movie 8 Mile ) by Derek Farr ( DetroitDerek ), on Flickr CC BY-NC
We smartend up and after a few of those experiences we called in advance.
One day we had a brilliant idea - "why don't we study the book and see how many coupons we can use the same day!"
Our friends were game, liked the idea and between the four of us we made a plan!!
There was a colorful town not to far from where we lived. On the main street there was a coupon for a men's clothing store, a bakery that solld wonderful bagel, a unique movie theater, a lovely boutique shop and a restaurant!! Perfect!!
We left early that day in order to take advantage of all the goodies we were going to get at half price. What a great time we had!! It was fun saving all that money and just getting a kick out of using so many coupons in one day!! Many people were buying the book but not getting the full benefit. We were beating the system!!
I still remember when we were walking back to the car we were all so happy, laughing and talking about the great day we had UNTIL we saw the car. We had parked the car on the street and the meter had run out. We had a $50.00 fine!!
Street parking meter by misplacedparadox, on Flickr CC By-NC-SA
The best laid plans don't always turn out the way you want them to BUT what stands out in my mind was the wonderful time we had that day.