To be honest, Amelia Turney wasn’t all that wild about the whole coupon craze at first. Growing up, her father had been such a committed clipper that she recalls tugging coupon inserts out of newspapers other people had recycled. That childhood trauma left her reluctant to even use a Scoutmob discount.
Then a few things happened. She lost her job. Gas prices spiked. And these fliers full of coupons kept showing up in the mail. Why not give it a try?
“There were times when I’m like, I’m about to overdraft my account and my tank is on E,” Turney said.
Then she remembered a gift from a friend, a smart little clutch with lots of compartments. It bears a Marc Jacobs logo, but Turney’s quick to point out that it’s a knockoff. What better way to save a few bucks than by pressing the, ahem, Marc Fake-obs bag into service?
“I call it couponing with style,” said Turney, a social media strategist who lives in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward area. She started couponing about six months ago, and is now working toward paying off her car and credit cards. “My idea of a coupon holder is this big accordion file with the tabs. I can’t rock that until I have the minivan and mom jeans. I have to look cool couponing.”
That’s right. She said she has to look cool couponing. Turns out Turney’s part of a sleeper trend we stumbled upon here in this extreme couponing era.
The research firm NCH Marketing Services reports show that consumers saved $2 billion with coupons through mid-year 2011, up 5.3 percent from the first half of 2010. Marketers issued 167 billion coupons in the first half of 2011.
Not all 167 billion ended up in Aimee Brittain’s coupon file. It may just seem like it when she cruises the aisles with her trusty binder propped in her cart. She lost her job as a corporate office manager about the time her daughter started asking about ballet lessons. Brittain got a temporary, part-time job at the Publix in Tyrone a year ago, and got busy clipping and blogging about it. Today she supports herself and her 11-year-old daughter through advertising revenue from her blog, thecoupondiva.com. She also teaches coupon classes and sells stylish coupon holders.
“I’d get stopped and people would say, ‘that is so cute.’ I thought, I need to start selling these bad boys,” said Brittain, whose pink and purple coupon binder coordinates with most of her outfits. “Anytime I go someplace, I’m usually in pink or purple.”
The binders she sells come in a range of colors and cost between $10 and $30. Contacts she made through her former office manager help her snag great wholesale prices so she can earn a little profit. During a trip to the Publix where she used to work, she demonstrated how her techniques would help a shopper save enough to afford one of them. Her bill shrank from $60.83 to $22.70 after she handed over a wad of coupons.
“At the end of the month, I can afford to buy my daughter a rocking outfit,” Brittain said (and a binder to match).
When Terry B. Gardner’s kids were young, she clipped grocery store coupons to help feed everyone. These days she’s more into deals for restaurants or salons, as well as offers she gets from signing up for store reward card programs.
“I just got a free haircut from Van Michael,” she said. Her coupon holder reflects her sense of style and frugality. She picked up the chic Ralph Lauren clutch at Marshall’s.
“I do find it ironic” to use a designer item to hold coupons, said Gardner, a freelance graphic designer who lives in Stockbridge. “I’m not a slave to labels or anything, but I do like quality. I’m cheap, though, so it was probably less than 20 bucks.”
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