The “Great Recession” has brought forward a new, cool, hip trend called saving money. It seems some folks, the folks that felt they had unlimited money before the GR, have found Valassis and embraced couponing.
Now the numbers have always shown that people in the upper middle class brackets have always couponed more than those in the below the poverty line. Some have theorized this is due to education or those in poverty possibly purchasing more generic products. My own theory is if you are worried about buying bread and milk, multiple newspapers may not be within the budget to even attempt to coupon. Internet printables may be difficult to come by as access may only be through the library, and some library firewalls are tough.
I have told the story before about why I originally began couponing: to eat. My ex-husband and I did not have two nickles to rub together after Sonny-boy was born, and I had to figure out some way to put food on the table. This was the late 80s and the glory days of rebating, so that really helped too. Back then I received thousands back from the manufacturer for buying their products. So while the couponing was instant gratification, the rebating supplied the money to shop with. To say we were poor is an understatement.
Later, I couponed so that we might afford to eat out or purchase a small luxury item. While I no longer needed to coupon to afford food, I continued to coupon to be able to afford anything else.
Today, I am very fortunate in that I no longer need to worry about affording groceries or small luxuries. So why do I still coupon? Well, habit. When you have lived a certain lifestyle for the last twenty-five years it is difficult to break those habits, both “good” and “bad”. While I admit I do have a small caffeine habit that costs me weekly ( Tiiimmmiiiieeessss!) we do not go out to eat very often. A good 95% of our grocery money is now spend at the grocery or drug store or that budget-buster Target.
I also coupon because I enjoy “the game”.
Admit it. You really don’t need 50 toothpaste and 25 toothbrushes, but they were free and you get a high stalking and scoring the deal. The thrill of the hunt, the euphoria of the find, the rapid pulse and sweaty palms as you walk up to the register wondering if the transaction will go smoothly – all part of the game. Bragging rights to tell people you got $223.76 worth of merchandise for $1.37!? Part of the game. Improving on a deal so you can get it for an even lower price and feeling satisfied that you did so? Also part of the game. While there are no hard and fast rules, die hard couponers instinctively know that they are playing the greatest game of all: Spend as little as possible for as much merchandise as possible.
So why do you coupon? Economic necessity? Lifestyle choice? Enjoy the game? Habit? Or is it for another reason?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
When the getting was good, I operated out of 5 milk crates of seperated and rebundled inserts. I knew of recycled containers where 100s of inserts were dumped each weekend by newspaper carriers. Now I’m down to one crate with sheets that will be recycle by the end of the month and under two crates that will grow as I dumpster dive around town.
Now I live in an area where it seem shoppers, especially the poor, don’t care about using MQ to save money. Honestly, if you looked at me, your thought is a non-coupon user. I get satisfaction in watching the expressions on people behind me in line as I hand the cashier a wad of coupons. Still one should not just save with coupons and catalinas, while blowing your income elsewhere. Yes, I was a spend thrift in my younger day and now regret it.
Necessity. Been out of work over a year due to extreme illness/disability, and have an average of 18 months to go until my SSDI hearing.
I’ve been frugal since I was a little girl, thanks to the teaching of my mom and grandma. They taught me how good having a stockpile was to cook for family and people who showed up, and how getting something at a better price than full price was worthwhile. We shopped at outlets and garage sales. Most of the time it was necessity (my dad left my mom with nothing but a mortgage payment to make by herself when I was 4, my grandma’s parents were unemployed during the Great Depression). I started with a paper route when I was young and got a waitressing job as soon as I could get a work permit at 15. I worked through high school, college, grad school…got scholarships, too, for merit to save money…was indeed continuing grad school while teaching when I got struck down by the illness.
I’m so incredibly thankful to have learned from my mom and grandma and to be able to continue to learn from message boards and from your and other blogs.
Also, I say I’m a “modern day hunter gatherer”, and I agree with you about people in poverty generally not being able to afford some of the very necessary tools for couponing.
My grandmom was a sharecropper’s daughter, working other people’s farms. She married my grandpop at 16 and they had 5 children. Grandmom canned and everything was made by scratch. She didn’t buy anything extra. The big thing with her was using coupons, back in the day when they were 3 cents, 5 cents, etc. My grandmom and grandpop didn’t go out to eat or go to the movies or splurge on anything. One of my favorite memories, when grandmom got a coupon for a whopper at Burger King for 25 cents. We each got one and ate them at home. You didn’t buy fries, sodas, etc. My mom wasn’t as diligent, but my dad watched their spending and saving. I learned alot from my grandmom about running a home. I’ve used coupons, on and off for the 30 years we’ve been married and needing to feed 5 kids. It was great when I had 3 cartloads of groceries and 5 kids following me along to the register with my wads of coupons. I was exhausted by the time we got home. Hubby did help, but still… Once I went to work selling ladies shoes and making great money, there really wasn’t time between the kids and school and keeping up with a house. My husband helped me but it was still rough. Over the last year I started to use coupons again on and off, when I felt like it. I now work in a daycare within our Christian school and church and needless to say I don’t make good money. My husband doesn’t get OT or had a raise in 2 years. April 09, I fell over a baby gate in the daycare and have been out on work. comp.I tore my meniscus and the ACL. First surgery was the end of June. I had a second surgery in Oct., to reconstruct my ACL. Two days before surgery, our 20 year old son, got laid off. Watching the local news one night in August, there was a story about saving alot of money and getting free items. After a few weeks, a coupon star was born. I love feeling like I’ve found a way to help out. It’s the thrill of the hunt for how many free or next to free deals I can walk out with. Today my bill at Walgreen’s was 8 cents for a $25.00 order. I love it!!, and can’t wait to share my win!! My daughter is married with a 3 year old. She’s starting to get into the “family business”. I can’t give enough praise to all of you willing to share and teach and take so much of your time to help. I’m truly grateful for being given these wonderful tools and to help me feel like I’m still contributing to our families finances. My goal is to possibly share these tools with others and maybe help them.
I also picked up the coupon habit from my mother. When I was growing up, my parents didn’t have much money and my mother would clip coupons and stock up on items we used when they were on sale. The goal was never to have to buy something non-perishable at full price.
After finishing college (it was free) and graduate school (also free), I got a good job and didn’t really need to use coupons. But my frugal habits were already established and I also enjoyed “the game”. I’ve been using coupons, doing rebates and saving my whole adult life.
When I got fed up with work at age 52, I had enough squirreled away to retire. I’ve been retired for over 7 years now and I love the freedom. I know so many people my age who hate work but have to keep working because they can’t afford to retire. I’m so glad that I picked up frugal habits early in life.
I think I coupon for all of those reasons. I’ve been a single mom of two girls for 14 years. Most of that time I didn’t have “two nickels to rub together” either. I taught in a Christian school so that I could be near my kids (which as shirley griffin stated, you don’t make much money). So couponing began as a necessity. My first “deal” was buying 10 boxes of q-tips….that was about 6 or 7 years ago…we’re still using them. It got me hooked on when you buy a “deal” you won’t have to buy when it isn’t on sale. I now make enough money that I don’t have to coupon to put food on the table, but I now have kids in college, so it is to help pay for the “other” things. BUT more than anything it is to win the game. There is nothing like the heart pounding as you hope the register won’t beep because you have too many coupons or that the cashier won’t give you trouble. It’s all about walking out and the STORE PAYING you to take their merchandise!!! I also, like kas, don’t “look” the part of a couponer, but I’ve learned over the past 20 years of couponing that it really is the “rich” people that coupon, not the poor. The fun part now is passing this skill on to my children, nieces and friends and co-workers. It’s fun to see them learn how to get something for little or for nothing at all!
The Great Recession is what scared me into couponing!
In the past, I’d never had a great relationship with money…b/c I never had any. I had been a single parent since my son was 2 y/o and so I was always living hand-to-mouth. I’ve always worked since I was 16 but I didn’t know how to handle money. The only budget I had was pay the rent and utilities.
I grew tired of living hand-to-mouth so I went back to school and got a bachelors and masters. This definitely increased my disposible income. But I wasn’t saving, I was spending.
The GR hit and I knew instictly that I needed to stop all spending and pay off debt. But, how? Couponing provided the buffer I needed to pay off debt and continue eatitng.
Before couponing, I always bought the store brand, in order to save money. Now, with couponing, I am able to get all kinds of name brand items.
I love couponing…it’s in my blood, now!!!!!!!!!
I re-located last year in order to be with my husband (his job moves him around a lot) and did not want to have to jump into hunting a new job right away. I discovered couponing/shopping the sales, etc, and grabbed onto it as a way to keep expenses low until I went back to work.
Then the fun set in–the thrill of victory, the agony of deafeat–the hunt, the chase, the kill (!) It’s been well over a year, and I don’t think I could ever go back to paying full price again, even if the economy rebounds and I get a great new job someday!
It has enabled me to stay at home and re-learn to be the homemaker I always wanted to but couldn’t afford to be; and given me a fun new hobby, as well!
i started couponing because quite frankly after the bills were paid, and bought groceries we were broke, till next paycheck. it was this cycle of always being broke. we wanted to go out to eat, and do stuff, pay a little extra on bills, but in reality we couldn’t afford it. and then i found southernsavers.com and then later on i found other sites that have more deals and freebies, and slowly but surely i was starting to understand wags RR, CVS’s ECB’s and rite aids SCR’s. and all the other abbreviations that comes with couponing. and i was getting the same exact things for really low cost. and now that some bills have been paid off, we are more comfortable and wont have to worry about toiletries. we are working to pay the rest of the debt off and after that save that so we can buy a house when the hubs has done his 20.