Clipping Coupons on Wall Street

Wall Street headhunter Daniel Arbeeny drove to Fairway Market in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn on a recent Sunday to buy discounted salmon for $5.99 a pound. “They have a circular that they leave in front of the buildings in my neighborhood,” says Arbeeny, 49, who lives in nearby Cobble Hill and also shops at Costco. He hasn’t always been bargain-minded. While declining to give specifics, Arbeeny, managing principal at CMF Partners, says executive-search veterans like him who work with hedge funds and banks had been able to make about $500,000 in a good year.

Recently, his income has “gone down tremendously,” he says, and he no longer goes on annual ski trips to Whistler, Tahoe, or Aspen. He’s learned to appreciate supermarket circulars, keeping an eye out for good prices on his favorite cereal, Wheat Chex. “We sit there, and I look through all of them to find out where it’s worth going,” he says. “Wow, did I waste a lot of money.”