I alerted my Facebook followers this week that there was an article up on Yahoo Finance entitled Eight Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Coupons.
In response, several bloggers wrote their own posts. Here they are, in case you missed any of them:
Collin at Hip2Save cordially invited the author to a private coupon session
Crystal at Money Saving Mom very politely refuted all of the author’s 8 reasons
Mindi at Moms Need to Know went on a rant about the author’s ridiculous points
And Shannon at For the Mommas responded in Letterman style
While their posts are valiant, persuasive, and humorous, the fact of the matter remains: there will always be anti-couponers among us. I’m sure you’ve met them. Some of you may even live with them. (You know exactly who I’m talking about, don’t you?)
There are many excuses for not couponing, aren’t there? I’m happy to help refute some of the myths & misconceptions folks have out there about couponing, but I know not even I will change everyone’s mind.
So here’s my question: should I care?
Couponing: take it or leave it. I’ve saved about half on my grocery bill since couponing so I’ll personally “take it” thank you very much! You just go on and enjoy wasting spending money on your groceries.
Have you ever converted an anti-couponer? How do you handle others’ negative comments about your couponing habit?
Photo credit Thomas Ricks
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Angela, I initially ran across the article on Money Saving Moms site. I am an avid promoter of couponing…however I have to say I think I take a different stance then most couponers on articles like this. I love articles like the one you posted above. It challenges me to look at my own spending habits and make sure I am making wise decisions with my money and not falling into spending traps. I am so thankful for the money I save couponing, but it is a marketing ploy to get people to purchase products. If it did not work, manufactures would not continue to distribute coupons. I have to say I am always a bit shocked at the negative response of couponers to these kind of articles. When I read through comment sections when these kinds of articles are posted, there is so much ‘judgement’ against a person who does not see value in couponing. I recall receiving negative responses when once publishing a post explaining the true saving of catalinas like RR (one commenter asked I stop raining on their fun). I find the issue interesting. Personally I will continue to promote coupon use and it has been an amazing blessing for my family. I will, however, continue to listen with open ears to what non-couponers have to say and gleen what wisdom I can from their viewpoints. Thats my personal take on it. I thought it was an interesting article…thanks for posting!
I have practically given up trying to explain myself or convert the non-couponers in my life; it’s just not worth the effort. Let them think what they want about those little pieces of paper. When asked (or confronted) I simply tell them how I use coupons to reduce my household expenses. In my experience, when they’re ready to make some changes, they’ll listen.
Julie, as for me…I have SOO many people that genuinely WANT to learn how to do this, I don’t have time to waste convincing the others.
Sia, at the end of the day, not everyone is going to see eye to eye on this topic. When I first started couponing I was gung ho about sharing the coupon love with the whole world! Problem was, not everyone wants to learn how to coupon in the first place. These days I’ve learned to save my breath for those that are truly interested. Not interested? Have a nice day!
As for couponers getting upset about an article like this? As for me, I feel she did a pretty poor job of basing anything on fact. She didn’t strike me as someone that had honestly given couponing an honest go, so the article didn’t read like it was coming from a “subject matter expert” of any kind. It also felt to me to be an unfair portrayal of couponers as a whole (silly folks without common sense who fall prey to advertising and waste hours for pennies). Who’s judging who, exactly?
My feeling on this is quite honestly some people in the world are not going to be happy unless they have something to be unhappy about. Let them call us couponers ridiculous if it helps them feel better about themselves.
I agree with Abby! Some people are only happy if they’re complaining about something.
I started learning how to coupon about 2 months before my husband (a construction electrician) was laid off due to lack of work during the winter and it was 4 months before he was called up for a job again. Thanks to my time cutting coupons and matching them, not only did I cut our grocery budget down to 1/4, but I was also able to build up a small stockpile in the pantry at the same time. If I hadn’t done that, we’d have never made ends meet! He loves that I’m saving so much money which can be put toward other things and is always bragging about what I’ve done with our grocery budget.
just read the article on another blog and clicked on the following link that someone posted in the comments.
Apparently the author isn’t really that stupid, she just doesnt want to admit she is one of those binder carrying coupon moms
http://www.torontosun.com/money/savings/2010/02/26/13047501.html#/money/savings/2010/02/26/pf-13047501.html
Now this is a HILARIOUS turn of events! WTH???
Yeah, I did some cyber sleuthing after reading the post about this article on KCL.
Believe it or not, this gal actually has her own Frugal Blog….it’s called something like Two Pennies
And, it has Several old articles on couponing in the archives.
My sense is that she tried couponing and didn’t have a lot of luck with it….a lot of her “reasons,” read like beginner mistakes to me.
Or…..she started her article intending to call it something like, “Reasons Couponing Might Not Work for You,” and then changed it something punchier to get it published.
I think there are plenty of people couponing doesn’t work for.
My sister is an attorney, works full time, and only eats organics.
She buys all her groceries from Amazon fresh and gets them delivered to her door. She spends plenty more money, but in terms of her time and energy it makes sense for her.
Personally, with the recession, I’ve found that there are So Many couponers. I used to be the store weirdo, but now everyone has a handfull. I love to help people learn couponing, but sometimes I wish there wasn’t so much competition!