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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

In praise of coupons. . . .

In the past, I've pooh-pooh'ed the use of coupons, with the argument that I could save more money by purchasing store brands, and that I didn't use anything for which I could find a coupon anyway. Well, I've changed my tune. When used correctly and judiciously, one can save a substantial amount of money.

Case in point: Albertson's offered double coupons (up to $1) in the Sunday insert. When combined with a store sale and a manufacturer coupon, some items are either FREE or very, very inexpensive. Here's what I got, for a total of $1.00. Yes, $1.00!!!! I know there are "super-couponers" out there who would consider this small-fry, but personally, I'm amazed.


What I love about this is that I will use all of these products. While I lament the plastic packaging (one really doesn't have a choice with shampoo these days, does one?) I AM a fervent recycler, so that mitigates the environmental downsides (and my inner eco-guilt) a little bit.

The other thing I love is that had I simply bought these items "on sale" (minus the manufacturer coupons and Albertson's double coupons), I would have paid a grand total of $14. Who knows how much this would have been at the non-sale price (considering it's Albertson's I'd add from .50 cents to a dollar to each of these items). And I can't even begin to count the number of times I've run out to the store at the last minute because I've run out of salad dressing or shampoo, thereby paying full price. So with planning and strategy (thanks to coupon match-up sites like this one I recently found: Frugal Living NW) I saved $13---or roughly 93%!

2 comments:

Cheri said...

Well done! I love couponing also!

Anonymous said...

Great job!

I too am very similar in that I really never took coupon-ing very seriously and never really saw the point until a month or two ago.

It's not about being cheap, but being smart and frugal.

Coupons = FREE money and when used smartly = GENIUS :-D

For example, Kellogg's cereal generally runs anywhere from $3-4 but with the Kellogg's $1 coupon and Krogers cereal sale (over), I was able to snag lots of boxes of cereal for only $0.88.

I still shake my head in amazement of the people who take coupon-ing to the next level where they save 70-90% in groceries and household items.

Although I try not to spend much too much time with coupon hunting, I do keep up with several coupon/deal blogs that inform me of good deals and sales/deals that stores are currently having which save me tons of time.

Love your blog!
-Clayton

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