Stretch Your Food Dollar: Does Clipping Coupons Make Sense?
I’ve been writing the Stretch Your Food Dollar series for almost a year. During that time, we’ve talked about a lot of things:
- How to Set a Food Budget For Your Household
- Shopping with a List
- The Benefits of Frozen Produce
- Canning and Preserving
- Making Your Own Bread
- Proper Food Storage
One thing we haven’t talked about, though, is coupons. I often wonder if clipping coupons makes sense. For example, my partner and I subscribe to the Costco newsletter. Every month we get a flyer with coupons. I dutifully make my shopping list and then look through the flyer to see if there is a coupon for something I need to buy. With only a few exceptions, when I actually get to Costco and do a price comparison of the brand that has a coupon versus another brand, it’s usually cheaper to just go with the brand without the coupon, even with the savings.
I’ve noticed the same thing about the coupons that come in the Sunday paper. Even with the discount, a generic brand is usually cheaper than the coupon brand. The only exception is if you frequent a grocery store that offers double or triple coupon days. That doesn’t stop me from clipping coupons, though. I still carry my cute little coupon holder with me whenever I go shopping. Because you never know . . . something I need could be on sale and then I could use a coupon to boot. I like to print out coupons online to increase my potential savings. But at the end of the day, I’m not a slave to brand names and I will happily purchase the generic brand if it’s a better deal.
How about you? In your experience, does clipping coupons make sense?
Photo credit: Stock.xchng
I tried doing coupons a while ago when we were a bit strapped selling one house and paying rent in a new city. I don’t think I ever found a thing that wasn’t cheaper under the store brand.
Serena: Off and on, I’ve tried newspaper coupons too, but find they’re typically for foods that are located only in the center aisles. I try to stick as much as possible to the outer perimeter (where the fresh foods are – fruits, vegetables, breads, protein, etc.) of the store, since the canned and packaged foods are found in the center aisles. One thing I do use are the coupons they spit out at checkout – tied to my grocery club card, these are offers for items that I regularly buy and therefore they end up saving me a couple of bucks on my next visit.
I rarely use coupons, although I used to peruse the Sunday circulars every weekend for quite a long time. I found that most of the coupons were for processed foods that, while perhaps enticing, I would never normally purchase. Also, in the rare instance that I do use a coupon, I make sure that the item is also on sale. Then you get a really good deal!