Thursday, March 31, 2011

I AM a Couponer

It feels like I’m on a rollercoaster being pulled up the first hill. My heart is racing and adrenaline is coursing through my veins. But I’m not on a rollercoaster, and I’m not bungee jumping. I am standing at the cash register at the grocery store watching items being scanned anxiously waiting to hear my total.


But it’s not over yet. I feel like I am in a fog, my hands are shaking as I hand over a stack of coupons to the cashier. He scans them one by one and my total begins to go down. He scans the last coupon and a weight is finally lifted when I know I have saved over 90% and I am going home with a cartful of groceries for pennies on the dollar. I AM a couponer.
Couponers often get a bad rep. We hold up the lines at the store. We don’t mind asking for a manger. A lot of times people think we are hard up for cash and we wash out our Ziploc bags. We hold up the lines because we know that spending a few extra minutes in line guarantees we are going home with a lot more groceries for A LOT less. We don’t mind asking for managers because we know store policies better than employees and computers aren’t perfect (Right Watson… Toronto… really).

We don’t wash out Ziploc bags because there is a difference between cheap and frugal. Couponers are frugal, not cheap. But hard up for cash we are not because it is payday every Sunday.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Rebecca - I have to ask - Are you the Rebecca from St Louis that is going to be on TLCs Extreme Couponing?

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  2. yeah thats us Jeri! Please check us out on facebook under Couponphenomenon or chris ewb kervick or rebecca routson! If you really wanted to you could put a blerb on your blog or on facebook about us! Thanks so much and let me know if you have anymore questions

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  3. I try to wash and reuse the Ziplocs i have because I care about what I put into landfills. I wouldn't care if I got 100 Ziplocs for free, I wouldn't feel right creating all that waste. It takes literally 2 seconds to wash those. Really insane argument for being "cheap."

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  4. So in STL which grocery stores don't have limits on the number of coupons redeemed at one time, etc? You always hear that stores really don't let people use that many coupons.

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  5. Hello Rebecca,

    Congratulations on your success at couponning! Do you teach your coupon strategies on this blog? If so how do I get to that section of your blog?

    Trying to coupon

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  6. How in the world do you do it!? I'm a stay-at-home mom with two growing boys. I need to save anywhere I can. Please teach your couponing-genius strategy to me...

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  7. Hi Rebecca, Can you post here where I can find a coupon matching site for Shop N Save? I have Walgreens and CVS and even Schnucks, but I can't find one for shop n save.....

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  8. I rinse out some of my zipper bags. If they had tomato sauce or raw meat in them then I don't, but if they held something that is easy to clean out like crackers or veggies then I do.

    Rinsing them out isn't being cheap. I rinse them out so that I don't waste perfectly good bags.

    I think its great that you've been able to save so much money with coupons!

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  9. I can't wait to see what all you can teach use. I live about 60 miles south of STL so my nearest stores will be 30 miles away in Festus. I still think I could save a ton of money even with the drive. All we have is Wal-Mart, Save a Lot, Walgreens :( How can I get more coupons? I get them online, paper but it seems like the stuff doesn't go on sale when the coupons are out and if you clip them they exp before you can use them. Any help would be great

    thanks smm1984

    I'm getting ready to be a SAHM mom of 2 so I need to save more then ever.

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