Wanna cut your soaring grocery bill? This woman just might have the answer

Nicole Schaubroeck was cruising the aisles of a No Frills three years ago when she couldn't help but notice the entire store was full of canned beans, palette after palette, all priced to sell at 10 cents a pop.

And, because of that, she knew she was about to score the mother of all deals. In her phone, at that very moment, was a coupon offering her 60 cents off each one.

It was crazy," she says. I remember standing in the store and messaging my coupon buddy and she was like: Oh my gosh. I hate you'."

Minutes later, Schaubroeck, a Manitoba native, left with a smile and $230 in points she could spend across the Superstore chain.

While, to some, her profit that day may seem like a stroke of luck, Schaubroek argues, that, in part, at least, it's a matter of experience. Not to mention a teachable moment - especially, since she donated all the cans to the charity bins at the front of the store before leaving.

I try to teach people not to be greedy," she says. If you take too much that can impact the store. ...We can have fun getting only a couple of things for free."

That's just one of the lessons Schaubroeck has shared with her fast-growing audience as Coupon Cutie. Since 2019, her anime-syle avatar and social media alter ego have been giving away tips, tricks and advice to Canadians about on how to coupon," to get stuff free and cheap.

Once the time consuming, laborious and oft-embarrasing domain of senior citizens, couponing, Schaubroeck says, has not only become fast and efficient, but fun," and cool." Several marketing professors tell the Star that's because, like magazines and live meetings, this old school art of saving money has gone digital.

Plus, there's plenty of reasons to save as grocery prices spike.

There's not just one, but many apps for saving these days. Checkout51, Caddle and Eclipsa, for instance, all scan your grocery bill - if you upload a picture of it - and send you cash back for purchasing certain items.

Reebee, another app, helps save you money by price-matching groceries, Schaubroeck says. It does the work of scouring the price of products at competing stores, so you can get that same price where you're shopping (if, that is, you're at a store that lets you do that!).

Aside from groceries, there are even attachments you can download free" to your chrome browser," according to one service called Honey. It quietly searches for coupon codes as you shop and enters them automatically," according to a site called LifeWire Tech for Humans, so you end up saving money without the hard work of searching for and entering them manually."

In the U.S., there are also digital coupons, activated by a click or two, that come via email, or are scannable as QR codes in the store, Schaubroeck. But, she says, they are not yet in Canada.

It's a whole different universe," David Soberman, University of Toronto marketing professor, says, talking about how much couponing has advanced. The tech is so sophisticated."

It still requires time from the consumer, he says, but far less than ever before. Because of that, the percentage of people using coupons will undoubtedly increase over the next while - grocery bills are expected to keep increasing this year, ringing ring up at double, even triple pre-pandemic era prices.

Couponing will likely also increase among manufacturers, Soberman says. While it cost them money to offer discounts on their products, it's a win, he says, for market research. Once upon a time, manufacturers using coupons to, say, entice a loyal consumer to buy a new product or a new customer to try its brand, were limited to consumers within the geographic reach of their flyers.

But now, with all the technology, says Alan Middleton, a retired marketing professor at York University's Schulich School of Business, manufacturers and brands can gather more detailed information about buyers and their habits - and target them directly. Middleton says company's who incentivize with coupons want to know three main things: How their product fits into the consumer's overall buying pattern, why they're buying it and how to entice them to buy something else.

In an era of disturbance, such as the pandemic, Middleton says, it's a way to introduce people to new products. But, because we are all staying home so much, he also wonders if manufacturers are using coupons right now to keep their loyal customers close at hand and make sure they don't get tempted away by other brands.

It's brand reinforcement," he says. It's like saying we like you'."

But with the great advantages of couponing right now, Middleton says, there's also a downside. Once a brand offers too many discounts on a certain product, such as instant coffee, he says, people will wait for a discount ... no one will buy it at full price."

Kenneth Wong, marketing professor at Queen's University's Smith School of Business, says there are multiple factors that influence how coupons are used by all parties. One thing that's certain, he says, is that right now, the biggest target for brands is millennials. Undoubtedly, he says, that's the group that brands are likely sending coupons to - and millennials are all about coupons because they are all about saving money.

Millennials these days are paranoid about money," he says. They are worried. They don't ever think they are gong to own a home. They are living on salaries that are generally lower. They need coupons."

Schaubroeck certainly did growing up as the daughter of a single mom. But, while she was always cheap," er, careful with her spending, she didn't cotton onto couponing until about eight years ago.

A colleague told her that his son was doing it and she thought she should too. That's how she became a kind of junkie for savings. After a car accident a few years ago, she noticed there was no one on TikTok offering advice quite like she did and heard her calling.

So have a lot of others.

Right now, she has 537,000 followers on TikTok, 207,000 on Facebook and 153,000 on Instagram and earns a living giving people place specific couponing help across the country - couponing in Ontario is different than in B.C.

While most of her audience is made up of millennial women and new moms, her dad audience is growing, she says, and it brings her joy to know she's helping.

It does mean a lot to me," she says. Just being able to help people and hearing all those stories - it definitely makes me feel good that way."

Michele Henry is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star, writing health and education stories. Follow her on Twitter: @michelehenry