Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half (and Other Stories)
Best-selling author and CouponMom.com founder Stephanie Nelson offers her tips.
When Stephanie Nelson's first child was born 18 years ago, she and her husband made big changes. They drastically cut household spending so they could survive on one income and Nelson could stay home with her growing family.
"Coupons became an obvious source of free money, and I've been using them ever since,'' says Nelson, 46, of Marietta, Ga.
Nelson had quit the corporate world with 10 years of marketing and sales experience at Procter & Gamble and Marriott Hotels under her belt, and she took her penny-pinching ways to the web in 2001. That's when she started couponmom.com, which today boasts 2.5 million members.
Nelson also is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half. She estimates she's saved nearly $80,000 on groceries alone since she made coupons and bargain shopping an integral part of her lifestyle.
In an interview with SecondAct, Nelson shares her shopping tips and favorite websites and stresses the importance of paying cash for big-ticket items instead of falling prey to the costly lure of credit card spending.
SA: Have we seen a change in overall money thinking among consumers?
SN: Consumers are taking a more thoughtful approach to spending, which means they are doing more research before they shop, looking for easy savings opportunities like coupons and deals. Coupon redemption is up nearly 30 percent this year. We have seen an increase in the use of printable grocery coupons from our site--nearly double 2008 levels. Shoppers are looking for easy ways to save on basic necessities like groceries.
SA: How can people take advantage of coupons?
SN: Consumers can take advantage of coupon savings by using easy organizational tools and on-demand coupon sources available via the web. For example, the number of printable and electronic coupons available has doubled since 2008, and some coupons are even available via cell phones. There are thousands of savings blogs and websites that list the best grocery deals at specific stores, available at no cost. Most of those blogs started less than a year ago. CouponMom.com, nine years old, is the most comprehensive free website listing weekly deals for 43 store chains and is staffed by paid personnel rather than volunteers, so our information is timely and accurate.
SA: What other sites do you suggest?
SN: Upromise.com [which offers shopping discounts while earmarking savings for college] and retailmenot.com [which offers online coupon codes and printable coupons for name-brand shops].
SA: You say consumers can cut grocery bills in half. How?
SN: By learning how to be a "Strategic Shopper," which combines sale prices with coupons available. By getting in the cycle of buying groceries and stocking up on key items when they are at their lowest price, you will get out of the cycle of paying full price. Getting deeply discounted grocery items also frees up more of your grocery budget for fresh produce or meat items that do not have coupons available. Shop sales in all areas and you can save 25 to 50 percent on groceries across the board. Also find coupons at manufacturers' websites and receive them via e-mail by signing up for manufacturers' e-mail newsletters or Facebook fan pages.
SA: What's the time investment?
SN: Once you've learned what I call the "Coupon Mom System" of organizing grocery coupons easily and using the site's deals list for your store, it's realistic to spend 30 minutes per week or less creating a weekly list of great grocery bargains.
SA: How much can people save?
SN: A family of four can save over $6,000 in one calendar year.
SA: How can people save, yet still savor the good things in life?
SN: Consumers can still enjoy all kinds of good things when they spend thoughtfully. Approach every spending area strategically by prioritizing the most important spending categories, shopping and comparing prices, then looking for additional discounts such as coupons to bring costs down even further. Finally, save toward expenditures rather than paying on credit, which inflates the overall cost. You may have to delay your purchases, but you will be stretching your purchasing power by paying in cash.
SA: What about big-ticket items, like vacations?
SN: As far as vacations, I always start at a travel price aggregator to find a starting point for airline tickets, such as sidestep.com. And I use car rental coupons and discounts from entertainment.com. Sites like vrbo.com and homeaway.com make it easy to rent private homes with nice amenities at reasonable prices.
SA: What about special deals for people over 50 or 60?
SN: Check your store to see if they have "Senior Discount" days and take advantage of additional savings. Also, programs like AARP offer great discounts to the over-50 set, and the over-60 set can frequently benefit from senior discounts at grocery stores, hotels, restaurants and more.
SA: You say you're never too young, or too old, to start saving.
SN: It's important that we try to teach our kids the basics of money management, not only looking for good deals when it's time to buy, but the magic of the time value of saving early. We are starting a Roth IRA for our 17-year-old son, who has part-time job income. The earlier the better!