When Coupons Are Worth It… And When They’re Not

You’ve probably seen shows – or at the very least, commercials for shows – like Extreme Couponing, where people use coupons to get hundreds of dollars’ worth of food for mere pennies, and it’s likely made you think twice about if you’re missing out by not clipping coupons and bargain shopping in extremes. And while coupons will inevitably save you money on certain food items or household products, there are other times when using a coupon to save money won’t actually do your wallet any favors. These scenarios outline when coupons are worth it… and when they’re not.

When Coupons Are Worth It

–          You buy the product regularly. A lot of advertisements and newspapers will run coupons for household staples, such as toilet paper, toothpaste, cleaning products, chips, or yogurt. They also do a great job of featuring a variety of different brands of these items, giving you the freedom to clip the coupons that are pertinent to your life and ignore those that aren’t. If you have certain items that you buy on a regular basis and you can find coupons for those items, then you absolutely should use a coupon in conjunction with your purchase. You’d be wasting money otherwise.

 

–          You can use the coupon in conjunction with another coupon. Some store coupons or manufacturer’s coupons will let you double up, meaning you’re able to pair one coupon with another to maximize product savings. These types of deals usually allow you to save a significant amount of money on a product, and sometimes you can walk away having spent less than a dollar on items that were normally $2-3.

 

–          You can combine a sale and a coupon.Finding a coupon for a product that’s already on sale is like hitting the jackpot – you get an item you want on mega-sale that way! And if you can double up on coupons on top of that then you’re really working coupons to your advantage. Shopping store advertisements and clipping coupons in conjunction may take some extra time during your day, but the savings can be well worth the time spent doing so.

When Coupons Aren’t Worth It

–          The store brand contains the same ingredients and is cheaper. A lot of coupons are for name-brand items only, and you can usually buy the store brand of the same item for much cheaper, even after the coupon is factored in. If you do a label check and all of the ingredients in the product match up then there’s no reason to spend the extra money on the name brand item, assuming the store brand item is less expensive whether you use the coupon or not.

 

–          You have no use for more than one package of the item. Many coupons are only valid if you buy two or more of the product, which can result in you spending more money than necessary on something. This is especially true for food items, which can go bad if not used up soon enough. If you have no use for multiples of the same product, but have to buy more than one to use the coupon, then skip spending the extra money and stick to just what you need.

 

–          You find yourself buying products simply because you have a coupon for it. One of the major pitfalls of coupon cutting is that once you start you can find yourself clipping coupons for items that you’ve never even heard of, and then subsequently scouting these items out in the store and filling your cart with them. The end result can be a bill that’s much higher than you initially budgeted for, and all because you had a coupon for a product that you would have never tried otherwise.

Couponing can be a great way to save money on items that you already regularly buy, however it can also cause you to overspend if you aren’t careful. Stick to cutting only the coupons you know that you’ll use and price check store brands against name brands before you buy.

Author Bio

Nancy Parker was a professional nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny, www.enannysource.com/ etc. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com

Related articles

• 6 Ways to Save Money Right Now (savealittlemoney.com)
• 6 Super Secrets to Save on Back to School Supplies (savealittlemoney.com)

Tags: Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Money, Store brand

Category: Family Finances