Thursday, January 13, 2011

Are coupons worth it?

Have you seen the TLC show "Extreme Couponing" that aired a few weeks ago? I have mixed feelings about the show as I think these extreme couponers were used for ratings.  Of course the coupon rules in the U.S. are different than here in Canada (at least in my province), but their shopping trips were quite exagerated.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I am an avid coupon user.  Although I am not "extreme" by an means, I do try to make the best use of my coupons by combining sales with coupons. I have a set price that I will pay for an item, unless I don't have it in stock and I'm desperate to have it... that day.

After I noticed this morning on a thread on this Forum that Walmart had a sale on an item that I had a few coupons for, I went out and braved the snow and cold weather.

This is what I came home with.


The pasta was on sale for $1.00 and I had 8 coupons @ $1.00. = FREE
Lean Cuisine was $1.97 and I had another Free Product coupon from this facebook promo = FREE


1 head of Romaine lettuce = $1.00
Bag of Spinach = $1.47
Bananas @ .67cents/lb $1.50 - $1.00 (from back of cereal box) = .50cents
2 Oasis juice @ 2.97 - 2@ .75cent coupon = $4.44

Total for shopping trip is $7.41
Total Coupon Savings = $ 12.47
(The Savings is not taking into account the fact that all these items were on sale to begin with)

I'm obviously not done my shopping for the week, but I would say I don't have to buy pasta for awhile.

So, what do you think?

Are coupons worth it?

3 comments:

Mom vs. the boys said...

totally worth it, you did good!

Lgali said...

yes they are always good to save money

Anonymous said...

Oh my Lord! Let me just start by saying goood buys with your coupons! Now, I love a good deal/coupon as much as the next gal, but that show was craziness at its finest! Our family does not watch much TV so we don't have cable or sat. so I had never heard of Extreme Couponing before. I headed over to TCL to see if I could watch it, but all I could watch were several clips of the show. Which was more than enough for me to know that is certainly not the life I want to have. One lady was spending 6 hours just walking through the store before going home to get her coupons only to go back to the store to fill NINE shopping carts of stuff. She bought 120 candy bars! Another clip showed a man with $50,000-$75,000 worth of stuff in his garage. To me that is just plain wasteful! And I hate waste!! I think it is borderline hoarder-ish. Now if these people are trying to donate to the homeless or something, that's great, but why would one person/family need all that stuff. Even canned goods have a shelf life. Ok, I am done ranting about that show now--I just can't believe how much it disturbed me! Anyway, I love coupons and always watch our budget too. I keep track of my receipts monthly and in 2010 I spent $4,367.22 on our groceries/household items for our family of five and had $397.67 in coupons. That amount includes food, pet food, cleaners, bathroom items, etc. The only other expense is our 1/2 cow that we purchase which is around $600 including processing, but that will last us almost two years. So, yes, coupons are worth it for SURE!

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