Save Grocery Coupons

What is coupon trading?

Trading coupons online is a process that helps you to multiply your savings when shopping. Trading your coupons with other coupon users over the Internet is very simple and can be extremely profitable. If you need a discount coupon for baby formula, for example, but cannot find it in your Sunday paper, all you have to do is visit one of the many online resources where you can turn the coupons you have but don’t need into coupons that you do need.

How much you spend is one of the few things you can still control in today’s unpredictable economy and, contrary to what you may think, reducing spending on grocery and household products does not have to affect your standard of living.

I have always had an aversion to clipping coupons for groceries. I even used to scan the check out lines, trying to avoid joining check out lines where little old ladies stood ready and attentive, coupons in hand.

Historically, there has always been a strong link between the state of the economy, price comparison shopping and the rate of coupon redemption. As unemployment rates and prices rise, coupon redemption rates do too.

The key component of using coupons to maximum advantage is flexibility, careful use – and awareness. The coupon trends and statistics presented below will increase your knowledge about coupons and help you to use this saving strategy effectively.

A coupon train refers to a group of people involved in trading coupons. The word ‘train’ is derived from the system used to trade coupons. One person (the leader or ‘train conductor’) starts the train by collecting coupons that she (or, sometimes, he) does not need and will not be using. This person then puts all the coupons in an envelope and mails it to another coupon collector who opens the envelope, picks out the coupons she needs, replaces them with other coupons of equal value, and mails the envelop to the third coupon collector. The process is repeated and, after the envelope makes the round of all the coupon train members, it is mailed back to the leader.

I am in my mid thirties, married to a self-employed electrician and mother to two little boys (nine and six years old). I am also a secretary to the principal at a private school about 40 miles away from my home. Five days a week, I have to be out of the house and in the car an hour before my children are ready to leave for school. With Gary (my husband) working longer hours, we are probably going to have to give our sons keys to the house since neither of us will be back when they get home from school. I have huge misgivings about that. I have imagined all kinds of hair-raising scenarios about what could go wrong for the 90 minutes they will be alone in the house.