I watched an interesting clip on some morning news program the other day about how shopper behavior is changing. For example, more men are doing the grocery shopping, and how they shop is very different from how women shop. One way in which this is true is that almost no men use coupons when they shop at the grocery store or at online retail.

Do you coupon? I’m on the fence about it. My local grocery store recently started this online program where you can log in, link your loyalty card, and then add coupons to it virtually. This, I like. It’s fast, it’s easy, and they often target “personalized” coupons to me based on my past purchases, so the coupons are actually relevant.

However, do I clip coupons from the newspaper, like those ladies you see on TV who get $300 worth of stuff at Target for 99 cents? No. I don’t have the time or interest in doing that. Not only do you have to clip the coupons, but you also have to track when things go on sale at your store, organize them in maddeningly efficient ways, and then have the time to do a massive power shop to stock up on 50 cans of tomato soup. Plus, who has that kind of storage in their house? I live in the city!

Anyway, that’s not to say coupons can’t be effective. While I don’t scan the newspaper for them, I do use coupon codes online. If, for example, my husband needs new dress shirts, I’ll wait til I get an email from J.Crew or Brooks Brothers with some kind of discount code. Or, I’ll just search for existing codes online. You can almost always find free shipping, if nothing else. Why pay more, if the opportunity to pay less exists?

What’s your take on the coupon trend? On the one hand, I agree that saving money is always a good thing. However, on the other, I can’t help but feel like it could be more of a waste of time than anything else…