Comments on: Is An “Entertainment” Coupon Book Worth It?

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:00:10 +0000

We usually find that we use the coupons like crazy during the first month or so until we run out of “desirable” coupons — those which save us money doing what we would have done without the coupons. So we apply a little patience and buy the book about mid year. We still use the same “desirable” coups, but we only pay half price for the book and they usually throw in free shipping. In any case, we give it to one of our kids and tell them to yank out the coups they want and then pass it to another of our children. If it makes its way back to us — we pitch it.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:12:06 +0000

I buy this book for myself and as gifts. I have never received a negative reaction from any of my gift recipients, they love it. Nowadays everyone is looking for ways to save $$! My gift recipients and I look through our books, pick out our coupons & then let each other look through each other’s books & take whatever coupons we want. This year I learned about buying Entertainment books for your vacation destination, such a great idea!
I love the fact that a charity is benefiting from my Entertainment book purchases plus I normally save so much with the coupons in the books that the book is basically free. Win-win for all!

By: D G

D G — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:06:20 +0000

These books,even at regular price,can be a real money saver.Just the Safeway coupons alone may pay for the book.
Then there’s the movies (we bought 3 books,and went to 3 movies free on my friend’s birthday!)
Some of the deals are amazing,and you can also get “lots” of coupons at auction sites.
Also,they have a “tie in” with restaurant.com,
try it,too.You can often get dinners at your favorite rest’s for about $20.They have sales where you can get a $25 dining gift certificate
for $2! What a savings!They also give you $10
gift certs for referring friends.
Sometimes the Entertainment book will offer a free
$25 restaurant.com certificate later in the year,
with the purchase of a book.That’s a no brainer.
You will save money,and if you want to avoid fast food, go for the salads!

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:34:19 +0000

I just bought this book and while I do like the driving range savings, it is the Movie tickets that make it worthwhile for me. I also do tend to go to the resturants that provide discounts…most of them are pretty good.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:43:31 +0000

I think these books are awesome. We trade all the time on Craigslist and http://www.tradeentertainmentcoupons.com/index.php?topic=992.0

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:37:21 +0000

My Opinion-

Unless you are a very active entertainment spender, such as movies and dinner, don’t spend you money on this entertainment book. Find some coupons in your local paper instead.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:21:15 +0000

I am pretty sure the book publisher doesn’t care if you use the coupons or not. I assume that the discounts are provided by the establishments at no cost to the publisher – in fact I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they pay the publisher to be included. So once the publisher has your $20 (or $45 or whatever) they have made their profit. Any coupons you use come out of the pocket of the restaurant owner. Using just a couple coupons will let you break even, but if you just break even then all you’re doing is taking money out of the restaurant owner’s pocket and putting it in the publisher’s pocket. On the other hand if you use more than a couple then it’s more worth it to you, and one would assume the restaurateurs wouldn’t agree to the coupons if they didn’t think they were worth it.

By: kellykelly

kellykelly — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:36:54 +0000

In my area, the dry cleaning coupons in these books ($7 off per order) make it WELL worth the $25 cost of the book.

By: Dave Ramsey Critic

Dave Ramsey Critic — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:56:52 +0000

In my opinion buying the book and forgetting about it is probably the most dangerous way to have it not benefit you.

I know a lot of people who have bought these books before and they ended up stuffing them in a drawer somewhere only to find them over a year later when everything is expired. Some of these people used none of the coupons even though they went to place all the time.

What about purchasing one and bringing it along with you on vacation? I would think this might save you over $20 almost instantly.

By: Palm Coast Coupons

Palm Coast Coupons — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:46:06 +0000

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By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:22:37 +0000

I purchase an Entertainment book whenever my family goes on vacation to Florida. It ends up paying for itself many times over. When we go home we leave it behind for someone else to use.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:45:27 +0000

I buy the coupon book when it goes on sale-no S & H and has a $25.00 restaurant certificate as a bonus-by then the book has paid for itself and anything I use is a bonus. Also as far as spending $ on things you normally wouldn’t like “whacking golf balls”..you may find you and a friend/family or spouse enjoying things together that you wouldn’t have because you didn’t have the incentive to do it..saving $ is a GREAT way to try new things

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:24:24 +0000

Our school district (Central PA) does something called a “KidStuff” book – very similar to an Entertainment book, but marketed toward families with young kids. They’re very upfront about how their profit works – $12.50 of the $25 you’re paying for the book goes directly to the school. How much bang you get for your buck varies, of course, on how much time and money you spend entertaining your kids. Having worked with them from a PTO point of view, they’re very use-friendly as far as fundraisers go.

Here’s an article on the publisher: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/rss/s_470004.html

By: formul8

formul8 — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:59:16 +0000

My G/F and I use it all the time. We live in Chicago, so the book it pretty thick. We like to eat out once a week and make it a priority to use the coupons for places in the book. It works out well, we try places we otherwise might not have considered or knew about and cuts the bill in half in most cases.

Just last friday, we visited the Museum of Science and Industry (buy one get one admission- $11), ate at McD’s which had a buy one get one sandwich ($3.50), and ate at a really good Polish Restaurant which had $10.00 off a min $25.00 purchase.

That’s $25.00 off our day right there!!

By: MikeVx

MikeVx — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:00:21 +0000

I buy these books when I can. I mostly run on the “I’m going there anyway” track, but occasionally when I’m in a mood to eat out, I’ll use a coupon as a reason to check out a place I haven’t been before. If I don’t like it, at least it was cheap.

Doing the math, I benefit from buying those books most years, I’m going to lose on this years book because I misplaced it after a car accident (the car was the best place to keep it, I checked when going shopping and such). If I find it, I might get a few more coupons out of it.

If you are not hurting particularly for cash when one becomes available, you might consider buying one and analyzing your usage, if you don’t save enough, don’t buy another one, if you do, get another one next year. I know from experience that sometimes you just have to risk something being a loss to see if it will be a gain.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:18:52 +0000

I think they are great, as long as you are going to use the service anyway. It is very easy to recoup the expenditure from these books.

I have often used buy one get one free deals with friends, but I always offer to split the cost with them, that way we both benefit. I think it’s the right thing to do. (unless your financial situation dictates otherwise and your friend is aware of that).

By: Christina

Christina — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:27:36 +0000

For the record, I’m not frugile, I’m down right cheap these days. With that said, my roommmate was considering this book. We each paid $10. We will share the book. There were coupons for $5 off you at Kroger with the purchase of $75. We don’t usually shop together, but we both shop there. We decided to make our trips together until the coupons are gone. I think with a little planning and using on the coupons at places we go anyway, will definitely be worth my $10! I will just get the coupons that we out and pass it on to family and friends!

By: Garry

Garry — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:45:38 +0000

One year I split the cost of a book with two friends of mine. While we were having “refreshments”, we passed the book around tearing out one coupon each, like a baseball draft. . . so I got a few golf coupons, minor league baseball, several restaurants, and had some fun picking a “good coupon” before one of my friends did.

Lotta fun for just $7. We left the remaining 60% of the coupons at the watering hole for others to pick through.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:17:38 +0000

Buying my local Entertainment book left a bad taste in my mouth. Some discounts that I wanted to use were no longer accepted by proprietors. But the publisher kept printing them in the book! I used my employee discount to buy one of these books for $18.00 during Christmas. I have yet to use one coupon.

By: SAHM-CFO

SAHM-CFO — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:40:26 +0000

My local Entertainment book carries coupons for a popular resort town a few hours away so we were able to use coupons on vacation too. I saved $35.50 on pizza and waterslide admission that I would have purchased anyway. That makes it worth the $20 purchase price for the book in itself.

But Trent umm… if I went to the driving range with a friend and the free bucket was dependant on the purchase of a full priced bucket, I’d split the cost. It doesn’t seem very fair that you’d get yours free while your friend payed full price.