In 2008, when Erin Gifford launched her coupon blog, there weren’t many others out there. It would take two more years for “extreme couponing” to enter the lexicon of American shoppers and become a popular TV series of the same name. By the time she sold her blog in 2011, the coupon landscape was chaos.
“There were a lot more people thinking, ‘I can do this, too,’ and they started their own sites,” Gifford says. “There is so much competition.”
Gifford, now spokeswoman for Ziplist.com — a website and mobile app that keeps your recipes, shopping lists and grocery sales all in one place — prefers a more modest investment of time than the 10 or more hours per week many extreme couponers devote to their craft.
Here are Gifford’s tips on how to allocate the time you do have to a few of the most important areas of couponing:
Acquiring coupons
If you have less time: The fastest way to get coupons is to get the Sunday newspaper. It is filled with the store
