My Adventures in Coupon Clipping, Or Why Coupons Suck
We all know that we’re headed towards a recession. Or that we’re in one. Or whatever. All I know is that I’m looking to save money wherever I can.
Many personal finance blogs advocate clipping coupons as an excellent way to save a little money. Websites like Coupon Mom and The Grocery Game even make an entire system out of it. Get Rich Slowly posted a lot of info on creating your own grocery price book a while ago, which just seems like a lot of work.
Anyway, last Sunday morning I was inspired to pore through the weekly sale flyers. After skipping through pages of car advertisements, I got to the good stuff: coupons for a pharmacy, coupons for a grocery store, and a whole stack of coupons from various local merchants. I dove through them while listening to Weekend Edition on NPR.
And you know what? They sucked! All of the grocery coupons were on overly processed food, not fresh produce, dairy, or meats. (Do I really need fifty cents off of Hostess cupcakes? I can’t remember the last time I bought Hostess cupcakes.) Most of the local services coupons were intended for homeowners, not apartment dwellers. The one exception, an ecologically friendly laundromat that bills itself as “Portland’s Greener Cleaner,” is located clear across town.
And here’s what I realized: Fundamentally, coupons are marketing. And marketing is about getting you to buy something you ordinarily wouldn’t.
So, barring clipping coupons from the paper, how can we save a few bucks on necessities we might actually buy? Here’s some ideas.
- Browse manufacturer’s websites. Seventh Generation, makers of green-friendly cleaners and toilet paper, have an entire section of their website just for printing out coupons.
- For produce, keep an eye on your grocery store’s website for things that are on special. Produce and meats go on special with a lot more frequency than you might get coupons for them.
- Buy fewer processed foods! Stick to the margins of the store and buy produce, grains, and meats in their raw form. Since most coupons are marketing for processed food, you can skip the clipping and eat better at the same time.
- Use the checkout coupons you get along with your receipt. Yes, they’re still marketing, but they’re marketing that’s targeted to you, and you might actually save some money. I’ve gotten some great deals on cat litter and saline solution, for example.
- If you live in a bottle return state, take advantage of it! Since we get our milk in bottles, and the deposit on those is $1 a pop, we make sure to bring all of our bottles back. That’s money we’ve already paid; we might as well use it to buy the next round of dairy.
What else? How do you save money on groceries without the Sunday morning clipfest?
I have to disagree with you, as each week I save between $50 and $100 on groceries by clipping coupons and using them in combination with store specials. This evening I went grocery shopping, and saved more than $70. Items I saved on were not just processed food, though I admit there were a few of those items in there, but on good foods my family needs like natural cheese, 100% fruit juice, peanut butter and jam, not to mention the money I saved on diapers and cat food. Yes, it pays to watch the specials and not be a brand whore – but cutting coupons allows me to spend about a hundred dollars a week to decently feed a family of four with twice the amount of food for my money. My best tip? Find a local farmers market, and go toward the end of their shopping day. The growers don’t really want to load their wares back into their trucks, and you can get great deals on very healthy veggies. I make my own baby food every week with great finds from local growers, and it’s good for the environment, too.
We almost only use the checkout coupons. For most of everything else, we buy store brand anyway, so there’s no coupons for it. Sometimes we can get it on sale with our Giant cards, which is even nicer.
I usually don’t buy the local Sunday paper, but this past week I did. When I browsed through the coupons and flyers, I remembered why I never buy the local Sunday paper — the coupons annoy me! There was a coupon for everything I wouldn’t want even if it were free.
I love coupons, just not sucky coupons. I think the best coupons come in weekly fliers that come in the mail. Although, for me, I get the best deals on groceries by paying attention to weekly specials at the supermarket.
I actually wrote a post on this just last week, and there are a number of ways to save on groceries.
Well the major grocer here in Florida every week has a number of “buy one get one” deals that generally make the item cheaper than even Wally Worlds house brand to I go in and roam the aisles every week to see what they are.
As my Grandfather had a Grocery Store I can tell you that as a “general rule” everything goes on sale usually in a 12 week cycle. So always buy as much as you think you’ll use in 12 weeks.
And for those in small apartments you will be surprised at how much you can store in a small space….a single cubic foot 12x12x12 inches will hold an average of 48 cans of 15-16 ounce size. One of those “Square Foot” bookcases (the ones that are 12×12 inches and 5 or 6 feet tall with 4 or 5 shelves) will hold a couple of hundred cans.
And Freezers now come in all sizes from midget to gigantic…the secret on freezers is they are only for very high dollar items…this usually means you should only store meat or seafood in them…it is VERY un-economical to store vegetables….they are too cheap vs. the space and electricity they use.
~ Roland
Leslie: I’m so glad you save so much in coupons! I’m just so picky about my food — my peanut butter is the kind that comes out of a peanut butter machine, my jam is usually homemade, and fruit juice… well, I guess we just don’t buy fruit juice. And diapers aren’t exactly a necessity in this household, though I’ve heard that diapers are one of the things a lot of people do clip coupons for.
I like your tip about the farmers’ market though. I can’t wait until ours starts up.
John: yes, I think weekly specials are probably the way to go for me as well. My local grocery store has their flyer online, which makes me very happy.
Mrs. Micah: Good point about there not being coupons for store brand items. Maybe that’s why I can never find coupons for the stuff I buy.
Jamie: Thanks for the link! Like you, I tend to favor Hannaford over Shaw’s, but now I may have to take a second look, at least for the nonperishables.
FrugalZen: Thanks for the freezer tip. I’ve been wanting a chest freezer for a while, but I’m not sure where it would go in our small apartment. I wonder about the electricity bill, though.