Are coupons really worth it? Are they truly worth all the time and effort?
They can be. It all depends on how you use them and how much time and
effort you spend in preparing to use them.
It may not be worth a heart surgeon’s time to clip some coupons; However,
the ‘average’ person may be able to reduce their typical grocery bill be
several dollars with minimal time invested.
When to Use Coupons
The whole trick to using coupons is to never pull the trigger on
something that you wouldn’t normally buy. Period.
For example, you may see a really great coupon for ‘widgets’. The manufacturer’s
coupon may say, ‘Buy one widget, get one widget FREE’. On top of that, the
store may be running a huge sale on the exact same item. (This is where the
real savings kicks in.)
At this point, you might be thinking, “Wow, I can get these widgets
at less than 40% of the normal price! What a deal!”
That’s great if you already buy these widgets, but what if you have a cat,
but the widget is dog food?
That would be a great value, just not for you.
At other times, you may see coupons for something that you might
use, or that you could use. These types of enticements and temptations
is where the coupon savings breaks down. You have to decide; However, in my
case, I only use coupons for things that I buy every week, no exceptions.
Now that my rant is over, there are definitely times where you can
score big with coupons. I will discuss some big ‘scores’ of my own at the end
of this chapter.
For now, let’s just say that the ways to use coupons to your advantage
are best when you combine several forms of saving together, like combining a
manufacturers coupon with a ‘doubling’ or ‘tripling’ bonus at the store and/or
combing those with a sale. The effect is that the retail price gets smaller and
smaller and sometimes will even hit zero. J
Before we cover my ‘big scores’, we should discuss some very practical
ground rules.
Do’s and Don’ts
The following is a quick list of things that you should do when
using coupons.
Only use coupons for items that…
1.
… you already use
2.
… you truly need
3.
… you are going
to buy anyway
The next is list of things that you should not do when using
coupons.
Never…
1.
…use coupons for
things you don’t need
2.
…use coupons for
things you don’t use
3.
…use coupons for
things you won’t use in the near future
4.
…spend excessive
time in researching coupons
Success Stories
Everyone has a story or two about their biggest scores whilst
couponing. Here are a few of mine to encourage you.
The ‘Dijon Mustard’ score
Dijon mustard isn’t something that I would normally buy, I will admit
it. However, I think you’ll agree with me that it still made sense in this case
that I will describe.
I had a coupon for “75¢ off” for a jar of Dijon mustard. The store was
allowing a few coupons to be tripled. This meant that the coupon was actually
worth $2.25, not just a mere $0.75. The retail price was on the mustard was
only $2.29.
This meant that I walked away with a jar of delicious Dijon mustard for
only 4¢. That will get you excited. I felt like I was stealing. It was
more of a high than having Meyer Lansky do my taxes.
It’s legal, it’s moral, and the mustard was a treat.
I saved 98.22% on that deal.
The ‘Food Container’ score
Rubbermaid makes these really great food containers (like Tupperware).
I used them a lot, but sort of went through them quickly.
This could have been due to either misplacing them or perhaps filling
them with food and then misplacing them, and then finding them a long
time later. By that time the insides looked more like a science project then
last Tuesday’s lunch. (this was during a time in my life where I was, um, ‘domestically
challenged’.
It was easier at that point to throw the container out, than opening it
and then having a HAZMAT team over to check it for diseases. So, I’d just toss
it and buy a new one. (Just writing this I am wondering how I ever survived the
1990’s.)
As you can imagine, I purchased a disproportionately higher amount of
storage containers back then, than did most other people.
I was extremely interested in getting deals on these containers, even
though they were only a few dollars each.
Rubbermaid had these great coupons that were ‘55¢ off’ for any food container
purchase, even the small two dollar models. My grocery store had a bunch of
them for $1.99 and $2.19 (for the ‘deluxe’ really small ones).
The store was doubling each manufacturer’s coupon, so that brought the purchasing
power of each coupon up to $1.10 each. I had a whole stack of these coupons
ready to go. You could say that I was an avid collector.
Then, lo and behold, Stop and Shop ran a special: All Rubbermaid food
storage containers were hall off. Well,
the $1.10 covers half of $1.99 or $2.19, so the containers would all be FREE. I
would just have to pay the tax. (This is unless I could convince them that I
was going to eat the containers….)
So, I dumped twenty of them into my cart. That’s all I bought. This was
exclusively a Rubbermaid food container field trip. The lady rings it all up
and says, “That’ll be forty-something dollars”.
I sheepishly said, “I have a few coupons”, and proudly handed her a wad
of twenty.
She scans them all in, and then she says, “That’ll be two dollars and
something…”
Again, I felt like I was robbing the store, like I planned a bank job.
Hey, whatever motivates you.
The best part was that the cashier lady took it personal and even
became a little offended. She said something inappropriate like, “Why don’t you
leave some for someone else?”.
I thought to myself, “I did, I did. I left all the ones that
cost more than $2.19.
In the parking lot, I ran into some friends. Guess what I gave them? A
few food containers.
The ‘Yogurt’ score
This one
is my favorite. I almost felt like a gangster.
This one
fine day I found myself in a store with more coupons for Breyers Yogurt than
probably any other ten years added together in my life. Something like: ‘Save
75¢ on 3’ or something like that.
Well,
Breyers was on this ridiculous sale, the coupons were tripled and then when I
got to the front of the store I had a decision to make. Line 1 or Line 2? Here’s the play by play:
Line 1 – This was for sure the
faster of the two lines. The cashier was an experienced vet. She probably was
working that cash register for the last fifty years. Her line was like the Audubon.
Fast.
Line 2 – This was the slower of
the two lines, reminiscent of the lines at the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. The
cashier was a somewhat clueless part-time high-school girl. It was probably the
first thirty minutes of her career as a cashier.
My
decision? Simple: Clueless High-school girl, hands down.
Why?
Because
the more seasoned cashier would no doubt be a coupon Nazi. Nothing would get by
her. She would notice if a coupon expired ten seconds ago, or if it was for a
slightly different brand, etc. She’d probably even catch me trying to pass a
Canadian penny.
Now,
clueless high-school girl had a line that was backed up to Florida. (The store
was not in Florida.) She wanted to push people through as quickly and
non-confrontationally as possible.
I think
some of my coupons were slightly expired and there may have been some other (geographically
based) issues. Anyway, back in those days the cahier could force stuff (dollar
amounts, discounts) into the computer if it wasn’t recognizing the specific
coupon in the cash registers computer.
She did
just that. She started pressing buttons and working her magic. I don’t even
fully understand how the math finally worked out, but in the end, I walked out
of that store with sixteen Breyer’s
Yogurts for a mere twelve cents. I
kid you not. The receipt said something insane like “You saved 99%”.
I taped
that receipt to my bedroom wall. I had it there so long as a trophy that
eventually I couldn’t read the print any more.
The next
day I was at work, and about to consume one of my yogurts. Before lunging into
it I tipped it over the trash to drain some liquid off the top. That was an
error on my part. The whole thing slid out of the container and into the trash!
I was upset for about a split second, but then I thought, “Well… it cost me
less than a penny…”
Those are
my three war stories. All true, even the humor. I hope you enjoyed them.
