Couponing

I recently tried couponing again after watching the “Extreme Couponing” show on TLC. (Me & about 100,000 other people, apparently). I have tried it in the past without much success, but I thought wow, if I could pay $10.00 a week for groceries instead of $200.00, that could be some serious savings or spending money!

I bought a 3-ring binder and some divider tabs. I ordered some of those shiny baseball-card display pages to hold my coupons. I subscribed to couponmom.com and coupons.com to get updates on the latest coupons and matchups. I carefully reviewed each week’s grocery store fliers to compare what was on sale to the coupons I had on hand. I pored over each week’s coupon inserts, clipped them out, and printed additional online coupons galore. I sorted them and neatly filed them away in my coupon binder, all nice & neat and divided into categories.

And there they stayed. In the coupon binder.

Which I never remembered to take with me.

The main thing I learned during this most recent couponing experiment is that it takes TOO MUCH TIME!! It takes time to review the coupons and look at the matchups provided online. It takes time to actually clip the coupons out. It takes time to sort them and file them in the neat little binder. And it takes much longer in the grocery store when you have to look for certain brands and sizes that match your coupons. It takes time to drive to two or three different stores to get what is on sale at each store. It takes time to read and memorize the coupon policies of each store (many of which have recently changed due to the overwhelming response to the “Extreme Couponing” show).

It’s not that I don’t have extra time. I mean, I have previously blogged about how much time I waste watching TV or being lazy at home on weekends. It’s just that I don’t enjoy couponing enough, or save so much money by couponing, that it’s worth the time investment to me. I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

The one benefit I did earn from this experience is that I do closely review the sale fliers each week and only buy certain items when they are on sale. Diet Coke is a great example. We go through a 12-pack of Diet Coke cans every two days. If they are not on sale, they can cost $4.98 each or more. A good sale can bring them down to $2.50 to $3.00 each. So when they are on sale, I stock up. I buy enough to last until the next good sale. I keep them in the garage and bring them in as I need them. I figure if we use four 12-packs each week, that could save me $8.00 per week, which is $416.00 per year – just on Diet Cokes – something I buy anyway.

So I do try to be more conscious of sales on things we use every day, but the couponing thing just doesn’t work for me. I know some people are very successful at it, and I cheer them on. I even bring the coupon inserts from my Sunday paper in for others at the office to use. More power to you, extreme couponers! I’ll just watch on TV.