Coupon clippers hotter than ever, says New York Times

I just came back from the grocery store, and I couldn't wait to share my victory story with my husband. A local chain had a great deal on Seventh Generation products and I was stocking up on diapers. Not only did I end up with 40% off the retail price, but... drumroll... the packages were festooned with coupons! I ended up bringing home $45 worth of product for less than $25. A budget hunter fresh from her kill, I carried the packages into the house as the trophies they were. His eyes lit up with pride.

Sure, moms are well-known for their love for coupon clipping. But the love affair has waned these past few decades; coupons hit their peak in 1992, says logistics company Inmar, with 7.9 billion coupons redeemed. As the '90s wore on and became the new millennium, shopping pundits decried the end of an era. Coupons, like soap operas, were an anachronism in this digital, busy-busy culture. In the early part of the 21st century, everyone began talking about time in its dollars-per-hour value, quantifying everything with the bizarre concept that, were you to forego washing your car, walking your pet, or preparing your own dinner, you could instead be making an hourly wage. That 25 cent coupon cost me $1.79! I might have thought. Professional moms and adults of all stripes breezily swiped their credit cards at the checkout stand, skipping the messy coupon stage and hurrying off to bask in their market value. In 2006, only 2.6 billion coupons were redeemed, a number that remained unchanged through most of 2008.