Comments on: The Challenge of Couponing

By: Charla Lucibello

Charla Lucibello — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:48:39 +0000

Another disagreement reply (sorry for that). You say that people only end up buying unnecessary items, but TRUE die-hard couponers are very much the opposite…we never buy anything full price, and are so bent on saving, that we tend to not buy the extras that most people do indulge (unless completely FREE). And unless you are a homesteader and make your own soap and butcher your own meat, then yes, eventually even you will need to buy things that do have coupons.

By: Lilly

Lilly — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:42:59 +0000

I can see that a lot of people making comments here do not understand the *real* way to save money with coupons (a la Couponmom.com, for example), even after explaining it to them. Cutting out coupons only for items you might need and keeping them in envelopes in your purse…..now that is truly the time-consuming way of couponing. If you’re super busy and make good money at your job, then couponing may not be for you….it does take *some* time after all. But if you’re like the rest of us who have a little free time and really need to save money, couponing is definitely worthwhile.

By: Dash

Dash — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:45:17 +0000

In my opinion ‘couponmom’ is the only coupon blog one needs to look at. Instead of trying to guess what is a good deal for each person it simply tells you about everything on sale that week and which sunday paper or online coupon to use. What’s more is that it presents this information in table format (kind of like using excel) so you can sort on any one of the 7-9 columns the one I use is price and I sort such that everything that I can get for FREE shows up at the top.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:10:51 +0000

(this is Rachel from comment #9)

I was gone all weekend and my post got caught in the approval waiting list so here it is minus the link:

“We just don’t buy much stuff that coupons are good for so its a waste of my time…”

This is a common misconception. You can use coupons for the things you don’t normally buy to get the products that you actually want which don’t have coupons. Luckily, there are people out there that are willing to put together the deals and share them on the internet so the time sunk in couponing goes down significantly.

I wish that I could take advantage of having something like a CVS card to get “Extra Bucks”. There’s just nothing like that here in Canada that even remotely compares to what you have in the US.

If you want to know more about productive couponing, google “how to coupon for the rest of us” and you will find the link to an article that explains it better than I ever could.

By: Aliesha

Aliesha — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:15:40 +0000

I like to make my grocery list according to whats on sale in my local grocery store’s sale flier. They are always having great deals like 50% off, buy one get one, ect. I don’t buy the stuff I don’t need like cookies, cakes, ect. but I get stuff that I can use like chicken or spegehtti. I usually find this to be cheaper especially when I get the buy one get one free offers. Usually there will be extras for the next week and then I will not have to buy meals for that week. I aslo try to look up coupons that I can match with the sale items. I really save a lot of money by doing this and becuase the sales change every week I will always have a variety of meals to make.

By: G. Peterson

G. Peterson — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:55:21 +0000

Have to agree with you and Shawn Miles. Growing, canning and freezing your own produce…making your own cleaning supplies…buying basics (and I have yet to see a coupon on a bag of potatoes or a bag of chicken leg quarters!)
I will use a coupon for an item that I really need—for instance: Ball just had a $1.00 off coupon for canning supplies. Now that’s a decent coupon!
I know others have become coupon queens and seem to know what they are doing….but I wonder if they are factoring in the time AND the gas to get to all the different stores that have all the special deals.

By: sipote

sipote — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:03:10 +0000

i think Trent is talking about the exception to most of his couponers on his site…i see alot of them disagree with him…well, because they are the exception to the rule. Most people do not spend time finding, cutting, nor posting about coupons on blogs like this. The majority think the coupon gives them a right to buy that item, since, hey, they got a coupon for it! Regardless that half the time if the look to the left/right side of that item in the store, a generic brand will be much cheaper, even when he/she uses the coupon! I know, I was one of them…I do like the coupon-blogsphere; however, their intensity about the whole thing leaves me wondering if it’s worth it when the generic brand would do just fine?

By: Christine

Christine — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:23:19 +0000

I used to buy groceries like Trent mentioned. I made a list of things that I needed for that week.

I came upon a website recommended by someone on a forum called http://www.couponmom.com. I read Stephanie Nelson’s Strategic Shopping free ebook. “Strategic Shopping is not about changing the way you eat, it is about changing
the way you buy the food that you like.” I still eat the same foods as I did before but instead of buying the food when I needed it, I buy it when it’s on sale and stock up until the next sales cycle. You have to know what your family eats and how fast your family consumes things.

These are what these coupon blogs are all about. They are letting you know when the best deals are and when to stock up. It’s not that much more work then what I did before. Before couponing, I spent about $75 per week but now with couponing, I spend about $40 per week on grocery/household/baby/laundry/pet items (the same exact items or close enough).

Frugality is about spending less on certain items so you can spend more on the things that matter. Well, couponing helps me achieve that. It takes a little bit of work but the couponing blogs do most of the work for you.

And for the people that don’t want to coupon or look at the coupon blogs, that’s alright with me because it means more coupons and free items for me.

By: Dash

Dash — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:58:01 +0000

In my opinion http://www.couponmom.com is the only coupon blog one needs to look at. Instead of trying to guess what is a good deal for each person it simply tells you about everything on sale that week and which sunday paper or online coupon to use. What’s more is that it presents this information in table format (kind of like using excel) so you can sort on any one of the 7-9 columns the one I use is price and I sort such that everything that I can get for FREE shows up at the top.

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:25:39 +0000

A few people have commented that coupons for fresh, non-processed foods are not available, but this is not true. I regularly find coupons for Smart Chicken, Earthbound Farm, Organic Valley, Horizon, Driscoll berries, Del Monte fresh pineapple, Eggland’s Best Organic…just to name a few.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:31:03 +0000

A few people have mentioned only checking a couple of couponing blogs. I’m just curious which blogs are frequented. I think I’d like to look and see for myself.

By: Barb

Barb — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:30:44 +0000

I cannot believe you are still unaware of Jeffrey at grocerycouponguide.com and his “Eating Well on $1 A Day” challenge. Result after 100 days = Money Spent: $76.11 / Retail Value of Everything Purchased: $1473.94, with photos of all receipts. Doesn’t seem possible does it?

Most of the excess was donated to his local food bank. It is not hard work, he is now writing a very detailed guide on how to duplicate his results titled “Lazy Couponing”. Since he is about to be interviewed by CNN a lot of this will likely change in the near future as more people do it. Still, he points up a lot of mistakes in how people use coupons. Well worth the read.

By: Cathy Moran

Cathy Moran — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 14:26:21 +0000

It isn’t a bargain if you don’t need it. I look at the coupon sites, crowing about having bought some nutritionally worthless product for little or nothing, and conclude that the writer has lost sight of what’s important. Coupons have become a game, not a tool.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:01:05 +0000

Seems to me those stickers on Walgreens items are not always on the products and when they are, only on some of the products. And they say something like “to be sold only at Walgreens” or something similar. I don’t remember them saying anything about resale.

It is a job to chase down the deals as it takes time and computer skills to be able to do this stuff. Many people don’t have time to do the deals or know how to find stuff online.

There are free items at Walmart and Target and CVS all the time also, I never see any stickers on their stuff. Even my grocery store that doubles coupons has free stuff pretty often. Recently they paid us 1 cent to take cereal out of the store.

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:34:38 +0000

I personally think it is wrong to sell things at a garage sale that you received free with coupons. Walgreens specifically puts stickers on free Register Rewards items forbidding resale. And I find the people who chase deals and clear out the shelves to be rather greedy. It sounds like a compulsion. Often they use the excuse that they will donate the glucose meters or whatever, but it’s still a compulsion.

By: Lise

Lise — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:34:34 +0000

In general I agree that coupons can easily trick us into buying stuff we don’t need. There’s actually quite of bit of research out there on how we fall for these lures, and spend more money than we would if we didn’t have a coupon.

That said, I subscribe to Groupon, and I’m happy I do. One of my goals is to see more of the notable places within my state, and Groupon frequently has deals on things like these. So, for example, I got discounted tickets to the Stone Zoo, or Old Sturbridge Village, two attractions here in MA that I haven’t visited. I also wanted to try new restaurants in my area, so I bought a few Groupons for restaurants in places I frequently visit.

I guess my point is that sites like these can be useful if you can match the deals up with your goals and values – not necessarily a single item, like toothpaste.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:48:13 +0000

Not all coupon blogs/sites are created equal. Groupon for example features a time sensitive offer every day or two (that can be emailed to you). Yes, you may have a dedicated coupon email account, but unless you check it within the 24-36 hour time frame, you miss out on that deal. Of course you can’t always predict when you will need something, but given the 1 year time-frame to capitalize on any groupon, there’s definite leeway to make it work.

However, I would argue that Groupon is the exception to the rule and stand by the principal of your post and follow-up comment.

By: Romeo Clayton

Romeo Clayton — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:09:51 +0000

After reading through most of these post, there seems to be an entire host of “strategic coupon users.” If someone is a stay-at-home parent of not-so-rambunctious children, then I guess there is plenty of time to ‘shop’ for coupons. Because I don’t do it and don’t know the amount of time it takes to save “big” money, I can’t measure for certain the opportunity costs. But, if one spends more than twenty hours a week searching for “deals” he or she would probably save more money having a part-time job :)

By: Belinda

Belinda — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:01:39 +0000

My organization system: I bought an index card-sized accordian folder with insertable plastic tabs, which I labeled for each category (dairy, pasta, cleaning, etc.) It’s small enough to fit in my purse. I have never had a problem with coupons building up because I use the ones I clip!

By: Tom Denver, CO

Tom Denver, CO — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:58:42 +0000

Um….There’s a link to Groupon’s subscription page just above the very post that says you don’t link to Groupon. I’d hoped it was just a picture and not a link. Did I miss something in the post or the comments?