Rachael Ray had an awesome show today--all about guess what? COUPONS! You can check it out here. Some interesting facts I got from the show:- The highest category of people who use coupons make 75,000 or more a year.
- The lowest category of people who use coupons make 25,000 or less a year.
- $400 billion worth of coupon savings are printed, yet less than 1% of those coupons are ever claimed!
What did you all think?
**Also, go on over here and you can print off lots of great restaurant and various store coupons!
(Thanks, TheFrugalFind!)
46 comments:
I watched it and checked out www.alice.com
I even ordered thru it and was very pleased with the prices :)
Hilarious! Put them in your visor. Ha ha ha. How cute.
But I understand what they are saying though. I think when I started I went from 0 to 50 mph. I went and bought a binder after I had done all my research on how to start super couponing.
Really cute though, your visor! :-)
Anon,
I know I had to laugh at that too. I mean, seriously, If I put all the coupons I have in mt visor... well, hmmm... :)
Ok I just watched the clip on RR with the "savvy shopper" Deb...
Well Collin - you are 100% more efficient and on the ball than this lady! Her couponing at the grocery store was lame in comparison to what you have demonstrated. I don't mean to pick on her... but RR should have had you on the show!
My husband makes 34K a year and when I start my new buiness we will be making more. So, I guess we fall into the mid catagory -
I didn't see it but the stics. seem interesting,,,,expecially from the current "coupon nazi" I feel when I go to places. But no still very cool. I feel like I use at least 90% of mine. I wander how many really use........I do clean out every month,,,,,but I know I have saved a ton more than I have to clean out......How can we figure out how many coupons go to waste and why.........
Low value
not able to double
not on sale
Manufactures might want to know this stuff!!!
Just a thought! :-)
I was a business major and had learned in a marketing class the same stats on the higher income households using coupons and the % of coupons that are redeemed. I always found it very interesting that the people who need coupons the most use them the least.
I'm noticing a lot of coupon segments on national and local shows lately. I think it's becoming a topic of interest b/c of the economy.
I LOOOVE my coupons!!
PS - I'm going to try the "visor trick"!!! I'll just tell my kids never to open the car windows, lest our coupons blow out the window. TOO FUNNY!!!
I'm in that 70000 plus category. Married to a doctor!
I'm LOVING this Alice thing. When in a bind, this will certainly help with getting some needed items! I agree with Sonya...I'm pleased with the prices as well! I am going to be price comparing this weekend just to be sure...Some items will be more worthwhile to buy on here than others I'm sure. (www.alice.com)
I think that's wild about the higher income families using more coupons. Never would have guessed. I didn't watch the show, not a big Rachael Ray fan, but giving her props for doing a show on couponing!
What I want to know is why redeeming the coupons can be such a headache sometimes... I mean if $400 Billion are printed and only 1% of those are ever used then why do they make a stink over them? I don't let it get to me though, and I just keep on and even know the cashiers I want to go to. I will wait in a line for them just because I know they will override the system when it beeps!
you know what they say...thats how the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.....
yup visor will last a few minutes. Within two weeks i'd already outgrown the new bigger accordian file. It was baseball card binder time within two weeks.
I think we save more than $6,500 super couponing. :)
Made me think of Collin's story about the lady at the store thinking they used coupons because they *had* to. We don't have to either, we don't even have kids and make a good amount but i also have student loans, and a truck that I LOVE and we like to go places. I'd give up my house before i ever gave up my truck. :) So I coupon for my truck payment.
I use coupons and I do 'have' to. I'm in the less than 25,000 category. I stay home with my 2 kids. We get assistance and I also coupon. It's a way of life for me and I'm thankful for it!
Everyone has their reasons. I fall into the higher category, but I still feel a need to use coupons. Why not use them if available? I feel like it is throwing money away not to be frugal! It is kind of like a hobby/enjoyable to me -- a challenge! I actually had to LOL at the visor thing. I think I would have a stroke if one of my coupons blew out the car window. HA!
"I coupon for my truck payment.." That's priceless! :)
The visor suggestion was so stinking funny! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The "expert" Bill never once mentioned pairing coupons with sales, which I think is the basis of good couponing. I wasn't super impressed by the lady they presented as being great with coupons either. but I did link all the links they provided! :)
We all should email Rachael Ray Show and recommend this blog!! and show them how it's really done!
NO!!! Don't tell too many, let them find it on their own the way we did! I am GREEDY!
I am an odd ball I am a sahm and my husband makes 50k to 60k a year (usually). I am a binder couponer so i am in over my head adn then some and have been so for about 3 years
I very much agree with the statistics. I wrote a paper in my finance class on the circle of poverty and how those who are richer and financially stable tend to be the most frugal.
For example, those who choose to birth at home and those who feed human milk to their infants past the 7 days/6 months marks tend to be college educated and making 50k or more. Yet they are the ones who can afford medical insurance and formula.
What do I think? I think that all this publicity is ruining the deals. I've been couponing for 5 years and it seems those old deals are hard to find now. It gets harder and harder, haven't you notice? Just look what Walgreens is doing, by changing policies and giving hard time to couponers. Until last year, it was a breeze for me to get deals at WAGS. Not anymore. I feel that there's too much naivete going on regarding these TV appearances and publicity. It will kill couponing; mark my words.
Dear Anon,
I have been doing coupons and rebates with my mother since I was a child. Back then we fell into the low end category and now my husband and I are at the other end of the spectrum. Despite all the publicity over the years couponing is still around and deals are still to be had. Most of us are stockpiled up to our ears anyways.
Interestingly enough, coupon use has actually been steadily declining since it's peak in 1991. This is the first time since then that coupon use is back on the rise. I bet as the economy begins to stabilize and people start spending again only us hard core couponers will be left once again. Once upon a time you would only get paper coupons..now there are IP's, cellfire, paper, upromise and million other ways to get deals. Coupons will be around for a while, the look may change a little, but that is about it.
after all the early bird will always get the worm :-)
I did a coupon class at church and in doing research on who uses coupons and how much they make I too was suprised. My husband and I save so much money. When I was sick for ~ 3 months this summer I couldn't even think of using a coupon and it was terrible thinking of all the money I wasn't saving.
I do agree that the idea to put coupons in your visor is not going to work for us super-couponsers, BUT it would work for someone who had never used a coupon as on the RR show. I tell people all the time that I don't coupon because I am a stay at home mom but because I am a stay at home mom because I coupon. I do the binder method and take it with me everywhere :) BUT, I used to be someone who used coupons and didn't see any real savings. This was before I found this site and others that taught me how to SUPER-coupon. :) Can't wait for my order from alice.com. Said it will only take 2-3 days.
What's Alice.com?
we fall into the low end category. we don't have to coupon though, but it sure helps us out soooo much!
We fall into the higher income category, thankfully. When I chose to stay home with my son it was a total cultyre shock for me because I was very used to making "my own" money and feeling very independent. Suddenly only having my husband's income was such a mental hurdle for me, even if it didn't put us into dire circumstances. I have since come to terms with it but I see couponing as part of my "job." Since I don't make money, my job is to save the money we have. My husband even took one of my grocery receipts to his office yesterday to show it off. :) I also think part of the issue is that people who really NEED to save the money the most have such little time to do it. Couponing is a big job and does take time - if you are struggling and working multiple jobs, I can certainly see how it could be super-overwhelming.
I emailed the show and told them they needed to use Collin as an expert next time!
showcomments@rachaelrayshow.com
Reference coupon segment - 9/24/09
Let's get Collin some publicity for all her hard work! :)
I am a SAHM and my husband is a corporate attorney. We easily fall into that top catagory income wise but I am the Queen of Coupons----okay, princess. H2S is the Queen! I don't think it matters how much $ you make, you are foolish if you don't use Qs. I saved $48 last week on my Walmart trip and the cashier whined the whole time she was ringing up my order that people "where she is from" don't use coupons. I told her that I guess we are lucky to live here where people are SMART!
You go Jaime! Aren't you glad I told you about the blog??? I didn't get to see the show, but I can't wait to hear more about it. I'm on my way to check out www.alice.com...
Thanks hip2save, you make it easy for me to coupon, work, and take care of 2 children ages 2 & under! BTW, I have most of my Christmas presents because of the posts.
I am a SAHM to two boys, 3 and 1 and we fall into the mid category. I only wish I had started couponing when I had my first son. I just got into couponing within the past 6 months and can not believe how much we can save. When I stopped working, we had to start putting things on credit cards, so hoping to pay them off SOON! I am still getting into the groove of it, so hopefully one day I will be saving like all you other wonderful couponers!
You know what is funny is that people are either all for couponing or they think you 'buy things you don't need just because you have a coupon'! LOL
I know that my MIL always says that to me. But I showed her just a few tricks that I've learned and she called me so excited that she saved $25 on her groceries AND that the grocery store matched another store so she didn't have to drive to two stores!
I am in the mid category lower-middle right now due to my husband being laid off from work. I make $38,500, he has been getting what will average to be about $14,000 a year on workman's compe then unemployment. Before he was making $27,500 so wow I was in the upper-middle class then and I still thought I was poor! My husband wanting to eat out so much and wasting money forced me to be more frugal to make it up and I will keep it going when he gets a job (hopefully soon) and have much more wiggle room.
Are you the queen of the coupons? Are you obsessed with finding the best deal? Do you get a rush from getting a better deal than your neighbor? Are you in competition with your best friend and tend to brag about your cost cutting talents?
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The Grocery Game has been asked to help find those people who are willing to share their compulsion of hunting down the best deal and for entertaining on a dime.
If you or someone you know would like to submit for this unscripted TV show please email the following info to BryanStinsonCasting@gmail.com!
Name:
Two Pictures:
City Located
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Besides TheGroceryGame.com or Teritoday.com, list any organizations, groups, memberships, or websites that you use for your bargain hunting.
Please submit brief bio on how far you go to get the best deals. Also tell us how competitive you are and if any of your friends share your same passion!
This segment cracked me up. I cannot believe how much that lady spent on stuff. Personally since doing coupons I get our clothing super cheap. I pay about $25-$35 per week on grocerys this is including diapers and formula. I think if we spent $3000 a year on things that might be stretching it. I was amazed how much they spent. That was some peoples income for the entire year!! I guess I do invest a little in coupons but I only buy printer ink when I have a coupon. Once I did not have a coupon for Office Max and I had to pay (gasp) full price. I thought I was going to have a seizure! I obsessed about it for days. Anyway I buy between 6-12 papers on Sunday and I guess that is $12-$24 dollars a week. Usually I only get 6 or so. I guess it was pretty laughable to me but their target audience was unfamiliar about coupons. I mean most of us do not even pay for deod, toothpaste, etc.
I am in school full time to complete my RN, work full time as an LPN and have a 9.5 mo. old baby. I still do coupons. ?It is more difficult now. But I see really no excuse, "I have no time", or whatever. If I have time to do it, anyone has time to do it. If one of my friends or coworkers states to me they cannot find time etc. then I generally do not help them much. If someone at my job is struggling to do it I will help 100% if they are trying. If you cannot help yourself...
Ok, what I want to know is, does it really take you all only 30 minutes to do coupons?
I take like 5 hours on sat morning to get them organized. I then take about 2-3 hours on sun morning to cut out the ss, red plum, or p&g that came in the paper. That varies with the amount of coupons that come in the Sunday paper.
I stumbled across an article from Time Magazine recently, that talked about how affluent consumers use more coupons.
I talked about it and linked to it on my blog:
http://slavetosave.blogspot.com/2009/09/article-affluent-consumers-use-more.html
The New York Times also had a pretty in-depth article about the resurgence of couponing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/business/24coupon.html?ex=1269403200&en=418a7df0a07240dc&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=BU-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M116-ROS-0909-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click
The anonymous nurse with the baby sure fits the category "competitive"! Do you think she understands that people have different personalities, different physical needs for rest/quiet,and maybe need some time to interact with their friends and family? I'm fairly new to the coupon blogs, and one thing I love about them is the spirit of sharing and cooperation. Hope the nurse lightens up a bit once she's through with school and can relax. As for me, I'd be eager to help someone who can't figure out how to fit couponing into their life. Thanks for your kind hearts, ladies. Kate
I have pretty much stopped telling people about my deals except for my mom and my hubby. =P I am happy to help anyone that wants to coupon, but it is very strange to me that most of my friends don't see the point. It's not worth the time to them. I don't think that's bad - maybe they really would rather spend lots of extra money than spend time doing coupons. That's fine. It's just so NOT ME! I am so excited to have learned about REAL couponing! It is FUN! I am trying products that I never would have bought before (and still wouldn't want to pay full price for) that are way better than the cheapo store brands I used to use. Anyone ever tried the cheapest toilet bowl cleaner? Uh huh! I was AMAZED by Lysol (LOL) and I got my stash uber-cheap!
It is pretty bizarre that people with higher incomes coupon more than people with lower incomes. I am blessed to be a stay at home mom. My hubby makes 63,700 and we think that is a TON! But why spend money that we don't have to? We would rather save! I did learn to coupon shop around the time my husband got a layoff notice, and he finally has a job again, but why would I ever want to go back to wasting money?
I think the 1% of people who use coupons are in the St. Louis area because when I go to use them-they are all out of stock!!!
I am in agreement with the nurse - not that I won't spend time to help people, and I do understand that sometimes other things just have to take priority to couponing, even in my own life.
What I assumed she was talking about was people's attitudes - the people who brush off the money you save because they assume that it isn't worth the time, or the people (my MIL too) who keep ignoring how much you saved in order to say "When I couponed I just kept buying all these things I didn't need." If people have a crappy attitude, I am not going to spend my time teaching them, because I know they won't continue doing it once I stop doing it for them.
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