Folks looking to save money on food have more options available as retailers and restaurants try to lure people in with discounts.

The Sunday newspaper is still a mainstay of grocery store coupons. And those are usually a very good deal when products are new, such as when those Swiffer dust mops first came out or when a new model comes out. Sometimes the coupons will save you several dollars.

Often, retail stores also will put those new or improved products on sale, although the sale sometimes lags behind the publishing of the coupons by a couple of weeks.

Savvy shoppers sometimes cut all the coupons but wait to buy until those items go on sale — usually within a month — to get the double discount.

With the economy sagging, a number of restaurants are offering "buy one, get one free" deals, a percentage off or even free gift certificates. But those are usually found by signing up on e-mail lists.

Some consumers don't want to risk getting spam or junk e-mail but recently these deals have become more attractive. Other people create a separate e-mail account that they use for such offers. But that requires you to remember to actually keep track of that account because many of these offers are for limited times.

The Entertainment books sold as fundraisers also offer lots of buy-one, get-one free deals as well as discounts on museums, sporting events and other activities.

Although the books sell for $35 when they're first published in the fall, the books get discounted as the year goes on. Just yesterday, the Web site at www.entertainment.com was offering 35 percent discounts on the 2009 books. By mid-year, that sometimes drops to $9.99.

We've even bought the books for a vacation destination after they were discounted. We found that one or two uses could pay for the whole book.

Coupon Mom Stephanie Nelson offers links to some other useful tips at www.CouponMom.com. Her site offers printable coupons sometimes and a host of tips on saving money.

"It's not hard to save at your favorite restaurants if you know where to look," Nelson said.

Start by checking for discounted restaurant gift certificates from www.Restaurant.com, where consumers can purchase $25 certificates for only $10.

Consumers can also get free restaurant coupons by going directly to a restaurant's Web site. Sometimes you don't even have to sign up for a newsletter but can print the discounts right off the site.

And in the interest of saving more trees, if you carry a phone that can access the Internet, you can sometimes just show the coupon to the store or restaurant to get the price break.

I just did this at a bookstore over the weekend and the clerk was happy to pull the code off the phone, which got me an additional 20 percent off my purchase.

One caution: some stores limit how you can combine gift cards, reward certificates and discounts. So, it's best to pull out all your discount and cards before the clerk completes the transaction.

If you do that first, often the clerks will be more willing to help sort out the best deal possible. But if you've waited until everything has been rung up or put into the computer, that can require voiding the transaction and creates a lot more work.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.