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Meet Heather And Joanie, The Masterminds--And Deal-Hunters--Behind The Krazy Coupon Ladies

October 24, 2016 by Jeanine Edwards
shefinds | Style

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Loving scoring a serious deal? Then chances are you already know about The Krazy Coupon Ladies. They’re hands down the masters of saving money. With the holiday season not far away, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat with them about how the get their start… and how they really find all those amazing deals. Get to know Heather and Joanie of The Krazy Coupon Ladies below.

SHEfinds: Tell us a little about yourself. Did you grow up couponing? How did fall into this world of couponing?

The Krazy Coupon Ladies: I didn’t grow up couponing. My ultra-frugal mother never used the things. She taught me to budget, to buy in bulk and to shop generics instead. In fact, the ‘buy generics’ mentality is the thing that I credit with my eventual conversion to couponing. I was a kid who always wanted the things my friends had—be that a pair of Nike shoes or just the name brand granola bars in their lunchbox. But, I was never gonna get those things from my parents, so at a very young age, I began looking for new ways to get the things I wanted without having the money to pay retail price.

SF: You guys are a duo? How’d you meet?

KCL: Heather and I met in college. We were randomly assigned roommates in a 3 bedroom apartment with 6 girls. We’d been friends for 8 years before we started TheKrazyCouponLady.com. We work together seamlessly. Heather heads up marketing and I lead content, but we share an office, so in truth, we do nearly all things together. And shenanigans happen on the daily.

SF: How has the business grown over the years?

KCL: We founded Krazy Coupon Lady, LLC in 2009 after seeing immediate grass roots growth to our blog. We saw a need for a ‘couponing how-to manual’, so we determined we’d write a book later that year. We called it “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey” and it became a best seller and propelled us onto The Today Show and a host of other media, which in turn grew our business further. We also collaborated on the creation of a TV show about couponing, which Sharp Entertainment, which eventually would be picked up by TLC and called “Extreme Couponing”. The buzz created in 2011 by the eccentric characters on the show made interest in the topic skyrocket, as did our website traffic. We deemed it was time to open up our official headquarters in 2012. We launched our app in 2015 and Apple ranked us on of their best new lifestyle apps. Now there are twenty of us working full time from Boise, Idaho and another dozen contractors spread around the country bringing us boots-on-the-ground deals from all corners of the US. Today, we’re the largest couponing site in the world—we have more coupons, more deals and more viewership than any other site of our kind. As interest and economies ebb and flow, Krazy Coupon Lady remains rock solid, growing year-after-year in hopes of finding more smart people who want to live like rich people.

SF:  Can you let us in on how the magic happens? How do you find all those deals?

KCL: The number one way we find deals is still by sending our team out into the stores to uncover secret sales that match our coupons, and when combined, result in huge savings for the shopper. There’s no algorithm yet that can replace what our team can do. We also work with various retailers to obtain early access to upcoming sales, so we can find the coupons and be ready to tell our readers first when the deals go live. The formula is shockingly simple to understand, but difficult to execute—we love sales, promotions and coupons, but none of those things alone creates a deal good enough to publish on KCL. We search for the moments that those sales and coupons align, when we can bring our readers something to get excited about like free toothpaste or name brand laundry detergent for two bucks.

SF: What drives you ladies to continue doing this work? Why are you so passionate about good deals?

KCL: There used to be two things that drove me and now there are three. First, I love teaching people how to save money. I used to be a skeptic and it was Heather who twisted my arm into jumping on the coupon bandwagon. So, I get great fulfillment about convincing other skeptics that there is significant money to be saved, that couponing is worth their time, that there are coupons for healthy foods, or overturning whatever other myths they believe.

Second, Heather and I are both driven by our competitive spirit. We want to find the best deals and we want to do it days before anyone else does. With our team, we’ve got the infrastructure to do exactly that and every time we post a hot deal, we still feel that satisfaction of serving the reader first.

The third thing that drives me today is something that didn’t exist years ago and it’s our team. We’ve the smartest, most dedicated people on the planet and they give their all to this company. I will never become complacent because now I’m driving this company forward for all of us.

SF: We have to ask–you ladies are so successful now, do you really still coupon?

KCL: Heather and I are still busy moms and full time CEOs so, time is short. The truth is, our husbands do the grocery shopping. #werk

We jump into a couponing trip with the ladies from the office regularly. Boise, Idaho has more refugees than LA and NYC combined and we’ve chosen to partner with that community. We use our deal-finding skills to help others—we fill hundreds of backpacks for school children, donate thousands of bottles of shampoo and detergent—we’re even outfitting an entire elementary school with a new pair of shoes this month. So, while I’m not in the store with coupons every week, I’m keeping my skills sharp. And I still have a year supply of dishwasher tabs cause it helps me sleep at night.

I’ll always be that girl who sees something she wants (a trait I’m not particularly proud 0f), but finds a way to get it on the cheap. I’ve expanded way past the supermarket and now I’m working the system to get my Apple Watch or Anthropologie wardrobe on a dime.

Be sure to check out cute fall booties on sale and the best holiday gifts for women.

[Photo: The Krazy Coupon Ladies]

 

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