HOUSTON — Before that next trip to grab the essentials at the grocery store, consider clipping coupons.

Stephanie Jenson does and this Mission Bend wife is cashing in.

“You certainly have to start one coupon at a time,” said Jenson.

Her savings begin at her kitchen table.

That’s where Jenson has boxes that are full of collected coupons, and newspaper inserts.

“I make a file for each week,” she says.

Jenson has hundreds of coupons. When she’s ready to shop, she carries three binders into grocery stores.

She has a blue binder dedicated to toiletries, a green one for food, and a red one for medicines and pet foods.

“I haven’t paid for toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, many things,” said Jenson.

“I get those all free with coupons,” she said.

Jenson started clipping coupons five years ago after her husband lost his job.

She calls her coupon cutting crusade a sickness.

“It’s a great disease. I love it. And I’m trying to infect everybody around me,” said Jenson.

But the economy is infecting people already. 

Marketers report coupon use is on the rise and coupon trading sites like Hotcouponworld.com boast more than 90,000 members. 

Jenson is even teaching the art of coupon savings to classes of more than 100 people every month.

“Now it’s just a surge of people getting back into couponing,” she said.

Jenson swears she has saved about $10,000 this year using coupons, but, she admits, it is a lot of work.

“It’s a hobby that pays so it’s worth it,” she said.