“Super-Couponing” workshop founder Jill Cataldo began strategizing how to best use coupons when she was pregnant with her third child – and realized she’d have two in diapers at the same time.

“Honestly, it was the diapers,” she said. “They’re very expensive.”

And, really, why pay $8.99 for a package of Luv’s when you can plop down a $3.50 store coupon, a $5 manufacturer’s coupon and a few dimes?

About five years later, Cataldo is sharing her coupon strategies through workshops, a nationally syndicated column, a blog and video series. She gave her introductory workshop Wednesday at the Yorkville Public Library.

She suggested holding onto coupons until store prices dip (most major supermarkets operate on a 12-week price cycle) and then stocking up. She once paid $5.15 for 100 boxes of cereal and granola bars. A supermarket was having a special for 10 boxes of General Mills items for $10, so she matched up coupons and went through the check-out line 10 times.

Only 98 boxes made it home, though.

“I gave two to my cashier one day, because she was so patient with me,” Cataldo said. “I said, ‘Here, take some home to your kids.’”

She also suggested purchasing 12-weeks worth of any particular product when a low price coincided with good coupons. But she also suggested checking expiration dates: Cereal and toothpaste often lasts much longer than 12 weeks, so she purchases much more than that when deals align so she can get it for free or for pennies.

Sometimes, multiple coupons for the same item means the product is cheaper than the combined value of the coupons. In those instances, some stores give a credit (but not cash) toward other items bought in the same trip, Cataldo said.

“It is one of those things that is a privilege, not a right,” Cataldo said.

She wrapped up her workshop by directing participants to her blog, www.jillcataldo.com, and her website, www.supercouponing.com, and participant Beth Goss left with several new tips.

Goss said she had long been a conscious shopper, but she typically clipped just the coupons she thought she’d use each week. It hadn’t occurred to her to save all the coupons and wait to see which match with low prices before they expire.

“There are some things she talked about – a lot of things – that I never would have known,” Goss said.