Do any of you clip coupons? A blogger I read sometimes talk about how she gets, like, 50 tubes of toothpaste for half a penny each, and she linked to Hip2Save.com recently. I clicked over and immediately felt guilty, lazy, wasteful, snobby and generally bad about myself. Something about coupons just turns me off like a switch. It also makes me realize...
1. I do not use any of the products coupons advertise, pretty much ever. I have very little brand loyalty, and actually can't think of one single instance in which I wouldn't buy the generic Wegmans (gr, lack of apostrophe, Wegmans, the grammar police are going to hogtie you) brand over Jif or Life or whatever. Not that I would be averse to the name-brands, but the coupons don't fill me with glee when the generic was probably cheaper even with the coupon.
2. There are no coupons for produce or fresh anything. Which, duh, they can't do that because coupons come from manufacturers and stores have sales on produce, but still.
3. My rational brain does not accept the concept of coupons. When I think about the effort involved of cutting out a coupon and carrying it around with me to save 25 cents or 2 dollars, I think about the number of times a day I waste that much money on coffee or other nonsense. I recognize that saving the money just on groceries would still be saving money regardless of my coffee and nonsense habit, but some weird internal logic prevents me from doing it. Also see above, where I fully admitted my laziness.
Tips? Suggestions? Excuses?
7 comments:
My experience is that coupons are for high-fat, high-kcal, convenience foods chock full of preservatives and noxious cleaning supplies. Rarely have I come across a coupon these days that is actually for something I want like, produce or organic milk.
Also, I am brand-loyal to a few things (laundry detergent, toothpaste, deoderant) and have recently discovered the joy of buying in bulk from amazon.com. Plus there's costco.
Those women they feature on the T0day sh0w and whatnot save money on groceries because they have families who can use 10 tubes of toothpaste in a year and if you look at what's in their carts, there's still a fair bit of convenience foods. I only clip a coupon if it's something I really want and is of significant value ($5 off cetaphil lotion at costco).
I don't really go *searching* for coupons, but I will use them if I come across a coupon for something I actually use. I guess I think of it like "either I get this money or they get this money." I want that money. :)
Costco does have some good coupons, though. They even have coupons for meats and seafood sometime, which we totally use. Love buying in bulk.
I use coupons with some frequency. (My mom was big on couponing and it's a habit that is hard to shake.)
Several of the stores here do double (or even sometimes triple) coupons so the savings do add up. I use them mostly for home products (toilet paper, cleaning supplies) but also for things I eat a lot of -- yogurt, string cheese, oatmeal, etc. Occasionally meats have brand-specific coupons. And puppy food, but you might not need that. The real way to "win" at coupons is to wait and use them when that thing is also on sale as a loss leader.
The Sunday paper often has good circulars and I go through, clip anything that I *might* buy, and stick it in an envelope. Then after I make my shopping list I see if there's anything that I have a coupon for. Sometimes yes, sometimes no -- but you'd be surprised how often at least one or two get used.
At work, people put coupons in the kitchen on my floor as a share thing, so if I'm waiting for the microwave, I'll look through them and occasionally I do find one for $1 off Garnier Fructis hair products or other stuff I already normally use. I stick them in my wallet with my Duane Reade card so I remember to use them. But I am usually appalled at the products for which coupons are available, or the amount you have to buy in order to save $ ("save 50% on one box of Cheez-Its with the purchase of 5!").
Isn't Wegmans the greatest store EVER? Generic Wegmans everything is really excellent quality and available for pretty much every product. I miss it!! My local Met store brand is awful.
I agree with pretty much all of the ideas expressed about coupons, both pro and con. We accidentally signed up for a trial subscription to the Sunday Sun (which includes piles of coupon circulars). I got excited and started clipping and then went shopping. At first I found everything Gwen said to be true and then I got frustrated by what Kelly said and yet, I kept clipping and saving the longer lasting ones for a while and I found that I got the rhythm. One week, I eventually needed 3 types of baking supplies and was able to use the $1.50 coupon.
Then there was a week when suddenly the reverse of what Gwen has noticed was true: the coupon brands were on store sale AND I had a coupon. I saved about $50 that week, with bonus card and coupons, all told. That was the week I bought a little dorky accordion coupon saver with dividers. I used it diligently until our Sun trial subscription ran out, so I guess that little accordion folder will come in handy again someday.
One more thing - I could not grocery shop with coupons WITH Sasha. It had to be a day that I could leave her with Kev. I suppose that would have come with time, but who knows...
Hm, all of these are very good ideas... I think that the key is actually looking for the good ones and ignoring the 50 cents off 42 boxes of cheez-its kind. And also keeping them for a long time until I need them, in a convenient place and/or a fun and special envelope thing where I won't forget them.
It's funny, I actually got a bunch of Target coupons in the mail yesterday, and they are actually for things I might use someday! And now I am coupon-inspired because of all of you. I see them in my future.
I'm not very good at coupons either. BUT today I actually looked at the store flyer thingy (little newspaper looking thing at the front of the store) and got a lot of stuff for cheap. Lots of fresh stuff was on big-time sale and I might not have noticed that if not for the store flyer. I saved like $30 and got stuff I will use and isn't gross box food. Yay!
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