I can't remember when exactly I became a dyed-in-the-wool coupon-clipper.

But today, coupons accompany me wherever I go. On Sunday, I used a coupon for 2 for 1 admission to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I searched online for a coupon or promo code before buying some already discounted t-shirts at Threadless.com. And before I ran errands this morning, I consulted several couponing web sites to get their highlighted deals of the week at Target. Then I printed out the online coupons they linked to so I would pay even less for on-sale items. Several times a month, I pay nothing for an item in my cart after stacking discounts.

Mr. Kablog looks at me funny when I mention that I am eating free cereal or putting a free diaper on baby Kablog. But those looks are nothing compared to the one he gave me yesterday when I told him I took out my credit card and bought coupons online.

Yes, you can buy coupons online on e-bay as well as sites such as thecouponclippers.com. Let me rephrase that. You pay someone for the service of finding, clipping and mailing the coupon. Technically, coupons can't be sold.

I paid $3.94 for 20 $1 off coupons that I can use anywhere my Discover card is accepted. That means I am making a $16 profit! Not bad.

The coupons expire on 10/31 and only 1 coupon can be used per transaction. Given I use a credit card for nearly every purchase (I pay off the balance monthly), I shouldn't have any trouble using them up. Since you can use the coupon on any type of item, I am not buying things I wouldn't normally buy just because I'm compelled to use these coupons.

And some places, such as Cub Foods, take expired coupons, which means it would probably make sense for me to buy even more of this suckers.

If you are thinking of using a coupon clipping service, be sure to shop around. While I paid about 19 cents each, some people on eBay were paying 50 cents or more.

Of course, if I had been more on the ball, I could have bugged friends and family to find these coupons for me. But for such a valuable coupon, using couponclippers.com was a five minute, hassle-free alternative. Although I admit that because I checked eBay first, the escapade probably took a total of 15 minutes.