Alexis loves the Walking Dead TV show, eating cookies and spending time with family. In other words, she’s like millions of Americans. What makes her different, however, is her couponing brilliance. She pioneered the concept of “streategic couponing” and founded the blog ClipYourCash.com to spread the gospel with her partner Stef.
She coined the “strategic couponing” term to represent saving the most amount of money possible in a short period of time. Her site does a great job of helping its readers do just that with constant updates on amazing deals from popular stores.
Read what Alex had to say about her love of coupons in the following Q&A:
A: I’ve couponed here and there for many years, but I’ve been couponing regularly for about 7 years.
A: After I got my first full-time job after college, the reality of food costs set in. Although I was finally starting to make some money, a large chuck of my paycheck was being used to buy groceries. In order to reduce this cost, I started couponing.
A: I started my blog last year.
A: In the past, I tried to teach my family and friends about couponing using other blogs. The problem was that the blogs were so big that they had a lot of posts that weren’t strictly retail store couponing. Although I worked around this without any issue, the people I wanted to teach had trouble sorting through all the information. I wanted a site that was strictly focused on the deals you could get at the store with coupons in order to help them get started. When I didn’t find what I wanted online, I created my own site.
A: The peace of mind it brings. Couponing has not only allowed me to save more, it has also taught me how to provide food for my family for little cost. This gives me a lot of freedom because I know that we can survive even if something bad, like a job loss, were to happen.
A: I go back and forth between Target and Kroger.
A: Don’t try to get every deal available when you first start out. Pick one or two stores, learn their policies, and buy a few couponing items at a time. Just like many other things in life, there is a learning curve to couponing. If you start out small, you will learn how to save without overwhelming yourself.
A: Time management. It is easy to fall into the trap of letting couponing take over your free time. I think it is important to find a balance between saving time and saving money. If not, couponing will either become something you no longer enjoy doing or you will run out of steam and stop altogether.
A: Coupoining is definitely becoming more digital. Although the newspaper is still a great source for coupons, more and more deals are using digital coupons and apps and I think this will continue.
A: My last piece of advice is to try not to compare your savings to anyone else’s. Couponing isn’t a competition and it can get discouraging if you don’t feel like you are saving enough. Instead, coupon for what is good for your family and the savings will come.
