Coupon myths and misconceptions: “You are probably at the store ALL THE TIME.”

Today I'm going to discuss Myth #5 in my series entitled "Coupon Myths and Misconceptions."  As a reminder, this series is all about addressing some of the most commonly-held reasons people think couponing is a waste of time.  I'd also like to apologize for the delay in this week's installment.  Monday and Tuesday found me attending to some important tasks around the house, so unfortunately, this got placed on the back burner.  But in general, you can look for updates to this series each Monday.

So here's the response I seem to get an awful lot when I explain to folks how I use coupons: "Wow.  You must be in the store all the time.  I hate grocery shopping.  I just don't think I'd want to be shopping all the time…and all that driving, forget it."

Truth be told, if you're a highly disorganized person and/or a shopaholic, sure, you CAN end up wasting a lot of time in the stores.

But I don't.  In fact, the better I've gotten at couponing, the more efficient of a shopper I've become.  The result?  Less time planning my trips and less time in the stores.  So here's how couponing actually yields you these time-saving benefits:

1. You are more likely to meal plan. It's easier to meal plan if you know what deals are going on at the stores each week.  Chicken on sale?  Great, add chicken pot pie to your weekly menu. Is it Cinco de Mayo week?  Wonderful.  Throw in some Mexican dishes.  Combine your deal finding with your meal planning to save time and money.
2. Your lists are more organized.  Once you start couponing, the tendency is to categorize your coupons in some fashion that makes sense to you.  In my case, I generally organize mine by sections of the store.  My grocery list follows suit.  This helps cut down considerable time at the store.
3. Your trips are better planned.  I often hit up more that one store in a trip to get the best deals, but I don't dilly dally.  I plan my route ahead of time to maximize my trip.  While I'm not there yet, my goal is to consolidate all my shopping to one day per week.  My friend Sarah recently shared with me how she drives an extra few minutes to the shopping center that has ALL the stores she goes to within walking distance.  Smart!
4. Your time in the store is shortened.  Once you have your meals planned and your list in hand, there's really no reason why you should be spending lots of time at any one store.  After all, you're shopping by your list (and hopefully your budget, too).  In general I'd say that I spend no more than 15-20 minutes in any one store (and usually less).  I bet most of that time is just waiting in line and checking out, too! 
5. Your pantry is better stocked.  So how does this save you time?  Well in the long run it means you can cut down your shopping trips altogether.  If a middle-of-the-week event pops up, you'll have food on hand to prepare.  Need a last-minute birthday gift for a coworker?  You'll have lots of items that fit the bill right in your hall closet.  You can even work towards taking designated periods of time off from shopping altogether.  This seems to be a topic of interest right now on many blogs.  Remember my "No-Spend Challenge" a couple weeks back?   Well at that same time, Money Saving Mom Crystal was doing her own "Eating from the Pantry" challenge and MomAdvice encouraged readers to try a month-long expirement of not spending any money!  

Remember, the ultimate objective of the couponer is to save money while simultaneously enjoying a better lifestyle.  I've said it before, and I'll say it now, that's why stockpiling and couponing go hand in hand.  Gradually, your pantry should be so well stocked that you are not only saving money, but now you're saving lots and lots of time, too.  And I think we can all agree our time can be better spent than browsing aisles absentmindedly at the supermarket.

I'm coming to see that tried-and-true couponers are pretty effiicient when it comes to handling time and  money.  Incidentally, a couple weeks ago I had the honor of guest blogging over at Hip2Save.  You might be interested in reading my post, "How to save time when you're out to save money" for more thoughts on this topic.

Be sure to come back next week as I tackle another couponing myth! 

Photo credit Lars Sundstrom

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