Couponing:
Story By
Hilary Brady
The
spectacular sport of coupon-clipping has been practiced in homes around the
nation for more than a century. In 1894, Coca-Cola revolutionized the
marketplace with handwritten tickets for a free glass of soda in order to
encourage tastings of its new pop. Just one year later, grocery guru Post
jumped on board with a $0.01 off coupon to boost sales of its healthy cereal,
Grape Nuts. The consumer-friendly move paid
off big for both grocery giants, encouraging many other companies, large and
small, to follow suit and prompting many individuals to begin sharpening their
best scissors.
In the
1930s couponing became a necessity as families struggled to pay for their
groceries during the Depression. By 1965 despite economic improvement, half of
all American households were still clipping coupons. By 1997 that number
climbed to 83 percent. Although coupon usage declined slightly in the early
2000s, as the economy weakened in the latter part of the decade, couponers got
back in the clipping habit. A whopping 9 percent jump in coupon redemption was
seen between 2008 and 2009. It appears that couponing is negatively correlated
to the economy. When cash flow is low, coupon redemption rates grow.
With terms
like “financial crisis” and “the great crash” being used to describe today’s
economy, Americans are clipping coupons like crazy. Totaling an annual savings
of $3.6 billion and 4.5 billion coupons redeemed, to be exact. That’s a lot of
coupons clipped and a lot of silver saved. Stereotypes and labels like “extreme
couponing moms” lead one to assume that only stay-at-home moms or lower income
earning individuals are the ones redeeming coupons. However, that is hardly the
case. In fact, 69 percent of men use coupons, and statistics show that the
higher the income the higher the coupon redemption rates.
So what is
so great about couponing that the vast majority of Americans go to the trouble
of clipping, organizing and redeeming these tiny slips of paper? The savings
can be huge, so huge that your grocery
Intrigued?
If so, here’s some insight into the science behind the savings. These
step-by-step directions allow you to join the millions of people savings
thousands of dollars on their grocery bills each year.
Collect Coupons
In today’s
world, coupons are everywhere. They can be found in newspaper circulars,
magazines, direct mail pieces, on the Internet and in your email, in product
boxes, on grocery store shelves and on your grocery store receipt.
When it
comes to newspapers, it is best to buy the regional papers with the largest
circulation. The Raleigh News &
Observer, for example, is an excellent source of coupons. Buy it local,
though, because mailed subscriptions do not include coupon inserts. Look for
distribution boxes at
Another
great place to find a large selection of coupons is the Internet. Sites like
www.coupons.com and www.smartsource.com
feature regularly updated coupons to click and print. If that’s not easy
enough, there are even coupon databases like www.afullcup.com that, when
searched for a particular product, will show you all of the places where the
product-specific coupons can be found: Internet links, magazine issues,
newspaper circulars, direct mail pieces, etc. If you can’t find the coupon that
you need (or enough of them) in newspapers or on the Internet, go straight to
the source. Contact the manufacturer via phone or email, tell them how
wonderful their laundry detergent is, how your family uses it regularly because
it is the only brand that makes their skin soft and itch-free. Most manufacturers will mail or email you product
coupons, sometimes very high in value, as a thank you for being a
loyal customer. This is an excellent way to get great coupons on high-dollar
items like organic foods and household and healthcare products.
Always
scour your magazines for the few coupons that can be hidden in product ads, and
don’t forget to check inside your cereal boxes and other food containers for
coupons printed inside the box. And when you are at the grocery store, keep an
eye out for “blinkies” and “tear pads.” Coupons can be found blinking at you
from the store shelf, in the form of notepads placed on product displays in the
middle of the aisle, and even on your way out as they print directly onto your
store receipt.
Get Organized
Once you
have a collection of the various forms of coupons, you will want to organize
them so that they can easily be found when needed. There are three common ways
to keep the coupon clutter to a minimum.
The No-Cut System
This is the most popular system
for beginners, as it requires the least amount of time to maintain. Get a
large, 13-pocket accordion file. When you buy a paper, put that week’s inserts
in one pocket and write the date on the tab. Each week, fill the next pocket.
This way, when a coupon is referenced by insert date, you will simply pull the
inserts from that dated pocket. The drawback to this system is that, for one,
it assumes that you are only utilizing newspaper inserts as your coupon source.
And, two, if you are searching for a coupon for, say “cheese” in general, you
must search through all of your inserts page by page to locate to best cheese
coupon. The other systems rectify this problem, while also requiring more of
your time.
The Cut and Categorize System
With this system, a small
accordion folder, also known as a cancelled check file, or a small box with
dividers is utilized. Each divider represents a section in the grocery store:
dairy, frozen, rices/pastas, etc. Every coupon that you collect is clipped and
filed into its respective category. This system takes longer, as you do cut
each coupon out rather than simply filing whole insert. However, finding a
cheese coupon is easier, as you simply look in the “dairy” category to see all
related coupons.
The Crazy Couponer System
This is the system that is the
most time-intensive and only utilized by the most extreme of couponers. Coupons
are clipped from various sources, lumped into categories like the Cut and
Categorize System, but this time, the coupons are placed into baseball card
sleeves and stored in a three-ring binder separated by category tabs. The
benefit to this system is for those who are visual. Having the coupons laid out
on pages helps to quickly locate the coupon needed. The time spent to place
each coupon within each slot is intense and can result in an uncomfortable
condition called “coupon neck,” but the payoff of time saved in the end is
great.
Start Saving
With
coupons collected and organized in the manner that best fits your needs and
personality, the next step is to start saving. The key to saving money with
coupons is to change your shopping strategy. First, always shop with a
pre-written list. And, second, on that list should only be items that are on
sale. Never, ever pay full price. A sale item, when paired with a coupon, can
bring the price down significantly, sometimes resulting in free, or nearly
free, products.
Once the
item is on sale and you have a coupon to match, buy as much as you can of that
particular product. This is called stockpiling. Once you have been through a
few cycles of this process, which typically takes at least six months, you will
have a fully stocked kitchen. Ideally, at that point, your only weekly
needs will be milk, bread, produce or other necessities, as well as that week’s
sale items to maintain your stockpile.
How do you
know what to buy, when to buy it and what coupon to use? Fortunately, there are
hundreds of websites that do the hard work for you. Sites like www.SouthernSavers.com and
www.Hip2Save.com publish the sale lists of several major grocery chains
each week upon announcement of the specials. With the sale list, these sites
also publish corresponding coupons to pair with the sale items. Coupons are
referenced by newspaper or magazine publication date, specific direct-mail
flyer and even include links directly to the online coupons available. Assuming
that you never buy a newspaper, call a manufacturer or check your mail, and
only rely on the website sale lists with Internet coupon links, you can still
have an aggressive couponing career.
The good
thing about couponing today is that no matter how much or little time you have,
there is an option available to you that will still result in great savings.
Even if you never clip a coupon in your lifetime, you can still save
approximately half of your grocery bill by simply shifting your shopping habits.
Buy only what is on sale, coupon or no coupon. If you choose to add coupons to
the mix, your savings will skyrocket even further. Shopping smart will cut
hundreds of dollars off your bill each month, allowing you to save more and
stress less.
Great Savings Sources:
SouthernSavers.com
Hip2Save.com
AFullCup.com
Savvydollar.org
HotCouponWorld.com
Coupons.com
Smartsource.com
