Sue Stock, the News & Observer retail reporter and self-proclaimed “coupon queen,” held court on Saturday at the Eva Perry Regional Library in Apex, giving a free workshop called, “Saving on your grocery bill (it’s really not that hard.)”

She’s given similar workshops before, sometimes in front of 400 people at the News & Observer offices in Raleigh.

It showed.

Launching right into her step-by-step instruction on finding coupons, organizing them and using them to your best advantage, Stock — a young newlywed who’s been at the N&O since 2004 — commanded the room like an old pro.

You could hear a pin drop when she talked about tripling coupons.

Her packet included an actual receipt from Harris Teeter. I loved seeing what’s on Stock’s personal shopping list (meow mix means she’s a cat person; pineapple, of which she says her husband consumes two a week; and Heinz ketchup, proving she does buy name brands and still saves).

The receipt showed $20.52 in Vic card savings and $15.67 in coupon savings, totaling $36.19 off her grocery bill for the week. Other weeks, she said she saves a lot more.

Her 2007 tally was $4,600 in total savings.

“Is everyone going to save $4,600? No,” she said. “But what if you save $2,000? What would you spend that on?”

I looked around the room and saw everyone’s eyes go a little soft-focus, dreaming separate $2,000 dreams. My mind boggled at the thought of paying off a credit card or two — all by using coupons!

Stock went through her savvy tips, which included:

• Most local stores — Harris Teeter, Lowes and Food Lion — put their coupon fliers in the Wednesday paper.

• Kroger, Harris Teeter and Lowes “doubles coupons” (giving double the amount of the coupon off your purchase), with certain limits applying; Food Lion doesn’t double.

• Make something called a “price book,” a little notebook where you jot down what you pay for regular items so that you can easily compare prices from store to store, discover a good sale price and notice patterns when those items go on sale. One of Stock’s major mottos: “Know what you’re paying for something.”

• Only clip coupons for items you will really use (give the other ones to friends, who can swap with you) and keep them in an organized, portable fashion — whatever works for you. Stock has a three-ring binder with plastic baseball card inserts so that she can carry it flap-side up in her cart, and flip through it as she shops, able to see every coupon clearly.

Here’s an example Stock shared, showing how if you learn the rules at all the stores and have an organized coupon system, you too can become a “coupon queen”:

Stock’s husband loves Eat-Smart soy chips, which really vexes her because they’re $3.99 per bag and “there’s only, like, four chips in there,” she said. They occasionally go on sale for $3 a bag, and there’s also a 75-cent coupon once in a while. Since Harris Teeter doubles coupons up to 99 cents, that 75-cent coupon will be worth $1.50. So, $3 chips on sale minus $1.50, and Stock gets them for $1.50 a bag instead of almost $4 a bag.

She said she’ll buy a few bags at a time and stockpile them for her husband’s snacking pleasure.

Stock also does a lot of homework for her readers, putting out a weekly coupon list, which details the value of the coupon, its expiration date and what flier you can find it in.

That means she spends several hours every week entering coupons into an Excel-style database. That is couponing commitment, and we thank her for it.

Read Stock’s blog at takingstock.newsobserver.com.