This is not a rhetorical question. I’d really like to know.
I’ve worked hard to develop a lot of frugal habits over the years, but coupon clipping has never been one of them. I usually take my copy of the Sunday paper and lift all the ad supplements, chock full of coupons, and toss ‘em before I even start reading the front page.
I looked at the supplements last Sunday. Didn’t examine them coupon by coupon, but saw enough to give me a good idea of what kinds of products those coupons will buy….nationally advertised name brands, usually quite a bit more expensive than the store brands I use. So the question would be, does the coupon discount the name brand enough to really compete with the store brand price?
Maybe I’m just lazy. It seems to me that by the time you cut out coupons and, I presume, figure out some way to sort them by product, expiration date, etc. you’ve spent more time trying to save 50 cents here or $1.00 there than it’s worth. Spend five minutes to save 50 cents, and you’re spending the equivalent of an hour to save $6. That’s not even minimum wage.
I do use one coupon regularly, and that’s a 50 cent off coupon that actually comes inside a brand of toilet paper that I use regularly. This TP is already an excellent bargain; 50 cents off, especially when it only takes a moment to peel the coupon off the roll and stick it in my wallet, strikes me as a pretty good deal.
But maybe I’m not giving coupons a fair shake. Do you use them? Do they really save you enough money to make them worth the work and time spent searching them out, clipping and sorting them?
If you do—especially if you have a coupon-use system that maximizes savings while minimizing processing time, please share that in a comment.
I’ll try to have an open mind about this. After all, saving money is what this blog is all about, and no technique should be overlooked.
So tell me how you do it. I’ve got my scissors sharpened and ready.
Update:
I decided to buy a Sunday paper again ($2 in my area) and see if I could find any coupons that would actually save me money over the store brands I usually buy. Out of 12 coupons I selected, one would have saved me a few cents over it's store brand equivalent. Hardly worth the cost of the newspaper yes?
However, I did find that coupons may be a good idea when you're trying something new. I've always liked the "Duke the Dog" commercials for Bush's Baked Beans, so when I found a coupon for $1 off a 21-oz can of Black Bean Fiesta Grillin' Beans, I clipped it and took it to the grocery store.
The can was $2.08 retail, $1.08 with my coupon. While I was there, I also priced 15-oz cans of store brand black beans and corn, the main ingredients in the Black Bean Fiesta can. The corn was 66 cents; the black beans were 88 cents. I calculated that n reasonable chunk of another ingredient, red pepper, would cost about 20 cents, and a little chipotle sauce would cost another 20 cents, for a total of $1.94 for a 3- oz batch of my own "fiesta" mix of black beans and corn. That made it considerably cheaper per ounce than the Bush version...unless one had--aha!--a $1 off coupon. (And I didn't have to spend two whole minutes chopping red peppers and pouring out a tablespoon of chipolte sauce!)
I took the can home. I opened it and poured half the contents into a bowl.
Now, I like black beans. I put 'em on salads, I add them to my home-made burritos....and in my experience, black beans are black.
What I saw in my bowl were red beans. I scooped some up in a spoon and washed off the sauce to make sure. Red-brown beans. Where were the black beans? I'm not saying there weren't any in there, just that there had to be so few I couldn't see them.
There also wasn't much corn. I stirred the bowl and counted eight pieces of corn. I counted six small bits of red pepper. This in a bowl containing half of a 21-oz can.
Boy, I'm I glad I had that coupon. Especially after eating what was in that bowl, since what I tasted was basic beans with a little bit of hot sauce.
I'm going to try to make my own Fiesta beans. One drained can of black beans. One drained can of corn. A little red pepper. A little chipolte sauce. $1.94.
I'll let you know how it comes out.
Update:
I decided to buy a Sunday paper again ($2 in my area) and see if I could find any coupons that would actually save me money over the store brands I usually buy. Out of 12 coupons I selected, one would have saved me a few cents over it's store brand equivalent. Hardly worth the cost of the newspaper yes?
However, I did find that coupons may be a good idea when you're trying something new. I've always liked the "Duke the Dog" commercials for Bush's Baked Beans, so when I found a coupon for $1 off a 21-oz can of Black Bean Fiesta Grillin' Beans, I clipped it and took it to the grocery store.
The can was $2.08 retail, $1.08 with my coupon. While I was there, I also priced 15-oz cans of store brand black beans and corn, the main ingredients in the Black Bean Fiesta can. The corn was 66 cents; the black beans were 88 cents. I calculated that n reasonable chunk of another ingredient, red pepper, would cost about 20 cents, and a little chipotle sauce would cost another 20 cents, for a total of $1.94 for a 3- oz batch of my own "fiesta" mix of black beans and corn. That made it considerably cheaper per ounce than the Bush version...unless one had--aha!--a $1 off coupon. (And I didn't have to spend two whole minutes chopping red peppers and pouring out a tablespoon of chipolte sauce!)
I took the can home. I opened it and poured half the contents into a bowl.
Now, I like black beans. I put 'em on salads, I add them to my home-made burritos....and in my experience, black beans are black.
What I saw in my bowl were red beans. I scooped some up in a spoon and washed off the sauce to make sure. Red-brown beans. Where were the black beans? I'm not saying there weren't any in there, just that there had to be so few I couldn't see them.
There also wasn't much corn. I stirred the bowl and counted eight pieces of corn. I counted six small bits of red pepper. This in a bowl containing half of a 21-oz can.
Boy, I'm I glad I had that coupon. Especially after eating what was in that bowl, since what I tasted was basic beans with a little bit of hot sauce.
I'm going to try to make my own Fiesta beans. One drained can of black beans. One drained can of corn. A little red pepper. A little chipolte sauce. $1.94.
I'll let you know how it comes out.
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