A savvy woman has revealed how she has saved a staggering $24,000 on her groceries thanks to her obsession with couponing — and she is so good at finding deals that stores sometimes pay her to shop.
Emily Shetler, 27, got hooked on couponing five years ago after she moved from Texas to Buffalo, New York, with her younger husband so that he could attend college, making her the sole earner for the household.
‘When I started, couponing was literally how I got by,’ she said. ‘Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to afford my own bills.’
Emily Shetler, 27, got hooked on couponing after she moved from Texas to Buffalo, New York, with her younger husband so that he could attend college
The home insurance rep spends two to three hours a week scouring the internet to find the best coupons and saving them on her shopping apps.
‘Many people get overwhelmed by couponing as they picture the old-fashioned way of cutting them out from newspapers, but it’s so easy now,’ she explained. ‘You can just download them.’
Emily is now financially stable and no longer needs to coupon, but she has no plans on quitting because she enjoys it so much.
‘I just love it and can’t even fathom having to buy something for full price,’ she said. ‘It’s like a high. I love watching the numbers as they smoothly go down. It’s a thrill really.’
The home insurance rep spends two to three hours a week scouring the internet to find the best coupons and saving them on her shopping apps
‘I just love it and can’t even fathom having to buy something for full price,’ she said. ‘It’s like a high. I love watching the numbers as they smoothly go down. It’s a thrill really’
When she goes shopping — armed with a phone full of coupons — her $60 basket of essentials will sometimes cost just $4.
Emily’s biggest bargains include a haul of beauty and household products from CVS worth $69, which earned her $0.73.
Her coupons reduced the cost to $8.27, and then she used $9 in CVS ExtraCare bucks — electronic cashback — to pay, meaning she got nearly $1 back.
Emily estimates that she has cut her shopping bills by around $400 to $500 dollars a month since she started her coupon habit five years ago. She now only spends around $50 a month.
With her extra cash, she has managed to go on multiple holidays with her husband, including the Bahamas and Martha’s Vineyard.
Emily, known as CouponQueenEm on her social media platforms, has amassed thousands of followers after sharing her coupon secrets.
‘I get a lot of people thanking me online, saying that they wouldn’t have been able to afford their shops if it wasn’t for my help,’ she said.
‘Another reason why I still coupon is to help people.’
Emily’s top tip for couponing beginners is to ‘star off small.’
‘Don’t try and do big coupon shops straight away as you can often be left spending more than you mean to,’ she said.
She also advised to ‘frequently check the sales that the stores are having as you can stack your coupons on top of them.’
Most of the coupon deals are ‘buy one get same free’ or require the shopper to spend a certain amount, which often leaves Emily with more products than she needs.
Emily’s biggest bargains include a haul of beauty and household products from CVS worth $69, which earned her $0.73
Emily, known as CouponQueenEm on her social media platforms, has amassed thousands of followers after sharing her coupon secrets
Although Emily admitted to having ‘a small stack of products’ in her one-bedroom apartment, she doesn’t believe in stockpiling items.
Instead, she donates 80-85 percent of the products she buys to local charities.
‘I’m still saving money and am keeping the household going so there’s no need to hoard unnecessary items,’ she said.
Emily has even managed to make an income from her consistent couponing after becoming a consistent user of Ibotta, a coupon and cashback app.
Every time someone uses her referral code for a $10 coupon, Ibotta pays her $10, so most of her shopping is now done for free.
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