Have you watched any of these shows lately called, Extreme Couponing”? We have watched a few and are amazed at the amount of money that these people save. Now many people look for discounts and coupons since it can save them a great deal of money. Sometimes they buy a thousand dollars worth of food and end up paying a couple of dollars for the food items they are purchasing because of the coupons they collect and use.
They end up with many items of the same thing, and I guess that is ok as long as it will not spoil. Some even donate what they cannot use to charity which is a really great thing. They need to have lot’s of storage since they are buying many things on special with these coupons.
Look for Discounts and Coupons – Other Peoples Garbage
It has sparked another kind of problem. Apparently because of these shows, there are people now who are rummaging through garbage bins on garbage day and collecting coupons that people are throwing out. Others are collecting coupons by stealing them from the inside of newspapers before they are delivered. This is clearly wrong and we do not condone this method as a means of saving money. There is a lot of money to be saved and there are sufficient coupons for everyone. I am also not sure that the stores really want this type of savings through mass coupons, unless it is good advertising for them as well.
Save your Coupons and Obtain all of the Discounts
Still, if you can collect coupons, it is a great way to save money on things you need. My neighbor recently received a coupon in the mail for Philips fluorescent lights. It had a value on it of $3.27 and he figured that he would get a discount of that amount off the regular price. Instead when he got to the cash register, the $16.00 cost for three lights had been reduced to $3.27 for $12.73 cents savings. Add sales tax to that and it is even higher. What a great deal. On top of getting such a good price, he is also going to save money as well on his electrical usage!
We are not big collectors of coupons, however after watching these shows and seeing what my neighbor saved we are considering saving coupons. It is a lot of work to collect them, sort them and then remember to use them at the grocery store. I used to think that only poor people would use coupons, but when you can save hundreds of dollars , why not use coupons? It really comes down to how much effort you want to put in to saving money.
Where You Live Makes a Difference
Now each country is different. Apparently in the US, coupons have a much greater overall value than they do in Canada. For some reason they are not used as much here and are not as popular. But as my neighbor demonstrated there are still lots that can you save you money. You may not reduce a thousand dollars of groceries to almost zero. Still saving a few hundred dollars is well worth the effort!
Coupons are also moving to online web sites. Consumers are using their smart phones to collect coupons now. At some grocery stores you must sign up as a user and then you will receive all the coupons electronically. Your usage will be tracked and coupons will be targeted more closely to your buying habits. We still have to explore how this works and plan to try it in the near future on our smart phone. We are going to try out this approach shortly and will add a post about electronic coupons.
If you have coupon stories let us know. I am sure our readers would love to hear about these money-saving deals too. Especially people who are using their smart phones to find deals and use coupons displayed on their smart phones at the register.
July 25th, 2012 on 5:25 pm
we have saved a lot of money by using coupons in combination with sales. It is really double the discount and you save so much money. it takes a bit of work, but then what does not these days. collect coupons now.