How working here has changed the way we shop

I recently got really excited about saving around $20 on an Amazon Fresh order. I needed dish soap, and instead of running to the grocery store, I decided to look online. Turns out, it was basically half price at Amazon Fresh, so I checked to see if I had any useful cashback, and y’all, I had 12% (!) cashback on Amazon Fresh. I’ve been on a mission to save more on household staples, making this feel serendipitous. 

With that, I added seven bottles to my cart, a few rolls of my favorite paper towels (also on sale) to push my cart over the free delivery threshold, and saved $20. 

After I checked out, I had the thought that this was a new shopping reflex of mine. Just over a year ago, I wouldn’t have done any of this, and I realized that this shift in spending habits correlated with joining the Coupons.com team.

While I’ve been a part of the Atolls family since 2021 (that’s the company that owns Coupons.com), I only made the move to Coupons.com in early 2025. 

This had me wondering how working behind the scenes on Coupons.com has impacted the spending habits of others on the team. It wasn’t a question of if it changed others’ habits — I wrote up this interview with our managing director, who uses our coupons first-hand, and if he’s using them, I’m confidently assuming all of our team does. But I wanted to know more about how it had changed the day-to-day shopping of the team. 

So, I asked. 

Here’s what I learned from seven of my teammates who have a combined total of over 40 years of expertise in working for a savings site.

Intentionality and patience really win the race

The conversations I had with the people I work with showed me that being a part of the Coupons.com team means automatically tuning into savings in deeper ways. Shopping is no longer about immediate gratification or keeping up with the Joneses; it’s about taking more care when spending and with how you’re spending. 

“I’ve always checked for sales and used coupons,” Shayla, one of our editors, told me. But since joining the team in 2021, she says that she’s now much more intentional with saving. 

She’s not alone in this, either. Jacey echoed her thoughts stating that “the biggest way [working here has] changed how I shop is that I now always make sure I’m doing something to save a little without even thinking.” 

Shayla added that her shopping intentions go hand-in-hand with when she buys something. “I’ve found that timing makes a big difference. [Since working on Coupons.com] I pay closer attention to major sales events and holidays.” Personally, I’d say this is one of the lesser-touted perks of being so involved with a couponing site: You become extra aware of sales cycles and how retailers discount products. That way, you can plan ahead more effectively, like Sabina, who told me that she now always thinks ahead and buys clothes on sale at the end of the season for her daughter and herself to wear next year while she can. “It works great right now since she’s still young and doesn’t really care what she wears,” Sabina added, “we’ll see how long that lasts once she starts weighing in on her wardrobe!”

One of our editors over in the Kuala Lumpur office told me that being behind the scenes at Coupons.com means she’s learned to “hit pause” on impulse buys. Instead, she’s more content to give herself a cooling-off period when she sees something she wants. 

I’ve found that this tactic is shared by a lot of us around our offices. Kimi and Valen both discuss their ways of doing this in their recent article in The Clip about what saving money means to them.

The challenge to always to find a deal

Another recurring theme I found when talking to my colleagues is that many have a self-enforced goal to never pay full price. 

Sabina told me that as a card-carrying Coupons.com team member, she simply won’t pay full price on anything when she can avoid it. Meanwhile, Charlie, one of our seasoned account managers and a self-proclaimed deal-hunter, told me that he treats a coupon code box at checkout “like a personal challenge. [I’ll] spend hours finding the best discount I can.” And let me tell you, that is the mentality of a true Coupons.com team member if I ever saw it. 

Others pursue this objective simply by comparing retailers or committing to the sales section. Fieza, an editor since 2017, told me that her routine shopping journey includes looking at multiple retailers and comparing deals, perks (like free shipping), and more to make sure she’s getting the best deal.

Jacey disclosed that these days, she almost exclusively shops the sales rack if she’s buying something new. She’s been an avid thrift shopper for years, but working at Coupons.com (and having managed retailer pages for Kohl’s, H&M, and SHEIN) has taught her that she can get great deals on new things that give the same sense of satisfaction as thrifting. Her current obsession, by the way, is when Anthropologie runs their 50% off clearance items.

The yearning to find less obvious deals was shared by Mia and Trent, too. Mia told me that she’s a big fan of the “abandoned cart” trick, where you add items to your cart online, then leave it. “More often than not, the retailer will send a follow-up email to remind you to check out,” she said, adding that it’s “often with an exclusive coupon code attached to sweeten the deal!”

Trent, on the other hand, likes to use first-time shopper offers any time he can get them. “Prior to working here, I thought of first-order discounts along the same lines as I did free trials,” the Coupons.com editor of nearly five years told me. To him, these discounts felt like a catch: “Sure, I'll get a discount now, but then I'll have to pay a fee later," he thought. But within a few months of starting his job here, that mindset changed. “I quickly saw the sheer volume of retailers that offer awesome discounts on first orders, with no financial imperative on the back end,” he said. “It's been a game-changer.”

Cashback in the back pocket

The last commonality I found during my interviews was that cashback is a common denominator among us Coupons.com-ers. “I’ve learned how powerful cashback really is,” Fieza told me. And she wasn’t alone. Not only did her sentiments speak to my own savings journey, but it was also explicitly mentioned by Charlie, Sabina, and Jacey. 

Charlie told me that in his Coupons.com account, he currently has nearly $200 in cashback, adding that he did this without even changing how he shops. In fact, he told me that despite being an avid deal hunter, he rarely considered it until we added the Coupons.com cashback feature. “Now,” he said, “I obsessively check it every time I shop with the brands I love.”

Jacey and Sabina both use cashback to hit their “never pay full price” goals, and Fieza’s earned around $150 in cashback. So it really is the savings gift that keeps on giving. 

A shared savings evolution

What my exercise here showed me is that my experience isn’t unique. When savings is your nine-to-five, you start to make it your five-to-nine, too. 

Although that wasn’t a surprising conclusion, it was really exciting to hear how our work has shaped my colleagues' and their own personal spending habits. It gave legitimacy to the shift I’d noticed in myself over the last year or so. It also highlights that small changes (I’m looking at you, cashback) can really add up if you’re consistent. 

Now, since you’re already a part of the Coupons.com family, why not shop like you’re a part of the team and see how your savings habits change for the better? That’s the challenge I’ll leave for you.