The New Era Of Grocery Coupons

May 20, 2010

Interview with Stephanie Nelson, author of the book The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs

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Mike Carruthers:
The image of the grocery store coupon is changing. Many people used to be too embarrassed to use them.

Stephanie Nelson:
But I saw a study recently that showed that 56% of the people who said that they used to be embarrassed to use coupons no longer are embarrassed to use coupons - people are getting over that. We’ve seen coupon redemption go up this past year for the very first time in over a dozen years.
 

Stephanie Nelson, author of the The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, says certainly the recession is responsible for much of this.

When you think about it – it’s real money. I’ve never been embarrassed to do that, I think when you’re handing over enough coupons that they’re taking $50 off, I can’t imagine being embarrassed.

And when you do the math cutting out coupons can be time well spent.

If I can save $50 with coupons and it took me a half hour to prepare my list and print the coupons or cut them out – that’s essentially $100 an hour, for me that’s a really good return.

Stephanie says local newspapers are still the best source for coupons but the Internet has printable coupons.

Printable coupons you go to the Internet, you see a coupon you like and you print it. Electronic coupons are the latest and greatest, you go to store websites select coupon offers that you like, so when you buy the item the value of the coupon comes off your bill automatically. You don’t even have to print out a piece of paper.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here