by Christine Murphy

Created on: March 29, 2010

In my opinion, coupons can make poor people even poorer; that is, if they do not use them in a smart way.  And sadly, many people do not.

I hear many people brag about how much they "saved" with coupons.  But did they really save?  If they found a coupon for $2.00 off of a $7.00 widget, and buy it, they will think they saved $2.00.  But if the widget was not something on the shopping list, something that was not needed, in truth, they didn't "save" anything.  They are out $5.00.  That would be right up there with me going around telling people that I saved $100,000 by buying a Ford Focus rather than a Rolls Royce.  For us, a car is a necessity, but the Ford Focus gets us where we want to go just as well as a Rolls would.  See what I mean?

Last time I checked, the Sunday Boston Globe sells for $2.00; maybe even more by now, as it's been ages since I bought it.  There are tons of fliers in the Globe that contain coupons, for sure.  But when I've gone through them, the value of any coupons that I would actually use, for stuff that I would normally buy anyway, is less than what the paper cost.  This is a big part of why we stopped getting the paper.

Many coupons are for processed convenience foods, which I almost never buy.  I prefer to buy fresh meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as fresh produce.  There are never any coupons for items like these.  Sometimes I do buy frozen veggies, they are a good value and almost as healthy as fresh; but I prefer just the plain vegetables, nothing with sauce packets and the like.  There are also never any coupons for plain frozen veggies, either, only for the ones with sauces that I can make at home myself for a lot less.  Another thing you never see coupons for are bags of plain white or brown rice (the kind you actually have to cook, not that over-processed Minute/Success rice stuff).  No coupons for bags of dried beans, either.  There are also never any coupons for plain old-fashioned oatmeal, only for boxes of those little microwaveable packets with different flavors.

Cold cereal?  Plenty of coupons for that!  But even if I used a coupon for $1.00 off a box of name-brand shredded wheat, for example, I'd still be set back $2.00.  How?  The store-brand version of the same size box of shredded wheat sells for $2.50, and tastes exactly the same.

So, what do I do to save money on groceries?  As I just said, look

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