Why Americans are using less coupons

[kittensaver]

May 5, 2013 23:41:05 GMT -5 suek1958 said:

Thank you, kittensaver, for saying "fewer" coupons!  

Yeah, I was reluctant to be the pompus a$$ to openly point out the grammar issue

[mizbear]

Coupon deals here have become very hit and miss and I think the Extreme Coupon cheats show has a lot to do with it. None of my local stores would EVER allow a customer to make 38 separate transactions in a row. They don't like it when you have legitimate reasons- or sensible ones- for splitting transactions.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"But, i honestly don't know how the Extreme Couponers do it. I still don't understand how they can use a coupon and get so much for so little. But, i don't need 100 jars of mustard so i guess it doesn't matter.":::...

A lot of the stores would bend/break their own coupon rules just for the publicity of getting on the show.  Thats lose/lose, since its the employees who have to deal with the angry customers saying "whaddaya mean I can't combine these?  I saw this on extreme couponing!!"

I clipped some and just plain forgot about them.  I never went to buy the thing they were for, and by the time I remembered, the coupon expired.

[chiver78]

I still clip. I get the Sunday paper delivered anyway, and I clip while I'm watching the Sunday morning news talk shows. it really doesn't take much time, IMHO. as far as what I use, I find I've been using more coupons for cleaning/paper/packaging/HBA goods than for food. that's fine, a dollar saved is still a dollar in my pocket.   

I'm sure I would use more if I kept my coupon sorter in my purse, since I'm more of a "stop at a store pretty much daily and pick up what I need that night" shopper. I buy my non-perishables in bulk, with coupons if I can make it work. if not, whatever. I'm still saving with the coupons on the non-food items.

[Shooby]

I hate coupons. I just don't want to be bothered with them. I just want a good price at the point of sale.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

When I fill up my gas tank on my car, the service station I use is owned by XXX grocery chain.. I buy my gas there, because it's close-by and handy. When I get the receipt for my gas purchase, there's a 'coupon' printed on the bottom for $.XX off my next grocery purchase. Problem is, I don't care for the quality of their produce/meat, etc so I don't grocery shop in their store and the receipt ends up going into the garbage.

The grocery where I do shop, has many coupons on display next to the product they're for. So if you happen to be buying that product (like laundry/dish detergent, coffee, etc), you can just take a coupon from the pad, and use it for that item. It's much more convenient for me if they happen to have a coupon on display for the product I'm buying, and I can take it to the till to get the discount right at time of purchase. I don't even bother looking at the coupons or flyers in the weekend paper anymore - too much hassle for the few ¢¢¢ saved.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I was watching extreme couponing at my sister's a couple days ago.  The shopping. Trip took almost 40 hours of preparation to buy $4000 of goods for $50.  But the coupon ear said she was not going to use a lot of what she bought.

i couldn't help but to think that spending those hours working at a $10/ hour job would be a hell of a lot more useful than buying 95 packages of panty liners.

[suziq38]

I used to be really good at this, but those days are long gone.

I had to tend to my health issues, so I didn't have the time.
Also, the stores in my area no longer double the coupons.

I still have so much stuff stockpiled that I don't have to buy shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, toothbrushes, toothpaste, aspirin, Motrin PM, and makeup for several years.
Unless someone alerts me to a great deal, forget it.

[happyscooter]

With the Dollar Tree selling almost the exact same thing, why bother anymore?

[Deleted]

I have a friend who facebooks her weekly stash... Generally though its mostly stuff I'd never use or eat... 

[mrsdutt]

Sept 6, 2013 8:50:17 GMT -5 oped said:

I have a friend who facebooks her weekly stash... Generally though its mostly stuff I'd never use or eat... 

I have a friend who still gets fantastic deals by using overages on great coupons.  Most of her meats, dairy, fresh produce end up being free from the overages. 

I tried doing just one of her deals and the store kept the item off the shelf until the coupon expired.  The other one they took the item away and won't sell it.

I did get 3 free shave gels and made 6 cents this week.  Cherry picking seems to be what most of us couponers ended up doing.

[twinmama85]

I use to be an avid couponer, but for me, its because we changed our eating habits and now I make just about everything from scratch and usually organic ingredients. There a not many coupons for that. I use milk coupons and sometimes for any canned tomatoes I get or frozen veggies but thats about it.

Now, I just print them off the internet if I find one that applies to me, doesn't take very long or much effort.

As far as home stuff, I make all my own cleaners, except for bleach, and I think I am going to start using Amazon to buy TP.

[Shooby]

  I find i am going to Amazon more and more for all kinds of items.  For my cleaners, i love the purple Pine Sol.  I have squirt bottles and i just fill them part way and i use it for pretty much everything.

[dancinmama]

Back in the hay day of drug chain rewards, I used A LOT of coupons.  My goal was to create FREE stockpiles of the non-perishables that our household uses on a regular basis:  foil, Ziplocs, paper towels, Kleenex, bath tissue, laundry detergent, softener, stain remover, bleach, dish soap, dishwasher detergent, shampoo, body wash, razors, shave gel, candles, Platex gloves....and the list goes on.  These are products that I did not have to pay for as I was stockpiling them and will not have to pay for for quite a long time.

Some people do not think it is worth the time and effort to do.  These days I might agree with them because the deals are not nearly as abundant as they once were; but back in the day, being able to stockpile so many useful products that never "expire" for free....it was golden.
 

[twinmama85]

...ahhh, the golden age lol

[ZaireinHD]

I do use coupons when I can
1- most don't apply for me
2- don't need or want or have the space to stock pile

I really only want food coupons. even then they are for foods I don't eat, or never heard of or tried, not in the stores I go grocery shopping in. the other stuff yea I do clean but once I use a coupon for cleaning items it lasts months.
well I guess that's ok - I am getting like fifty cents off when purchasing 4 cans of scrubbing bubble!
LOL

[grits]

Yesterday, I saved 20 bucks with coupons. I subscribe to the newspaper because I like to read it. I get coupons from there, in store ads, and by printing them off the internet. Also, Kroger card users can electronically load coupons from Kroger's website onto their card.  Kroger sends me coupons in the mail on a regular basis. They base them upon your purchasing history. Last week, I used one for a free 24 pack of bottled water. Our city water is not good to drink. So, I buy gallon jugs of water to use at home.  Also, for every $100 I spend at Kroger, I get 10 cents off per gallon on one fill up.  I have been chosen to answer a survey about the store, and it gives me an extra 50 points.  The result pushes me to 20 cents off per gallon on one fill up.  If I don't have points to use, I still get 3 cents off per gallon just by using my Kroger membership card.  Kroger tends to already be in line with the cheapest station in town.      

[Ombud]

Guess I have to back peddle a bit. I 'normally' don't coupon other than the Safeway app. Except yesterday. The crackers we eat were on sale for $2.50 - $1.00 Safeway card -$1.00 coupon book left by them = 50c! So I bought 7, gave 2 to food drive, put 5 in cupboard.

[grits]

It is kind of hit or miss. I get coupons in the mail, online, and in the newspaper. Recently, I used coupons for ground turkey, fruit, oatmeal, Kleenex, toilet paper, detergent, stain fighters, disinfectant, dishwashing soap, bath soap, deodorant, tooth paste, tooth brushes, cleaning products, and even more that I can't remember. This month, I saved about 70 bucks with coupons.  I only buy what I want, and when I want.

[flopsy]

At lunch the other day the server was talking about her obsession with couponing and all the stuff she basically got for free BUT she and her husband had to upgrade from a one bedroom apartment to a THREE bedroom apartment to accommodate the stuff. If it were me I would be questioning how much I was really saving...

[grits]

Jun 28, 2013 18:27:51 GMT -5 Shooby said:

I hate coupons. I just don't want to be bothered with them. I just want a good price at the point of sale.

It would be great but basically the coupon is money the manufacturer reimburses the store to give you the discount. 

[Opti]

I think manufacturers do coupons in part to track a certain amount
of sales and also promotions. I don't like the fact that in general
the expiration dates seem to happen sooner in relation to when the
insert came out. When I started just a couple years ago it was
possible to find coupons here and there that expired 6 months or
even a year later. Now it seems usual for the insert to be worthless
in 2 to 3 months.

Jealous on the $70 savings, but my guess is you are spending way
more than I do now. I need to input my receipts again into my spreadsheet
but I track not just coupon savings but store savings as well. I try to time
using a coupon with when the item is being sold at a better discount than
average. Just missed a good pistachio sale at a drug store not realizing I
did have an uncut coupon that could have been used. Oh well.

[grits]

Unless it is something that I use a lot or need at that moment, I time my coupons with sales. I had a coupon for Kleenex. Kroger ran a buy six combo sale, and save $3. Boxes of Kleenex were part of the sale. So, I got their discount plus the coupon. The same thing for detergent, tp, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and a host of other items.  If I combined the savings, I bought a month's worth of groceries plus items I needed with a savings of about $180 bucks.  Also, I stocked up on a few things, and now have more than a years worth of them.  I think I spent about $194 including tax on $400 worth of items.   

[justme]

I found some great deals on Sunday papers through Groupon. I've had 2 papers on Sunday for the last two+ years for less than $30. I probably don't use it as much as I did at the beginning, but now I have a pretty good surplus of razors and toothpaste I got for $1 or less each. If I hadn't transitioned to nicer makeup I would be saving a LOT more money, and if I hadn't gotten bored of dying my hair. I probably would have gotten some good deals if I had room to stock TP/paper towels. I've gotten some darn good deals on Tide Free (hello almost half price!) recently.

The whole not getting a lot of things free doesn't phase me quite enough since I never had room to stock pile anyways so I can really only stock pile the small things. I've started to use a cloud drive so I can share a list of what I have and how many to use the coupons better.

[Deleted]

I used them a lot in the 1990s. My then- husband was a spendthrift and it was something I could control. We also used more processed foods than current DH and I do now.

I agree that the deals aren't as good as they used to be. One thing that's changed is that cereals used to be crazy expensive and then they had big coupon promotions. Now the sticker price is lower so the discounts aren't as deep.

In the old days I occasionally found a store coupon lowering the price of something to 99 cents and a $1 off mfr coupon. Not anymore. I still use them when they make sense, though.

[Deleted]

I use saving star and printable coupons.  It is not much but I'd say I save about $5-10 a month.  When we are spending about $200-$250, that does matter.  2% of my budget is something I like to save.

[Shooby]

I don't find them to be worth the effort. And, in reality, it is often enticing me to buy something I hadn't really planned to buy in the first place. So, for me, it would not save me money. I think it would ultimately cost money to spend the time and effort and also to be looking at things I don't intend to buy.
I don't bargain shop anymore. I found that the more time I spent in front of merchandise, then the more I saw of stuff I really didn't need, but that I ended up buying MORE as a result of being in front of more stuff. So, I only shop in a couple of stores. I buy what I want, when I need it or want it and I don't look for sales. It has saved me a huge amount of time and for me, I buy less because I out shopping much, much less.

[stimpy]

I've reduced my use since coupons don't seem as good as before and local stores stopped doubling them a while back.  

[dancinmama]

My use of coupons in 2013 was down to a trickle, despite the fact that I had 6-20 sets of coupons for any given week.  In December, I lost my free coupon resource so my use of coupons these days is almost non-existent.  If we were still in the glory days of couponing, when there were freebies galore and/or I needed non-perishables, I might consider buying extra Sunday newspapers for the coupons; but the barrage of freebies is long behind us and I don't need non-perishables.  There are food coupons that I could use (mostly those for pantry staples like coffee, sugar, pasta, etc.) but with all the coupon restrictions and retailer limitations these days it has become increasingly difficult to stockpile using coupons.  Fortunately, I am finding great bargains at retailers that don't even take coupons, but offer organic and non-organic meats, dairy, produce, and pantry staples at prices that I could never touch at Safeway these days, even after coupons.

My mom usually gets (3) sets (hers, my brothers, and one from a friend), so if I REALLY need coupons and she's not using them, they're mine. 

[stimpy]

I am using fewer coupons for the reasons others have stated.  

It's for things I don't purchase or I have to buy more than I need.  Plus, Ralph's (Kroger) stopped doubling coupons a few years ago so there is not as much incentive as before.