Coupon clipping rebounds
Spurred by high prices and Internet support, shoppers break out their scissors to end 15-year slump
[October 1, 2009]
Most of us couldn't buy a single box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for 42 cents.
Staci Wilson got four boxes of the quick-meal staple recently when she spent 42 cents at a local supermarket.
But that was just the beginning. For her investment of four dimes and two pennies, Staci also went home with a package of Jolly Time popcorn; Apple Jacks cereal; two boxes of Kraft pasta salad; a jar of Classico sauce; a four-pack of Activia yogurt; and two packages of Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
When it was all added up, the register tape read $16.92. But that was before the clerk started subtracting the discounts that Wilson had earned:
- $1 Jolly Time coupon
- $1.50 Apple Jacks coupon
- $1.50 Classico coupon
- $1 Activia coupon
- $1 Oscar Mayer coupon
- $2 in "next trip" store coupons
- $3 in "doubler" coupons
- 50 cents Macaroni & Cheese coupon
- $5 off for buying ten featured items
Wilson, an STCU card services rep and credit union member, acknowledges that particular shopping outing was unusual. "Usually a trip like that will cost maybe $5," she said.
Wilson, 24, is part of a renaissance in coupon use by American shoppers, something consumer experts attribute to the tough economy.
CNN recently reported that coupon use declined for 15 years, but began to rebound in 2006, when rising prices made clipping coupons cool for everything from food to entertainment.
Target and Wal-Mart have reported an 11 percent increase in coupon use since 2007, CNN reported, while convenience stores saw a 14 percent increase - despite shorter expiration dates and other restrictions imposed by manufacturers.
Like many modern trends, this one is web-assisted. Though Americans still get most of their coupons from the Sunday newspaper, the number using online coupons quadrupled between 2005 and 2008, National Public Radio reported. Many consumers use sites like coupons.com, mommysavers.com and weusecoupons.com.
Wilson scours the supermarket ads Wednesdays and Sundays in The Spokesman-Review, and gets many others online or in stores. A Liberty Lake resident, she's found advice and support from a local blog, frugalchicliving.blogspot.com, where thrifty shoppers share news of the latest bargains.
With two incomes and no children, clipping coupons isn't about financial survival, Wilson said. In fact, she pays a premium for fresh vegetables, often buying at a farmers market during the growing season. There are fewer coupons for meats, so she looks for sales on family packs, which she divides into one-pound portions for freezing.
Wilson said she likes the challenge of saving money, and gets an adrenaline rush when she finds a particularly good bargain. And she passes along her savings through her church. "The more money I can save on groceries, the more I can provide to somebody else who needs it."
Keely Barrett
Media and Community Relations Manager
Media spokesperson
(509) 344-2231
keelyb@stcu.org
We'd like to talk to members who are coupon-clipping fanatics. Tell us your tips and boast about your greatest coupon-clipping achievements. Contact STCU Community Relations writer Dan Hansen at danh@stcu.org or (509) 344-2208.
- Coca-Cola and C.W. Post introduced coupons in the late 19th Century.
- 27 percent of U.S. households use coupons at least once a week.
- Consumers in 2007 redeemed 2.6 billion coupons worth an average of $1.06 each (total savings: $3 billion).
- Coupon-clipping peaked in 1997, when Americans redeemed 8 billion coupons worth an average of 60 cents each ($5 billion in total savings).
- 36 million Americans get coupons off the Internet, a four-fold increase in three years.
- Sunday newspapers remain the No. 1 source of coupons.
Sources: National Public Radio, CNN, Marketingcharts.com and Scarborough Research
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