Making the Cut: The Art of Couponing
You’ve seen them in grocery chains — flipping through their 3-ring binders, shuffling through an accordion file, or sifting through an envelope for bits of paper that will save them cold hard cash. With a list in one hand and often a calculator in the other, these are the couponers, and they’re on a mission. You can learn a lot from these thrifty consumers; they know that to effectively save money you must first learn to effectively spend it.
A recent press release from Inmar, the nation’s leading promotion transaction settlement provider, states that annual coupon use is on the rise for the first time since 1992 and coupon distribution hit the highest level recorded since 1988. For the first time in seventeen years, consumers used more coupons than they did the year before, with 3.3 billion consumer packaged goods coupons redeemed — that’s a whopping 27% increase over the previous year. This means that two-thirds of American shoppers are cutting coupons more frequently, seeking out low price over convenience, and emphasizing saving over spending.
Did you know that you can cut your grocery bill in half simply by making the system work for you? (1) Buy what you need when it’s on sale, (2) Capitalize on techniques of doubling or even tripling coupons, and (3) Stockpile items so that you don’t have to make emergency runs when things are not on sale. This involves a little prep work on your part, but the biggest commodity involved is time. According to the The Wall Street Journal, an hour spent clipping coupons can yield $100 in savings. That’s a pretty decent return on a job you can do in your pajamas while watching TV. And although individual amounts may seem small, someone who saves just $25 per week will pocket that extra $100 per month, or $1200 per year.
—Cary Living | Jul/Aug 2010
