My aunt was a bigtime couponer and refunder back in the 80s already. There was a HUUUUUUUUUGE population of black-belt ( :giggles: ) savers back then. We lived in Northern WI, there were regular meetings, swaps, etc. Oy! The liquor labels!
We had doubles, super doubles, etc.
If I recall correctly the catalina thing started about 1992 (can't remember what it was called, but it was kind of like savingstar, you added what you wanted to your list, but they had to scan the barcode for you at the store so you would get your spiffs).
So it was WAY before you think. Bloggers now, and internet people with websites I want to stay started in the late 90s, like 97-98, when Ebay first started being a big market force. I was on the AOL coupon forums back in the mid 90s when they first started. There were also usenet forum/groups that existed even earlier than that, back when I had Compu-Serve for internet.
Also there were a number of coupon trading newsletters, flyers, etc. I traded that way a lot, too. Expiration dates on coupons before the internet age were like 6 months or a year, plenty of time to trade for what you needed.
Peggy probably remembers. Maybe Barb, too, I dunno when she got into it
