spotlight

Extreme Couponers

More and more Jewish shoppers are
maximizing their savings with coupons.

Yaffa Klugerman
J TA

A

nita Batt's weekly grocery shop-
ping goes something like this:
First, she checks several online
coupon blogs that offer guidance about
the best sales and coupon combinations in
stores such as CVS, Kroger and Target.
Next, Batt prints the several dozen cou-
pons she will use and places them in her
organizer sorted by store. Then she visits
about six stores, sometimes performing
multiple transactions at the same location
to maximize savings.
Her purchases are stored in her base-
ment, where stacks of toilet paper and
paper towels are piled to the ceiling. About
20 shelves hold items like 34 bottles of
barbecue sauce, 18 boxes of coffee packets,
20 bottles of shampoo, 16 bottles of salad
dressing and about every type of cleaning
supply imaginable.
"It looks like I don't need all that stuff:'
acknowledged Batt, 43, of Southfield, who

works full-time and keeps kosher. "But I
get it when it's on sale, so I never have to
buy something that's not on sale:'
When the economic downturn and
the success of TLC's Extreme Couponing
bolstered the popularity of clipping cou-
pons, many Jewish consumers struggling
to cover their own big-ticket items — like
day school tuition or summer camp fees
— discovered coupons could help them
make ends meet, too.
"There used to be a certain stigma
within some circles of Jewish people who
would not coupon because there's a feel-
ing that we shouldn't have to do that:'
said Lesley Zwick, 36, a self-described
shopaholic who lives in Huntington
Woods and created her own couponing
and bargains blog about a year ago, www.
ShoppingWithLes.com . "But I don't see
that so much anymore. Now people think
differently about couponing."
Mara Strom of Kansas City, Mo., says
interest in couponing in the Jewish
community is growing. Her blog, www.

Anita Batt of Southfield with a stockpile of items she purchased with coupons.

KosherOnABudget.com, receives more
than 125,000 hits per month, she says.
Jodi Samuels, co-treater of the New
York-based www.JDeal.com , also has
seen the appeal of coupons throughout
the Jewish community — and not just
among those who keep kosher. The site
has a database of 85,000 names and offers
more than 30 deals a month on products
and activities, most of which have Jewish
themes.
"I see more and more of my friends cou-
poning," said Batt, who only buys items that
are on sale and have coupons. She says she
typically pays 70 percent to 80 percent less
for each item — and that's if she pays for
them at all. "I never pay for toothpaste and
dental floss," she said. Combining coupons
and store sales often can yield free mer-
chandise — or even a profit.

Batt spends about $100 a week on
groceries for her four family members liv-
ing at home. Before she started clipping
coupons, her typical weekly groceries cost
three to four times as much. She said the
savings have allowed her to dramatically
reduce debt and save toward a family trip
to Israel.
The impact of serious couponing can
go beyond one's own household. Batt's
stockpile, for example, has benefited many
members of the Detroit Jewish commu-
nity: When a young couple gets married,
she invites them to take what they need
from her supplies.
"I let them take four to five shopping
bags full of medicine, toothbrushes, sun-
screen or whatever they need to help them
start their life she said. "That's my favor-
ite part about doing this:'

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36 July 18 • 2013

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