How I Paid Off My First Law School Loan By Using Coupons

Saving 25 cents on groceries today can help you pay off $25K tomorrow.

Here at Above the Law, I write frequently about the extreme debt loads that students are saddled with upon graduation. In many cases, law school graduates have up to six figures of debt hanging around their necks like the albatross in that Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. That’s what happened to me, despite the fact that I had a few scholarships.

Even when you’re on income-based repayment like I am, the debt is just… there. Your law school debt is like an awful house guest that you can’t force to leave. It’s just sitting there, preventing you from doing things with your life that you really want to do, collecting interest with a smug little grin and taunting you. “Oh, you want to buy a house? You already have a mortgage. Here I am, dumbass!”

I have three government loan categories: one is “small,” one is “medium,” and the last one is “HUGE,” and it keeps growing and growing and growing, each and every day.

It seems like you’ll never, ever be able to get rid of the debt. But, if you try hard enough, you can — and to prove that point, I just did.

Today, on Friday the 13th, I paid off my first law school loan. Yes, I still have a long, long way to go in my debt repayment saga, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to kill off at least one more of my loans before my debts are “forgiven” by the government.

How did I do it? I have a confession: I, Staci Zaretsky, am an extreme couponer.

Paying off my baby loan was all about budgeting, and right after I graduated from law school in 2010, I discovered the wonders of couponing. No, I’m not one of those people who’s going out and clearing the shelves so I can get 50 bottles of ketchup for free, but saving on things you can buy in a grocery store or pharmacy is a really, really easy way to save money on your necessary expenses, which means you’ll be able to save money to pay down your loans and eventually kick them to the curb like I did.

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If you’re interested in starting a couponing journey to save money and toss your loans, here are just a few tips that you can use. If you have any questions, please send me an email — I’m more than happy to help you out in any way I can.

1. Find a website that does weekly coupon matchups for your preferred grocery store. I highly recommend LivingRichWithCoupons.com. Always, always, ALWAYS shop sales with coupons to save money. Using paper coupons, digital coupons, and coupon/rebate apps will allow you to triple-dip on your savings, and a coupon matchup site will show you how to do it correctly and with ease.

2. Find your local grocery store’s coupon policy, and don’t forget to find out if your grocery store doubles coupons. Shoprite happens to double manufacturer coupons up to $0.99, so if you’ve got one coupon for $0.75 off, you’ll really be getting $1.50 off.

3. Sign up for access to your local grocery store’s website or download their app. Once you’re logged in, you’ll find all sorts of digital coupons. Start using those ASAP, because pairing paper coupons with digital coupons can lead to big savings.

4. Get familiar with all of the websites that will allow you to print paper coupons, like Coupons.com, Redplum.com, Lozo.com, and SmartSource.com for starters. You can also find printable paper coupons on brand websites like Kelloggs and Betty Crocker, for example. Coupons are available on websites for healthcare products, too.

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5. Download coupon and rebate apps like Ibotta (which is great for groceries and liquor/beer), SavingStar, Checkout 51, and Fetch Rewards. Apps like these will help you make money after you buy your groceries just by taking pictures of your receipts, plus you can make extra money if you get your friends to sign up. If you sign up for Ibotta using my referral code, I’ll get $5, and you’ll get a $10 welcome bonus after you upload your first receipt within 7 days. (On a law-related note, Ibotta’s founder is a Yale Law graduate and former SCOTUS clerk. Stay tuned for my interview with him.)

I actually made my final payment on a loan today using a big cash payout from Ibotta and a smaller one from Checkout 51. This is a really easy way to tackle loans, and I encourage Above the Law readers to take these small steps today to manage their debt loads tomorrow. Eventually, you’ll be able to make a significant dent in your debt.

Best of luck in your debt repayment and couponing, everyone! It worked for me, and I hope it’ll work for you too. Please trust me, because I just did it.


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.