I think most people have seen a news segment or a TV show that focused on the woman or man who was an “extreme” couponer. That is not what I ever set out be, nor did I ever turn out to be one. That said, I do get bit of a thrill when I hand my pile of coupons to the cashier and the total keeps going down, down, down.
The road to successful couponing is a journey that each person must take for themselves, as there is no right way or wrong way, but rather what works for you, the time you have to give to it, and how far you wish to take it. What follows is my personal venture into savings using coupons.
I used to subscribe to the Sunday paper years ago when I was living in a condo, but the paper kept getting stolen before I got out of bed on Sunday. I did a stake-out of the paper one weekend, after paying for a month’s worth of papers I never got to read. I got up extra early and sat on my sofa where I could see the paper on the mat through the crack at the bottom of the door. I hear a door open in the hall, and WHOOSH! the paper is gone and I hear the door across the hall slam. Ok, this is truly an awkward situation. After considering what just happened, not being a confrontational person, I figured they were the thieves, and I was going to stand up for my rights. I ring the bell, the wife answers the door, looks disgusted, and calls her husband – the thief – to deal with me. Yes, he did indeed steal my paper every week to read the music section. Don’t feel sorry for the guy. We were on the penthouse floor. He could afford his own paper. After hearing paper thievery was rampant in the building, I canceled the subscription. After moving into the house with my husband, I figured it was safe to order the Sunday paper again. Not so much. Seems the paper people (they are not young kids here, they are adults) drive by and throw the paper on the end of the driveway. Not a good thing in rain or snowstorms. Canceled again.
Years pass, literally, and I don’t use coupons. Then printable, online coupons came to be. I jumped on board, but quickly got disillusioned for 2 reasons. First, it was costing me printer ink, which is not cheap, and the coupons seem to be the same products over and over. There is only so much yogurt or Pillsbury rolls or Cheerios one can eat. Or not.
Then I got this strange idea – look for coupons on eBay. I have no idea where I got the idea to look there, but there it was. People selling 100 coupon packs for a few dollars. Disclaimer: they are not actually “selling” coupons, but rather you are paying for their time to cut and send them to you. This was nothing short of perfection in my budget quest. I get coupons, don’t have to cut them, and somebody is making money from my admitted cheapness and laziness. Win-Win situation, I think. Average outlay for this amazing service is $3-$8.00 per month, depending on how good the coupons are, who and where you get them from, and how many you anticipate needing. The savings far out-weigh the cost.
Looking at the budget, and what we tend to buy the most, I was also able to search by product. If you have a baby, you can get just baby item coupons, just diaper coupons, etc. If you have a dog, there are just dog food coupons. I needed to stock up on Magic Erasers since I use them a lot for cleaning our house and boat; there they were, 10 for $2.00 plus shipping of 55 cents. $2.55 to save $20.00. The only limit is your imagination when searching eBay for coupons.
The next thing is to have a system once you have your pile of coupons, either from actual self-clipping or using the eBay route. I used a couple systems, like organizer wallets, but leafing through the coupons in the store got old fast. I am not a leafer. I use these clear, pocket pages that collectors of baseball cards use, that come in many sizes. They work because I can put all the coupons for certain departments on a page, I can see the expiration dates for ease of use and tossing old coupons, and it has cut a lot of time off the system. (HINT: these are also available on eBay!) I leave the binder at home – I did take it once to the store and got looks from people. I now just take the coupons I wish to use in an envelope to the store.
Anyone who uses coupons has to admit to the thrill of watching the number on the screen at the cash register drop. The more it drops, the more puffed with pride I get that I am beating the system. I’ll get into that in my next post. And if it ends in a jealous look from the person behind me when I am not paying a lot of money for a cart of groceries, that just makes my day…sometimes my week.
My system has shaved a range of $30-$50.00 per week off our grocery bill in coupon use alone. On the low end of savings, that is $1,500.00 in savings per year. But the ways to save do not end there. But I’ll end there because I know you are just itching to get over to eBay and see this money saving world of which I have written. Go look…enjoy the savings!
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