Comments on: Coupons

By: Scholarships and Government Grants

Scholarships and Government Grants — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:01:57 +0000

[...] like the coupon queens, my experience is you often hear about this juicy, unclaimed, free money, but once you actually go [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:18:12 +0000

I guess I’m just lucky. My wife belongs to some “coupon trains”: a bunch of people who have proven trustworthy on previous trains will send out an envelope full of coupons from one person to the next, until it returns to the originator. Each person takes out the coupons they want and puts in coupons for the people after them in the train. For the cost of N stamps, you can have N people all exchanging coupons with each other. (Without the train, this would require more like N^2 stamps.)

The upshot is, my wife now has an army of pals in cyberspace clipping coupons for her, just as she clips coupons for them. Sometimes it seems she hardly buys a thing without a coupon. I imagine we probably save $50/mth this way, and that’s real savings, because she would never buy a more expensive product just because she has a coupon: this is $50 we really would have spent without these coupons.

The two best things about this system are: (1) it frees up about $600/yr that we can spend on other things, and (2) I don’t have to do it!

By: Canadian Dream: Free at 45 » Blog Archives » Wander Reading #7: Shameless

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:45:25 +0000

[...] for Four Pillars had two interesting posts this week on coupons and powdered [...]

By: A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com

A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:01:09 +0000

[...] Cheap from the Quest for Four Pillars explains his distate for coupon clipping. (No ‘lack of opposable-thumbs jokes’ [...]

By: Quick Lunar Cop

Quick Lunar Cop — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:54:06 +0000

I find that there are very few coupons in Canada (or is it Ottawa?) compared to the United States.

That being said, I do use coupons, but only for products that I would be buying anyway.

As soon as I clip a coupon, I put in in our “Shopping Binder” (a small one which contains a notepad and a side pocket). I’ll usually add the item to the shopping list with the note “Coupon” (e.g. “Tropicana OJ (coupon)”) so that I’ll remember to use it.

When I’m in the store, I’ll double-check that there isn’t a cheaper suitable alternative (such as a generic product or another brand on sale). If so, then I keep the coupon for another day.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:11:22 +0000

Oh, one exception. The city has been periodically sending us 50% off coupons for HE laundry detergent since we bought our washer & dryer last year (thanks Toronto!) and you better believe we spend every last one of them baby.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:09:07 +0000

Am I just completely out of the loop in never getting coupons anywhere? There used to be acres of them falling out of the Sunday paper when I lived in NY, but I never see them now.

I’ve never been a coupon person – being obnoxious yuppie/hippie types we prefer farmers markets and co-ops. Most of our groceries is the fresh stuff anyway, because L loves to cook. I do however go nuts (in the “back the car up to the door” sense) when my favourite personal care products go on sale at the local shoppers drug mart.

By: Looby

Looby — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:57:56 +0000

Another coupon avoider here. Like Elaine, I mostly shop the produce aisle and farmers markets and no one has ever shown me a coupon for money off cauliflowers.
Those “CVS haul” photos that some bloggers post always make me a little twitchy- “32 packs of gum, 5 boxes of cereal and 8 tubes of hand lotion for only $1.60!” Who uses all that?
And don’t get me started on rebates- I spent the first 25 years of my life in the UK and I don’t think I saw a single rebate- but now… just put the damn thing on sale already.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:14:06 +0000

I wonder at the “combine coupons” tip I read in some other articles… every coupon I’ve ever looked at has said “not to be used with any other offer” or something like that. I guess Canadians get the short end of the stick again

Also, I do the large majority of my grocery shopping in the produce aisle (and then only for what I didn’t get at the farmer’s market) and who makes coupons for that??

By: Canadian Dream

Canadian Dream — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:27:19 +0000

Alright, I’ll confess I do use some coupons. Mainly at our Superstore because the hang them right beside the item that I normally buy. It’s rather like the store leaving free money on the shelves. Yes, I would like an extra $0.40 off my coffee today!

Other than that the only coupon I use if the one on the cover of the Superstore flier on our major shopping trip each month. It’s usually like save $30 if you spend $250, or get a $25 gift card or get $25 in free gas if you spend $200. I typically only use them when I know I’m going to be spending that much.

Other than that most of them are a waste. I don’t buy the product in the first place, so why do I care if you are going to give me $1 something I don’t use.

Tim