Using Coupons – Frugal, Cheap, or a Waste of Time?

January 9, 2008 · Filed Under , · 11 Comments 

rather_dollarsign.jpgI got an email today from a lady named Kelly who was making the strong argument that coupons, both online coupons, and those for brick and mortar stores and grocery stores, are not for the frugal as they are a waste of time. Here is her email, curious what you all think.

Kyle,
You seem to push coupons pretty heavy and consider them a tool for the frugal. It is my experience that they are a total waste of time as my frugal lifestyle has a strong bend towards saving time. By the time I clip coupons, organize them, make sure I have the right product and size to get the discount, that time could have been used to make money by working or selling things on ebay. Even your online coupons are often expired and the retailers that offer them have high markups anyways and the discount received is often clouded by those facts. In other words, you can just go down to the local Big Box store and get it cheaper and not have to pay high shipping costs. But I guess talking about these facts would be bad for your business.
Cordially,
Kelly

I have not responded to her yet because I think she may have a solid argument for grocery store coupons, especially with the popularity of the grocery store Reward and Club cards where the discount is reflected at checkout rather than with a clipped coupon.  I would tend to disagree with her on the online coupons argument. I think you need to be smart and get the best price for what you are buying and if an online coupon gets you free shipping or 10% off your order then you might as well take the discount as it takes very little time to enter a coupon code into the box at checkout.

Your thoughts? Please leave a comment!

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Comments

11 Responses to “Using Coupons – Frugal, Cheap, or a Waste of Time?”

  1. sarah on January 9th, 2008 2:05 pm

    I partially agree with your reader but do find that if the store is offering to double the coupons, it is worth the five minutes to cut out the doubler, cut out enough coupons to be doubled and head to the store. I had $8 taken off my grocery bill the other day.

  2. Kookaburra on January 9th, 2008 2:27 pm

    I can see her argument and for some people it may be true. If clipping and sorting coupons takes up too much of your time that you could instead be using to make money, then maybe you really aren’t saving anything.

    BUT, for me, and for many, many others, I’m sure they make it work so that they did indeed save money. I clip coupons during my daughter’s nap while I’m watching tv or catching up on blogs. I have to be home and I have to be quiet anyway, so it’s not like I could really be doing anything else. So I’m not losing out on making any money.

    Also, if you use your grocery coupons right, then you can easily save tons of money. It really is as easy as matching up the good sales with the coupons and stocking up on those items to take advantage of the greatly reduced price.

    If you stock up on many of the non-perishables that you use regularly, then you’ll need to grocery shop less often, therefore it will actually save you time. This is how it works for my anyway.

    And one more thing. Pretty often I do my shopping online and use online coupon codes. They are so quick and easy to use, it’s silly not to use them.

    Now, of course to actually get a good deal, you have to make sure you’re not getting ripped off. So do a quick price comp before you buy. No big deal. And if shopping online saves me from driving to 10 different stores to find what I’m looking for, then it saves me time, gas, and mileage on my car.

    Ok, I’m done rambling… I’m just alittle passionate on this subject.

  3. Lynnae @ beingfrugal.net on January 9th, 2008 2:53 pm

    I’d have to disagree with your reader. Coupon clipping does take time. I use http://www.thegrocerygame.com, though. It’s $10 for an 8 week subscription, but I always save way more than that over the course of 8 weeks. Basically, they take most of the work out of it for you. Every week you check in and get a list that gives you the best sale prices matched with the best coupons. It even tells you which flyer the coupon is in, so there’s not cutting and sorting required. Just mark the date on the flyer when you get it, and cut the coupons as you use them.

    I also agree that there are good deals to be had with coupons online. One that I see and use frequently is $10 off $30 at the Children’s Place. Shipping is a flat $5, so I buy $30 worth of clearance items (already at great prices), and it’s the same as having a $5 in-store coupon. You can’t beat that!

  4. Jennifer on January 9th, 2008 3:16 pm

    For me, using coupons is not only not practical, its darned near impossible! Some people I talk to online get loads of coupons in the Sunday paper, have stores that will double them and are able to regularly get $300 worth of groceries for $16.50 or something.

    I think its great, but in my area coupons aren’t available in the paper and the few that I come across in the junk mail are for new, processed convenience foods & cleaners that I don’t use, and even with the coupon price are more expensive than what I do use. The coupons I see for products that we do use tend to be for prices I can get cheaper, on sale already at the stores that don’t take competitor coupons, etc.

    But for the most part, around here the store flyers in the paper just have price lists, and no coupons at all. I’ve tried downloading them, but the online coupons I’ve found are again, not for products my family uses and I just end up on spam email lists for my trouble.

    I think the keys to couponing are:
    -you have to have access to coupons for products you use
    -you have to buy with coupons when the items are already on sale
    -you have have stores that double or triple coupons

    Sorting them & tracking sales would be the least of my worries. I’d just like to see some actual coupons for once!

  5. Jenny on January 9th, 2008 4:13 pm

    I can see her point concerning paper coupons that require clipping and organizing. It is a lot of work and in some cases (where you buy generic or shop at big box stores) it’s not worth it. But, not looking around online when you’re getting ready to buy something off of the internet is silly. It takes less than five minutes to look for a coupon code.

    I find that when I have high dollar coupons for stuff I don’t need I’m more likely to make a special trip to the store and then put extra stuff in the cart. It’s easy for me to see how clipping coupons can actually end up costing me more money.

  6. Kyle on January 10th, 2008 7:33 am

    Great responses one and all! Thanks for stopping by and leaving such well thought out responses.

  7. Kyle on January 10th, 2008 7:33 am

    Lynnae that websites sounds interesting, I will check it out.

  8. Brip Blap on January 12th, 2008 10:28 am

    Personally I’m not good with coupons for low-value items – I can’t get organized enough to bring a $.50 off a $5.00 item at the grocery. I do, however, get coupons for larger value items – if there’s a buy-three-diaper-boxes-get-one-free that would save me $20. I know there’s some name for this approach…

    When I’m at the grocery store I stick to generics to save money. We’re lucky that our local grocery stores have good, all-natural generics which are cheap even compared to the not-all-natural name brands.

    But hey, if I were better organized I’d clip coupons in the evenings, or on the train or something… I know that it’s basically free money (although you have to be careful – brand names with coupons can still be more than generics without).

    Good question!

  9. Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances on January 12th, 2008 2:36 pm

    I definitely use online coupons. Sites like retailmenot.com make it way to easy not to.

    However, I rarely use coupons offline. I rarely find a coupon for something on my list, and I don’t need an excuse to buy more stuff I don’t need. Anyhow, I try to buy generic whenever possible and I’ve found that is almost always cheaper than using coupons on brand names.

  10. Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch on January 15th, 2008 8:36 pm

    Coupons are a slick invitation to use products. “I got these candles for $4 less with a coupon.” Yeah, but you didn’t need them. I realize not all coupons are used like that, but honestly, what would you be buying if coupons didn’t exist?

    I do a quick search for online coupon codes because they take no time to find through sites like http://www.retailmenot.com, but grocery coupons ARE a waste of my time. When was the last time I saw one for something nutritious and useful like bananas??

  11. Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances on January 15th, 2008 9:09 pm

    Exactly, Anne! I’m trying hard to buy more single ingredient foods instead of boxed mixes, canned soups, and microwave dinners. But what are all the grocery coupons for? Boxed mixes, canned soups, and microwave dinners. While it’s tempting to use coupons to buy a can of soup for half off, it’s still a lot cheaper to make it myself from scratch.

    But in response to Kelly, I would say that I’ve had much better luck shopping online for things like kitchen appliances, rather than buying them online. While I may find something cheaper at Wally World or B.B. ‘n’ B., I usually end up regretting those purchases because they often turn out to be cheap crap. So, I shop online for the best reviewed items that I can afford and make sure that the items can do everything I need them to do. Sometimes they’re even cheaper than what I would have bought at a big box store, especially if I can get free shipping.

    But even if the item isn’t cheaper online, I usually end up saving because I am less tempted to buy other things on impulse like a DVD from the bargain bin, a flashy nail polish color that’s on sale, or a candy bar at the checkout counter. Plus then I really save time — not to mention gas!

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