Clair saves £15,000 with coupons
A WOMAN saved £15,000 and bought a house – thanks to coupons.
Clair Hughes, 30, first began to research money-saving ideas as a way of getting out of her £3,500 student overdraft.
She started trawling the internet for discount coupons and cut-price offers, and now estimates she’s saved ‘easily over £15,000’ – and even managed to put down a deposit to buy a three-bed semi-detached house in Bury with her partner, Shane Byrne, also 30.
Revealing how she never pays full price for an item any more, thrifty Clair, who works at a school, said: “It’s become a running joke with my friends. Every time we go out, they’ll ask if I have a voucher – and I always do.
“Discounts are always there to be had, it’s just a matter of being organised. Before I started this, I thought it’d be so much work, but now I’m so used to this lifestyle that it’s automatic to me. I must have saved easily over £15,000.”
Clair’s mind first turned to money saving back in 2010, when she moved in with Shane, a phone company trainer. Having recently graduated from Edge Hill University, where she studied drama and physical theatre, she’d maxed-out her £3,500 student overdraft – and felt the interest repayments were just ‘money down the drain.’
After taking to the web for advice, she tried out a few clever money-saving tricks like switching her overdraft to a zero-interest account. Then, a few years later, she came across an online community for ‘couponers’ and decided to give it a go.
She started spending hours trawling the web for money-off vouchers or discounts, printing them all out to take with her whenever she went shopping.
“It would initially take a couple of hours to get organised,” she said.
“I’d go on supermarket websites to look through what I’d need in a shop, making a note of anything on offer, or anything I had a coupon for.
“Eventually though it becomes second-nature and you can do it in around half an hour.”
Over the years, the coupon queen has managed to nab some impressive hauls. Two lamps worth £140 cost her just £35, and because she learnt buying in bulk is usually cheaper, she scored six months’ worth of dog food for her Pomeranian, Poppy, for a mere £9.
Around two years ago, Clair also began using cashback apps and websites where you are given money back on items ranging from beers to toiletries. After each shop, she uploads pictures of her receipts, which are then scanned, and money is given back on certain items.
“I’ve saved hundreds through that alone,” said bargain-mad Clair. “You can get cash back on most things, and it’s all something I’d have been buying anyway. If something is totally free, I always make sure I get it regardless of whether I’ll use it, as I can donate it to a charity or foodbank.
“But with cashback, I make sure it’s worth my while.”