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PHOENIX -- Shelley Giles likes to help people.
The Sun City resident is a part-time nurse and a full-time blogger who finds the best deals to help people save money at the grocery store.
"It's a challenging economy right now and people are scrambling to save money," said Giles. "We're kind of on fixed income ourselves, my husband has a part-time job and I have a part-time job."
Few people actually know Shelley by her real name.
She's often referred to by her screen name -- "Miss Thrifty".
"Oh, it's funny, many people have no idea it's me, but I just want to help others save money, said Giles. "It's fun, when it comes to finding deals, it's the thrill of the kill I have to admit."
Everyday, whether at night after work or early in the morning, Giles logs on and posts the best deals she can find.
The deals involve about a dozen stores ranging from beef to bananas to soap and sugar.
"There's no one store that's better than any of the rest, I just spend a lot of time finding coupons and sales and deals and post them so others don't have to spend time doing and can spend their time with their family and friends," said Giles.
To prove her work, ABC15 asked the self-proclaimed "Miss Thrifty" to bring in the latest receipt from a big shopping day.
"We went (this morning) to go shopping and we bought 711dollars worth of items. Most of it was health and beauty items, and we paid a total of 48 dollars," she said with a smile while holding the receipts.
Giles said that day's particular shopping trip was at a KMART where double coupons were being offered and she said she only bought items that were on sale.
"After all was said and done, I got many items for free," said Giles.
Giles said after finding deals and shopping around, she has dozens of toothbrushes, bars of soap and toothpaste that she got for free.
"Again, it takes time and a lot of planning, that's why I post it all on my blog, there are a few secrets, but nothing significant."
The Sun City resident says many people make big mistakes when they go shopping for groceries.
"You should never, never go on an empty stomach," said Giles. "Don't go buy groceries unless you have a list or a plan. Use coupons and never buy something unless it's on the list. That's so important. Make sure to have those coupons in order," said Giles.
As for when to go grocery shopping, Giles says Wednesday are best when deals and the re-stocking of items typically takes place.
When it comes to coupon searching, Giles says don't waste your time looking for unlikely coupons.
"Milk, you normally don't get coupons for, or for your beef, it's hard to get coupons, but both do go on sale and you either have to get lucky or do a lot of planning," said Giles.
"Miss Thrifty" certainly isn't alone. There are several grocery and sale blogs on the Internet from Valley residents.
Some of those bloggers are friends with Giles, but others don't like to share with fellow bloggers she says.
"It's a friendly competition, it becomes kind of like a social network other than Facebook or Myspace."
Giles admitted she spends quite a bit of time clipping coupons, but often hands them out while grocery shopping if she sees someone with items that she has coupons for.
"I'll either hand them (coupons) to them right there or sometimes I leave coupons near the checkout so someone else can use them," said Giles. "It's fun, because you get to meet new people and you know you're helping somebody, I just want to make a difference.
To find out what deals she finds, go to www.thriftycoupondeals.com and see a list of the latest deals from around the Valley.
