Coupon clipping craze may be slowing

[RamboLiberal]

Call us recessionistas, frugalistas or just plain cheap: The weak economy has forced American shoppers to look hard for good deals.

But perhaps we are tiring of all the effort that goes into penny-pinching. Coupon use, which surged in 2009, appears to have flattened out, according to the coupon processing company Inmar.

Inmar tracks the use of traditional coupons clipped out of newspaper inserts or printed off the Internet and redeemed for consumer goods such as diapers and milk. The figures do not include hotel or restaurant coupons or discount vouchers of the type popularized by Groupon.

Use of coupons grew just 1 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with a whopping 33 percent increase in the same quarter of 2009, according to the latest Inmar figures provided to Life Inc.

http://lifeinc.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/14/5103056-coupon-clipping-craze-may-be-slowing

[Cant trust em]

1. I'm going back to school for my masters, so you'd better bet that I'm going to start clipping.

However, many grocery stores already give discounts with their club cards. I saved $20 bucks at Ralph's last night. Cha-ching!

[RockaFowler]

2. I use online coupons

Coupons.com, Target and Publix all have coupons that are easier to use. I think a lot of the coupons now are for things I would never buy anyway.

[WhiteTara]

3. for me, it's that they never have any food that I eat

usually for some packaged food that has more chemicals than food.

[blondeatlast]

4. All the house spouses who obsessed over it have had to get jobs.

And I'm not kidding--I know several "perfect parents" who are no longer quite so perfect.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Everything I buy online, I look for coupon codes

On the other hand, the 'grocery store' type coupons aren't usually that great of a deal. Usually in-store specials or generics are WAY cheaper than the brand name version + coupon.

[MarthaM]

6. Supermarkets here recently stopped taking coupons printed from online

Maybe that's part of it.