The savings strategies of us couponers has been noticed by Forbes.
That’s right, the business magazine that publishes stock reports, portfolio building advice, articles on world markets, top companies, and major economic news has a small article in the website’s moneybuilder section on coupons!
Coupon use has increased a great deal in the past year. In fact, coupon redemptions have increased 17% just within the first quarter of 2009 from a year ago. Forbes quoted this and a few more interesting statistics: Internet coupons are only about 1% of total redemptions in 2008. Yet, there has been an increase in the past year of internet coupon redemptions by 140%! Wow! That means that internet printable coupons are here to stay, and retailers are taking note.
Forbes also noted that we tend not to bring our coupons to the big box stores like Target and Walmart. Super Center redemption is far behind regular supermarkets, with only approximately 19% of all coupons being redeemed there. This is surprising to me, since Walmart can often have some of the best deals in my area – and sometimes carries stock that the supermarkets do not have.
Another interesting point is that the money that couponers are saving is after-tax dollars. You’ve already earned the money and been taxed on it – now you’re able to make it go further.
Using coupons as part of an overall savings and investment strategy is an idea whose time has come. I’ve been saying for years that coupons are just like money in many ways. Use them and you find that you have more money left over for savings, emergencies, or large purchases.
Maybe within a few years, the financial pages of newspapers and websites will feature coupon information – where the high value ones are, or matchups with sales and merchandise in specific stores. Hmmm, the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and the Coupon Stock Exchange?
Tell me what you think – leave a comment, or post a forum discussion here.