Angie Mason has a hobby that she loves: couponing. For the past eight years, she has been couponing. Mason has an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old kid, and her oldest is the one who got the ball rolling.
“I saw that diapers, wipes and formula were so expensive so that’s when I started, and it’s grown ever since,” Mason said.
Mason usually hits the store once every two weeks. She uses her coupons at Walgreens, Target and Shop N Save. Mason has a process that she uses every time she goes to the store. Her process starts before she goes to the store. First, she makes a list of the things that she wants to purchase. Then, she organizes her coupons, trying to match the coupons up with what she needs. Lastly, she heads to the store and uses her coupons.
“I usually save between $20 and $40 per trip,”Mason said.
Couponing is something Mason has the most time for in the summer. Since school has started, she has had less time to do it. Although a lot of her students don’t know about her hobby, Daniece Tate, one of Mason’s Accounting I students, is fond of couponing.
“I think it’s cool because I don’t know a lot of people that coupon, and people that coupon save a lot of money,” Tate said.
Over the summer, Mason would spend between five and ten hours a week organizing her coupons. Mason keeps her coupons organized in a binder. She organizes them into 11 sections. The sections include categories such as beverages, frozen foods and cleaning products. She receives her coupons through her family, entertainment books and she has subscribed to some through the mail.
“My kids think I’m extreme, well, at least my 3-year-old does,” Mason said.
One deal Mason keeps her eye on is at Shop N Save. About once a month on a Thursday, Shop N Save will have a deal where if customers spend $50 or more they can get $10 off of their purchase.
“Over the summer, I would go twice to Shop N Save,” Mason said. “I’d get all of the non-frozen things I needed and take it back to the car and then go back in for the cold stuff. My kids hate it.”
Recently, Mason went to Target and spent $200 but with all of her coupons, she got $20 and some change knocked off her total. Mim Eaton, who teaches Intro to Business and Personal Finance, likes to talk to Mason about coupons during their lunch time.
“She’s an Accounting teacher, so she knows the value of money,” Eaton said. Mason has storage in her basement where she keeps the extra items she has. She has even taken a class at the county library about coupons. Mason plans to continue couponing as long as she has time.
“I think there is always going to be a need for couponing and for saving money,” Mason said. “I’m a business teacher, it’s all about saving money.”
