Coupons. The old standby has new life on the Internet. And Harry Martin says he swears by them.

"It actually makes grocery shopping fun," says Martin, a Realtor by day and a coupon maven by night. It's a practice he said saves him about $300 a month. And he's only been doing this for about two years.

Martin, who lives in Escondido, and other coupon users turn to the Internet to find their coupons, including sites such as shortcuts.com or super-couponing.com, all of which provide regular old clip-and-carry coupons to be printed out.

But there is a bit of a catch on some sites. The computer user is often required to download specific software in order to print out coupons. Martin said he finds that most of the sites use the same software, so he has only had to download it once.

There are back doors. Stephanie Nelson who is known for her Web site couponmom.com -- which Martin routinely uses -- has said that while some online coupon sites require visitors to "jump though hoops, like pages of marketing surveys," in order to get free coupons, sites like hers feature some sections with printable coupons that do not require the user to register or to share any personal information.

And some major grocery store chains make it even easier for shoppers with store cards, who can go to the store's Web site and download electronic coupons to those shopper cards. You buy the product in the store, swipe the card at the register and, viola, the discount is automatic. No paper, no clipping and carrying coupons.

It's also worth checking out the Web sites of your favorite grocers, because sometimes they include coupons not seen in their weekly sales ads.

Martin says yes, he works at it, and spends about an hour a week doing so. But before you throw up your hands and scream you have no time to collect coupons, listen to this. In May 2007, he said did not use coupons, and that month spent $551 in groceries. In May 2008, with coupons in hand and buying tips in his head, he said he spent $191 for groceries.

Still think it's a pain? Martin went to the store recently and got a box of cornflakes for free, given that it was on sale and he had a coupon. Makes the hour of researching worth it, said Martin, who runs a blog dubbed prohomemaker.com.

You have to do the footwork, though. Pay attention to a grocery store's weekly sales ads and get the coupons in the Sunday newspaper.

And there are other tricks. Martin says he learned to save his coupons from the Sunday papers for three weeks before using them, finding that that's how long it takes until there is a sale on the item.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at 951-676-4315, ext. 5442.

For coupons and savings tips:

couponmom.com

super-couponing.com

shortcuts.com

prohomemaker.com