Clipping, cutting and scanning: how to use coupons effectively
To her online following of 16,000 fans on Twitter and 38,000 on Pinterest, Tracie Fobes is the 鈥淧enny Pinchin鈥� Mom,鈥� a wife, mother and coupon-clipping blogger.
She gives discount seekers advice on how to buy what they need for less 鈥� and she speaks from experience. Like many Americans, Fobes once found herself burdened by debt.
Several years ago, on a casual night out with friends at a Mexican restaurant, Fobes started talking about finances and became inspired to overhaul her budget.聽She and her husband got serious about saving from that point forward. They used a combination of techniques to eliminate their more than $35,000 in debt, including selling off unwanted possessions, creating a realistic spending plan and using tax refunds to pay down what they owed.
These contributed heavily to their savings, but Fobes also changed her mindset toward money. A key to this new shopping mentality was using coupons, which freed up money that she could use to pay down her debt.
鈥淚鈥檇 always tried using coupons, but they didn鈥檛 really work for me,鈥� Fobes says. 鈥淚 just felt like it was more hassle. But I knew they had to work, so I started researching and reading and trying to put systems together.鈥�
She put in the time to pore over聽coupons, comparing what was offered with the brands she typically used. She started studying retailers to get familiar with their pricing, their store brands and their discount programs.
Eventually, she says, 鈥淚 started making it work and realized we started saving 30 to 35% on our grocery bill every time we were going to the store.鈥�
A snippet about coupons
Grocery stores aren鈥檛 the only places that have coupons. The small money-off squares that people once only clipped by hand out of the Sunday newspaper are now available online, in apps and all over social media as well.
Coupons were聽created in 1887 as a marketing device for soda giant Coca-Cola, according to聽. Now, coupons are prolific.
Digital marketing research firm聽聽there will be 127.5 million digital coupon users in the United States in 2016. And聽聽that 55% of smartphone shoppers used their phone to use a mobile coupon in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Young people may be helping to keep the coupon trend alive. A聽聽by direct mail media and marketing company Valassis found that 47% of millennials say they increased their use of coupons in the past year. That鈥檚 14 percentage points higher than all respondents and 21 percentage points higher than baby boomers.
鈥淧eople might have thought there was a stigma years ago with using coupons because you couldn鈥檛 afford things or you were overly frugal,鈥� says Jeanette Pavini, a savings expert for Coupons.com. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just not the case. These days, using coupons or other strategies to save money is like the new black. It鈥檚 cool.鈥�
Pavini says consumers clipped 1.6 billion coupons on Coupons.com in 2015.
Is clipping better for the consumer or the retailer?
How realistic is it to save thousands with coupons? Remember, Coca-Cola originally began offering coupons as a marketing tactic. Businesses distribute coupons to encourage increased spending on their product or brand.聽In fact,聽聽nearly half of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees will distribute mobile coupons by 2017.
鈥淎 coupon is a classic price promotion,鈥� says Utpal Dholakia, a marketing professor at Rice University.聽He uses the example of a peanut butter manufacturer. In general purchase behavior, there are two types of consumers. Some shoppers will be so serious about their taste in peanut butter that they鈥檒l buy only the chunky version from their favorite brand, regardless of price. But other, less loyal consumers will gravitate toward whichever brand is on sale.
That鈥檚 where coupons come in. When a manufacturer issues a coupon and drops its product鈥檚 price enough to make it appealing, the brand can attract a new segment of shoppers.聽鈥淭he marketer has made the price low enough that other people beyond just that small group of brand-loyal users are buying that peanut butter,鈥� Dholakia explains.
The danger here is obvious: Coupons can tempt you, as the shopper, to buy more or different products than you ordinarily would, simply because you鈥檝e discovered that a deal exists.
For the sake of our example, let鈥檚 say you discovered a dollar-off coupon that takes the price of the peanut butter down from $3.50 to $2.50. But with a little research, you could鈥檝e found a brand that was $2 from the start.
鈥淯sing more coupons is not necessarily a good thing,鈥澛燚holakia says. He endorses their use in only one particular situation: 鈥淚f you judiciously and selectively use coupons for things that you鈥檙e going to buy anyway.鈥�
Rather than finding a coupon and feeling the need to purchase the product in question, take a reverse approach. Look for discounts on things you already know you鈥檒l need to buy. Or, use a coupon to substitute a purchase of a brand you usually buy with a similar, more affordable brand. That鈥檚 when coupons can save you.
How to use coupons the right way
Couponing isn鈥檛 a one-way ticket out of debt, but there are ways to use coupons to your advantage without falling victim to retailer tactics:
Fit them into your lifestyle.聽Contrary to popular belief, you don鈥檛 necessarily have to buy in bulk to see savings. Incorporate coupons into your ordinary routine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a psychological thing,鈥� Pavini says. 鈥淚 think people get discouraged. They just feel like they need to rob Peter to pay Paul and live paycheck to paycheck. The reality is, in your monthly budget, there are certain things you really have control over. You might not have control over what your mortgage or your rent is, or your kids鈥� tuition or child care, but you do have control over what you spend on groceries, personal care items, entertainment and travel.鈥�
Look for them everywhere.聽You can still find coupons in the Sunday paper, but they鈥檙e a lot of other places, too. Start by running a Google search for the retailer鈥檚 name plus the word 鈥渃oupon.鈥� You鈥檒l discover that some websites are dedicated to aggregating deals from all over the internet, and there are even apps, like聽,聽that provide notifications of nearby offers.
Get rewarded for your loyalty.聽Sometimes, manufacturers will send you free stuff simply for telling them how much you love their product. Fobes said she鈥檚 made a list of her favorite brands, then emailed the manufacturers to thank them for their products. In some instances, she鈥檚 received coupons in return. It can鈥檛 hurt to try.
Develop a process.聽If you really want to make a dent in your monthly bills, stack discounts. For instance, sign up for a store鈥檚 free loyalty program to accumulate rewards points while you shop, and become a member of a cash back website such as Ebates.com or BeFrugal.com to earn extra cash on your purchases. Then combine coupons when applicable. Diligently using聽all possible reward avenues can be time-consuming, but it鈥檚 beneficial when you shop at the same store regularly.
Start small.聽Some coupons may save you only a small amount, but don鈥檛 get discouraged. A dollar here and a dollar there can add up over time. Think of it as a dollar or two less than you鈥檇 otherwise have spent. Look at your overall savings in a month or a year instead of in one shopping trip.
鈥淪tart small and you will start to see the progression as you learn how to follow your sales cycles, learn how to put coupons with sales, to create your stockpile and find the discounts,鈥� Fobes says. 鈥淭hese little things all start to build on top of one another, kind of like Legos. They kind of click together. As you click them together, your tower gets taller, and as your tower increases, so does your overall savings.鈥�
Courtney Jespersen is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:courtney@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:聽.
This article first appeared at .
