Do you use coupons to save money?

The major difference between Australian and American personal finance blogs (besides the sheer difference in volume) is that American blogs will invariably mention coupons as a saving measure. You would be surprised if you saw a similar mention on an Australian website. But why is that the case?

It’s not that coupons don’t exist in Australia. It’s just that they are not ingrained in the consumer experience as they are in the USA. Research by RetailMeNot.com found that the use of coupons was increasing significantly, especially among the higher socioeconomic bracket.

With such increases in demand, the supply improves. Websites such as Redplum in the United States have a highly sophisticated service where you can enter a grocery list and it will collate all the coupons you can use to get discounts off your list. Australia doesn’t have that level of sophistication in coupons websites as of yet, but here are a few of the better examples with solely Australian content:

Tjoos

The new kid on the block, Simple and basic-looking website, but with a good search function. Coupons are only available for online stores. Some of the discounts are only available on Tjoos, and the have a widget if you would offer coupons on your own blog.

Clever Coupons

A simple site where you can search via category or location.

Couponline

Again, there’s not much fancy web design happening here. This website is every basic to look at it, but provides options such as sending your coupons to your mobile. The days of clipping things out of the newspaper seem so long ago and quaint.

The only time I’ve ever really used a version of coupons is during university where I was provided with a booklet of discounts for bars around the city. We all loved our little booklets and took them with us everywhere. Which makes me wonder why we don’t consider coupons for other things, like groceries or electronics?

Maybe because coupons were not an essential part of my childhood, I never picked up the habits of using them. The thought of having to spend half an hour at the breakfast table with my grocery list and coupon booklet wasn’t very enticing. But , little did I know, the Internet has revolutionized that process, and make it much easier and time effective.

Coupons have a secondary benefit beyond the actual money saving. The Simple Dollar describes how when he uses coupons, he sticks to his shopping list. The Holy Grail of savings, sticking to your shopping list is a discipline that has to be included in any frugal plans. If you have a discount coupon for a certain amount of items, you’re much more likely to buy them and only them. You can build a shopping list around the discounts you’ll get, and Simple Dollar says he sticks to it when coupons are involved. You’re also much more likely to give purchases considered though if you’ve got to work out which coupons to use.

So I’ve started anew. I started my Saturday by searching the websites, and found a couple of coupons I can use to save a bit of money off my grocery list. I wish I had worked this out years ago, but I guess it’s never too late to start.

Do you use coupons to save money?

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