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Do coupons help you save money, or prompt you to buy things you wouldn't otherwise purchase?
Results so far:
| Save money | 63% | 330 votes | Total: 522 votes | |
| Spend more | 37% | 192 votes |
Save money
by M. Moore
Created on: March 08, 2011
Coupons can definitely save you money. It takes a bit of research and organization but when used properly it's very simple to walk out of stores saving 80 percent or more. Many people even "grocery shop for free", stockpiling and hoarding coupons until they can match the coupons with sales in the store for free or very cheap items. Many times, these are not even things the people need or use. By having these coupons in excess, when sales come around for items you can likely combine coupons and make profits or "overages". Things that are not needing can be later donated to charity for the people that DO need it. If someone is going to pay me $5.00 minus the cost of a stamp to take a Swiffer product out of the store, why wouldn't I?
A lot of people do not know that you can use one manufacturer's coupon and one coupon from the store you're shopping at. For instance, if you're shopping at CVS and you have a coupon from your Sunday newspaper for $1.00 off one jar of Jif peanut butter and the same week CVS has a coupon in their sales flyer for $1.00 off one jar of Jif peanut butter, and they are on sale for $2.00, you can use both coupons and just pay tax on a jar of peanut butter. Now imagine, you have ten of these coupons..
Another thing people do not seem to realize is when a store has a sale for Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) it can be combined with a Buy One Get One Free coupon for two free items.
There are many websites dedicated to rounding up weekly grocery store and drugstore deals. You can easily navigate through many stores' sales and see who has what free items and who has which items the cheapest. Becoming a member of your local drugstores and grocery store loyalty programs is a must. Often times, my local grocery store sends me emails with things loading to my card for free. I just have to pick it up!
It seems I "coupon" a bit differently from everyone others here. Maybe I'm just a bit more committed/addicted to my hobby. I've heard people say "It's just a quarter." If I see a quarter, I pick it up..
In the end, saving coupons for things you DEFINITELY buy is surely worth it. It doesn't take as much time as I put into it to save money. Though, the amount does reflect the amount.
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Spend more
by Anthony Megna
Created on: March 19, 2010 Last Updated: October 29, 2011
Too bad there isn't another category for this question, such as buying items that we don't really like! For instance, assume you have a box of cereal that you don't mind eating, but that you're getting kind of sick of. Now a coupon comes along where there is a buy one, get one free on the same brand of cereal you have sitting in your cupboard. Well, the value is hard to pass up, so you end up getting another box of the same item!
My wife is an avid coupon user, but I am facing this issue every time she does the grocery list. Here I am, trying to finish a product as fast as I can so I can try another brand, and along comes a coupon for the same thing I'm trying to finish! What happens? She can't pass up the value, and I end up with the same brand and another couple of weeks of eating the same old thing. This is the problem with the coupon theory. But coupons do have their place, and there is no question one can save money with them.
It takes a lot of discipline to save money with coupons. Just because there is a buy one, get one free on an item, doesn't mean one has to go out and purchase that item. But people do it all the time because they can't pass up the value. What happens then? The same thing that has been happening to me for years. I try to finish the item so I can try something new, but here comes another coupon for the same thing which my wife buys because she thinks I like that item so much as she sees me eating it as fast as I can! It is a catch-22 big time! It's actually kind of funny when you think about it, but for me it's getting damn frustrating.
So the coupon theory can actually make people spend more than they counted on, just to try to get the "value" from that coupon. Even if one doesn't really need the product, some people have to purchase it because they can't "pass up the value". But what they don't realize is that there is no value when that item sits on your shelf because you can't stand it any more! Then it goes to waste and ends up being either thrown out or overused to the point where the person never wants to see it in their house again!
But we still use coupons and wouldn't think of shopping without them. What a conundrum!
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