Couponers share their best tips, strategies

She had scanned and planned and printed and clipped, and now with her shopping list and coupon organizer in hand, Briana Carter was ready to take on the grocery store.

The Tipton mother of four rose early on a Sunday to make it to a Noblesville Kroger by 9 — at least a 20-minute drive that was worth it in the eyes of the local coupon queen. This morning, there was a special “mega sale.”

Carter heads into every grocery store with a game plan: memorizing the layout of the store and organizing her coupons accordingly.

This day, the first stop was the produce section. She picked up two packages of strawberries, placed them neatly in her cart, then rolled onward to aisle 3 for some snacks. Two boxes of Ritz crackers, on sale for $2.69.

Carter had a coupon in her hand for almost every item she picked up — all part of a carefully constructed, ever-evolving system that the 32-year-old uses to stretch her budget.

Known as Bargain Briana in the couponing world, Carter describes her system as “extreme couponing realistically.” An accountant at a mechanical contracting firm, she also runs her own blog, www.bargainbriana.com, which includes a coupon database, deal alerts and couponing tips. Since its creation in 2008, she’s gained a following of close to 28,000 on Facebook and 63,000 on Twitter.

Carter’s devoted followers are testament to the current coupon craze, fueled by the continued recession and popular television series “Extreme Couponing,” which debuted in April on TLC.

Americans’ coupon usage began to rise in October 2008, according to Inmar, a North Carolina-based company that issued a report on coupon redemption in 2011. In 2009, the popularity of coupons continued to increase, as Americans redeemed 3.3 billion packaged-goods coupons.

And the trend shows no signs of slowing, as avid bargain hunters continue to go to great lengths for coupons, including searching Dumpsters and recycling bins for newspaper inserts and selling them in bulk on eBay.

While the couponers on the TLC show truly are the extreme — some even leaving the store with four carts and more than $1,000 in savings — local couponers of all levels are joining in the craze.

As one of the experts, Carter is a confident shopper who takes saving seriously. While she shopped, she continually consulted her list, which she organized and printed the night before. Each time she spotted an item on her list, she paused and flipped through her stack of 55 coupons, gathered from newspaper inserts, online coupon databases and Facebook.

She picked out two $1 off coupons and held them in her left hand as she reached for a package of hot dogs with her right.

“I don’t eat hot dogs,” Carter, a vegetarian, said. But her children — ranging in age from 5 to 13 — do, so she needed to stock up. Plus, the meat was part of the Kroger mega sale, which meant that if she purchased 10 items that were marked for the mega sale, she’d get $3 off her bill.

So she grabbed six packages of hot dogs and placed them in her cart, and then marked tallies on the top of her grocery list, one for each mega sale item she had picked up.

“I don’t know how those people do it on the extreme couponing show, buying 1,000 items and keeping track of it all,” she said as she rolled her cart toward the frozen-food aisle.

Carter began “hard-core” couponing in 2006 as a way to save money for her family of six. Now, she’s developed a system that requires about an hour of preparation before each big shopping trip, when she does her coupon clipping. She puts in more time early in the morning, on her lunch breaks, and late at night to update her blog.

After 45 minutes of shopping, Carter was ready to check out. She piled her groceries — including a box of Cheerios, six cans of Chef Boyardee pasta and Yoplait Kids yogurt — onto the conveyer belt and explained that the items she was buying were an odd combination, but paired with items she had stockpiled at home, they enabled her to make meals.

Carter often plans what she buys according to the 12-week sale cycle. Items typically are discounted every 12 weeks, she said, so she stockpiles the ones she used the most.

The total for this week’s trip? $137.47. But that was before the beeping began.

Carter watched the computer screen as her bill shrunk with each scan of a coupon.

$69.96.

Beep.

$68.96.

On this day, no customers were waiting in line behind Carter. But she has seen her share of annoyed shoppers who were forced to wait; sometimes, she even waves them ahead.

Beep.

$67.96.

Beep.

$66.96.

It continued until the total reached $59.96, a savings of about 56 percent. Carter’s goal is to save at least 50 percent with each shopping trip.

As she looked over the receipt, she realized the hot dog sale wouldn’t start until the next day. Despite the loss of potential savings, Carter shrugged it off. She hit her target savings, and that was enough.

“It’s not a flashy, ‘I got $100 for $5,’ but it’s realistic for most people,” she said.

Occasionally, the bargain shopper shares her secrets at coupon classes she holds at local libraries. Jama Fernung of Indianapolis has been to two of the classes, and despite identifying herself as an experienced couponer, she said she goes as a “refresher.” Couponing was a hobby for the mother of a 5-year-old, until she lost her job at ATT in March, when it became a necessity.

“It’s a good addiction,” Fernung said with a laugh. “The more I save, the more I get into it. You just want to go a little bit further, a little bit further.”

Fernung stumbled upon Carter’s blog two years ago, and later realized the two had both gone to Tipton High School. While they weren’t close friends, couponing has created camaraderie. Fernung knows Carter loves Chapstick, for example, so she’ll call her and tell her when she sees them on sale.

Fernung consults BarganBriana.com before every shopping trip to compile a grocery list and match up coupons. She has 10 bottles of A1 sauce in her basement. At a Marsh triple coupon event on Memorial Day, she saved 92 percent.

For this saver, it’s more than just couponing, it’s a lifestyle. On heavy trash nights in her neighborhood, she’ll drive around and search for free stuff. She gardens and cans her own vegetables. Couponing was simply the first step.

“Couponing is a perfect way to save money,” she said. “And also, once you start saving money by couponing, it’s good to explore other ways to save money.”

Marsha Wilson said she was couponing 30 years ago, before it became a craze, but stopped once her career picked up. Three months ago, after living on a reduced income due to a job loss, she came out of “coupon retirement.”

What helped spur her back into action?

The “Extreme Couponing” show, of course, and a little challenge from her husband.

“He was watching the show and said that we should do this,” Wilson said. “It was kind of just like, ‘OK, let me show you we can do this. It’s not just a television show.’”

Now, Wilson, 54, uses a 3-inch white binder to organize her coupons rather than the shoe box with dividers she used decades ago. The Internet has also made the saving process easier, allowing her to print e-coupons, research stores’ coupon policies and create grocery lists online.

The Indianapolis grandmother of nine, who teaches online courses at Kaplan University and Colorado Technical University, clips almost every coupon she finds and files them away. If she can’t use the product, usually someone in her family can.

Despite the urge to save, Wilson said, she’ll never become a true “extreme couponer.”

“I’ll never be one of those people who devotes a room to cereal or to laundry detergent,” she said.

“I try to approach it as ‘don’t buy it just because it’s a good deal if it’s not something you or someone can use.’ “

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