I got an email from Linda yesterday and I want to share it here, because I know some of you might be able to relate to how she’s feeling. Here’s an excerpt (with her permission, of course):
I see on Facebook or even when you watch extreme couponer, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, cans of soup, frozen food items, etc., etc., etc.,
People show on Facebook a picture that they just went shopping and look at the deals they just got. I look at it and my first reaction is that is great then I look closer and I am like where did they do this? Where did they get those coupons, because I don’t have them, what am I missing in coupons? I get the Sunday paper plus sometimes in the mail on Wednesday you get smart source. I get papers at dollar tree and I have a friend that gives me theirs too.
I have my whole binder very organized and I feel that when I can only get great deals on laundry detergent what am I missing? People getting single paper towels for .25 how? Packages of toilet paper for a dollar? No less they are name brands! Tooth paste free!
I don’t get it.
Linda, I think there is a combination of things happening here, so let me separate them out.
Inaccurate and/or Misleading Information
Shows such as Extreme Couponing have sparked the curiosity of people who had no idea savings rates on groceries like that were possible. You definitely get a shock factor as coupon mavens leave a store with a haul worth hundreds having only paid pennies. However, these shows rarely explain exactly what is going on. This is a disservice for the people would benefit most by learning how couponing really works.
Consider:
- The big savings rate may be the result of a handful of deals repeated over and over versus realistic weekly shopping trips.
- Coupons may have been obtained via unethical practices, such as online clipping sites and auctions.
- Some of the practices depicted have been shown to have been fraudulent.
I actually wrote a post not too long ago called “I Can’t Do it Like Extreme Couponing,” and I highly recommend you pop over there for additional thoughts I had on this very topic.
Blogs and websites (including this one!) also sometimes highlight an exceptional shopping trip to demonstrate the power of combining shopping and sales. But this should never be taken to mean that these are the kind of trips all couponers do all of the time. For most of us, that sort of crazed deal shopping is unrealistic and unsustainable. This is why I’ve made an effort to share some of my more realistic shopping trips as well as my best ones. Consider someone who loves fishing. They don’t take pictures of all the small fish they catch (or worse, the days they catch nothing). No, they proudly photograph themselves with the “big one” they caught. I truly think that’s what happens in the couponing world a fair amount of the time.
The Reality of Couponing
There is an elephant in the room that I don’t see many coupon bloggers addressing outright, but I’ll do so and get it out there.
It would appear that over the past few years some of the awesome sales, coupons, and offerings have declined. There could be a number of factors why this is the case (for instance, rising grocery costs, coupon fraud, etc.), but it definitely seems to be true. For instance, this year I failed to see a strong Quaker oatmeal sale in January as I have in years past. I’ve also noticed some coupons have been appearing less and less frequently in the inserts and online (Huggies coupons, anyone?). And more and more coupons are now adding stuff in the fine print that wasn’t there before (such as P&G’s “limit 4 like coupons” remark on their coupons). I also had a very candid conversation with a major food manufacturer last year who indicated to me that they have reduced offering coupons in direct response to their being misused.
I don’t say this to discourage you, but I feel it necessary to be honest that the coupon climate seems to have cooled off a bit over the last year or so and it’s good to go into this with a realistic expectation of how much you can save. If you’re working to eat more whole foods and produce or you have some other specialty diet, you probably need to lower that expectation even a bit more.
How you can improve your couponing
Given that, let me share some tips for improving your results with couponing (and doing so ethically and sensibly!):
- Pay attention to drugstores like Rite Aid and Walgreens. Generally speaking, there are freebies nearly every week! If you’re not sure where to start, check out my blog each Friday night. We post coupon matchups here for both of those stores, showing you exactly where those freebies are. (And yes, we have shared FREE name-brand toothpaste many, many times on those posts.)
- Find out who in your area doubles (if anyone). If you live in Western Washington, Albertsons is just about it. You can find freebies nearly every time Albertsons offers twice the value coupons.
- Start following a few coupon blogs. You can follow them on Facebook, subscribe to them, or as I like to do – follow them in Google Reader! This way you can quickly search for deals that matter to you. I wrote a post once on how to find frugal blogs for your area or preferences.
- Learn how store sales cycles work. I save more from following store sales versus using coupons.
- Attend a coupon class. If you’re local – I have one May 30th! Any good coupon instructor should be able to walk you through the process of saving, step by step. It may be helpful to hear someone in person.
- Start tracking your savings. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. For this reason, I encourage you to track your spending and savings for one month – see what coupons and store sales are actually saving you. You might be pleasantly surprised!
I want to stress here that coupons are only part of the savings equation. This is why I spend a lot of time talking about topics like gardening, buying food in bulk, making your own items from scratch, and meal planning. I also believe in a realistic, sensible approach to using coupons. My family of four spends $400/month now on groceries through the combination of strategies mentioned above.
Finally, I want you to know that there are a number of ways people approach couponing, and that’s OK! Many of my readers ONLY use coupons for health, beauty, and household items so they can free up their budgets for buying grass fed beef and organic produce. Others will do the crazy sales (such as Albertsons twice the value promotions) for their stock-up items and then fill in the rest the best they can. Others plan their meals around coupon deals, while others still will only use coupons in a blue moon instead opting to save money in other ways.
I would love for my coupon buds out there to offer some additional thoughts, encouragement, or advice for Linda. Do you feel that shows like Extreme Couponing (or even blogs) misrepresent how much coupons can really save you? How have you worked to improve your couponing?
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I know that the 1st time I went couponing I left the store in tears. I was so frustrated. I had all my coupons in a binder. I found that didn’t work for me. I now have my coupons in a box and have them separated by envelopes by brand and this works great for me.
I shop to stock up. When I get the newspaper on Sunday (I get 4 Tacoma News Tribunes) I go through each add and write down in a notebook the items that I am interested in buying. I live in Shelton, WA and we don’t have all of the stores but Walmart prices matches for stores in Olympia so I don’t have to drive. I then get my coupons out and place them in a separate envelope in the front of my box. It takes me a little while but I actually enjoy the challenge. I do take my whole box with me as I never know when I’m going to find an awesome unadvertised deal.
Just know that you are not alone, that it takes some time and you will get the hang of it. I am constantly learning.
Absolutely good point!! When you find a deal – make sure to get several of that item so you can work to stock up and reduce what you need long term.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Great write up Angela, another excellent post! I know I am in the minority here, but I think that the way that Catalinas are promoted feed into the mis-understanding that people are getting more for free then they really are. I know many people display their shopping trips and subtract the Catalinas that they got for the “next” shopping trip into their total, making it sound like they really paid less out of pocket, then they actually did. Deals are also promoted as free (even if you have to pay $5 out of pocket and get a $5 catalina back). I think its more accurate to say you got that item for 50% off (thats the true math – $10 in total product for $5 out of pocket), or reflect the Catalina total on the transaction that you were actually able to use it on, and see the real savings. I know people find this argument a real downer, but I think it helps show the real cost of many shopping trips.
Also, many people with those big hauls are doing multiple store stops, or multiple transactions – which for many of us is just more hassle then its worth. Remember that your time is also a commodity, and I have to ask myself is it really worth going to a 2nd store for a $.25 roll of paper towels, when I can get it where I am shopping for $.75. I always look at where am I going to get the biggest bang for the items I want to buy that week and shop there. Technology has allowed us to share so much now, that you know every deal anyone found on any clearance rack – but that does not mean it would be practical to chase down all of those deals in one shopping trip.
Again – great write up!
I agree with you Sia and I’ve opted more and more to focus on deals that involve single transactions over multiple ones. In my Savings Tracker, I treat Catalina coupons as what they are – coupons.
I also agree with you 100% on the time aspect! One thing I’ve worked to do over the past three months is reduce my grocery shopping to ONE day a week. Surprise, surprise, I’ve seen money just by doing that and creating a meal plan! Also, if there is a high value coupon out – I will often use it at the store where I pay $0.50 out of pocket versus a $1.01 moneymaker. I tend to shop the stores that give me the greatest chances for being successful in locating the item and doing the deal.
Fabulous additional points you make here – and I’m so glad you took the time to make them!
You have made some very valid points in this post. The one that stood out the most was in regards to Extreme Couponing. Since the time that this show aired, there have been so many changes made to store policies, not to mention the scrutiny that many couponers must now face when they attempt to use coupons. I have been couponing since the late 1980′s have seen many changes. Many of them good, some not so good. Thanks for your very informative post!
Thanks, Esther! Yes, some of the changes I do see as positive – I personally don’t mind the coupon or stock limits as they allow more people to take advantage of the deals. The “cooling off” across the board, not so fond of….
I’m glad that you mentioned the fact that couponing has “cooled”. I certainly think so! I haven’t seen a deal that interested me enough to actually clip, sort, and speed out of the house to get. I’ve had to switch my money saving game up bit. Instead of couponing, I just gave up the terrible frozen/packaged foods and now buy a lot of bulk: rice, beans, etc. and I especially base my meals on produce instead of meat.
Yes, yes, and yes. This is one of the biggggg reasons I’ve done more talking about buying in bulk and making from scratch.
Smartsource recently stopped putting out their cpns in our Sunday paper because the paper demanded too much money in return so I have been doing without. So I have been relying on the printed cpns and find they really are the higher value ones anyways…especially if you can nab the limited print ones on various Facebook manuf pages. I follow several blogs on my google reader to keep on eye out for the good ones or I check a coupon database like the one Angela has linked to under ‘Getting Started’ above.
Some areas just have better stores and better prices depending on your demographic than others and some (not mine) have the double coupon days so it really is hard to compare your savings against others. I find that by keeping it on the simple side for couponing and meal planning etc works out best for me and my mental health. Also I was buying too much processed/junky foods just because it was cheap or free. Now I am more selective and I figure I will save money somewhere down the line in doctor’s bills for picking healthier fare.
I used to be a heavy extreme couponer for about 2 years. I haven’t couponed in about a year other than perhaps locating a printable for an item I really need. Instead I buy in bulk and cook from scratch. We now eat organic meats and produce about 75% of the time. And, guess what? We are healthier than when we couponed! Weight and numbers. We eat real food now. Yes, my grocery bill has gone from $250 to $500, but I don’t mind. Like I said I had a couple good years of hard core couponing. I remember the days of getting 150 Orchard Juices, 100 Jose Oles, 50 Betty Crocker Potatos, 200 Del Monte canned veggies, 75 Kelloggs. Now, before you call out “horder,” I split that with 4 families in addition to mine. I was stocking up each extended family up for 2 to 3 months at a time. They never purchased body wash, shampoo, deodorant, razors, toothpaste. I had everyone set.
It was a hobby for me. I’d leave the kids with Grandma on a Friday night, and hubby and I would have a date night hitting up all the Rite Aids and Albertsons on the I-5 cooridor. It was a fad. It is over. Yes, THE SHOW ruined our little underground community of savers.
The coupon blogs have switched their focus to frugal living. Great! I love it. The coupon deals aren’t there. Let’s all discuss how to make detergent from scratch, how to stretch a chicken into 4 meals, how to garden, how to incorporate beans into a diet to reduce the meat bill, etc, etc.
Face it ladies, couponing is almost extinct. You are not going to get $1,000 of free stuff each month anymore. Frugal living is now the new fad. Cheers!
~Maura Leanne~
I agree, couponing can be hard! I have tried, unsuccessfully, for years to teach my low income mother. Especially now, you can not see the instant impact you used to be able to, 20 bottles of body wash for nothing. I understand, but at the same time, I have evolved as couponing has. I really put emphasis in the stockpile and not just living off of it, but maintaining that as if it was a family member. You get too lazy when you don’t have it in the stock, everyone does…it’s only $1 more at the store and I NEED it now!
Why is it even important to save that dollar in the first place? What did you have plans for that dollar? Figure that out, take a pic and put it in your binder, whatever you need to do…the reason your couponing will give you the motivation, if you let it.
My only frustration with couponing has been due to the fact that other people wipe the shelves clean. I make the drive to Albertson’s all set to take advantage of the twice the value deals only to find an empty shelf! Three trips to the store for savings weighed against the price of fuel for those three trips kinda takes the fun out of things.
Guess I need to get up earlier on Sunday when they come out. LOL
I work days and my husband works early evening to the wee hours of the morning, allowing us to not have the expense of childcare. This also means that we don’t see each other until the weekends (other than the 4pm hand-off with a hug and a kiss) and our time together is precious.
Not only do I value the coupon blogs for telling me which insert from which date has the right coupon to match up with whatever product is on sale, but I also sit down after getting my inserts and write a list in Excel that shows all the coupons I have in each insert. OCD is a powerful thing. (Organized Coupon Distinction- what were YOU thinking? haha)
I start by writing the brand name in column A, brief product description in column B (i.e. if the coupon is only good for a certain flavor/size), savings in column C, and expiration date in column D. From there I can quickly highlight all my entries, sort by column A (brand of product) and attach my list to the front of each coupon insert. Use a coupon, cross it off the list.
It might sound time consuming, but going back through my January 8th insert (in the middle of the grocery store with my toddler trying to grab things out of the cart) JUST to see if any of my coupons are still good sounds excruciating! (Not to mention seeing what sales I missed because I forgot what coupons I had over the last 13 weeks of inserts…)
P.S. You know you’re a couponer, when the person in front of you in the checkout has over $200 worth of groceries, and you can spot at least $70 worth of savings (not using doublers) that they missed out on because they didn’t have any coupons…
Beware though; some people get offended when you offer a coupon for an item they’ve just picked off the shelf (or suggest where to find one in the store, such as the extra ads up front) – it can imply they look poor and unable to pay full price. We all know there’s a difference between being cheap and being frugal; it’s best to only offer advice if someone approaches you first with a positive comment about your nack for savings.
Good questions, fun article! I like to find out where stores keep clearance items, and use my binder for match ups there! I also use it for my shopping, but the clearance finds are so much more fun with coupons.
Another thing to add about the decline in coupons…last year, I could go browsing through all sorts of stores and come away with a TON of new, hard to find coupons for later shopping. Now, in the aisle coupons are almost scarce, it seems. This year has definitely been a “let’s get more creative on the coupon deals” kind of a year…
As a fellow firefighter wife and mom of two…I appreciate your blog! Recently those articles on do-it-yourself, homemade or buying in bulk. I am trying to be (high hopes!) a crafty, Martha Stewart momma one of these days!
I agree that the deals truly aren’t as good as a few years ago. I used to grab my babies and run out to the store, sometimes 2 times a day, to get the free deals. (I have since discovered that toting around my little boys from store to store just isn’t worth it to me to save a couple of bucks-which I was spending anyway on keeping them happy, as I crazily tried to shop!)
Now, I pace myself. And I think I’m happier. I know my kids are!
I think you have to just keep perspective. Yes, free is good. But to me, time and sanity is better!
PS- I still love Costco shopping- don’t tell!
I have the same feeling about pictures with low totals and a lot of paper products. I have found other ways to save money. I use a couple shamwows, kitchen towels, and sponges to clean the kitchen and I keep wash cloths in the kitchen to clean my kids up after a meal. It keeps my cost down for paper towel. I buy toitet paper at Costco or Sam’s Club because I don’t have the coupons to get enough for our family. I buy shelf stable staple like brown rice and four in bulk at Winco in gallon buckets. I shop at grocery out let a lot because their prices are as good as most of the coupon + sales at other stores. I do once a month freezer cooking with one big shopping day at Winco, Costco and Walmart. I get my staples like milk, eggs ect from Safeway.com and my meat from Zaycon becausemy son has Autism and can’t handle a trip to the store and my grocery budget hasn’t gone up that much.. I think giving up brand loyalty and following the sales cycle are the most important to saving money. With tooth paste I consider anything under .50 a stock up price. I have several different brands in my stock pile now but they all work to keep our teeth clean. I agree that the coupon deals seem to be disappearing. I dont think it is all the fault of EC and bloggers a lot of it has to do with the economy. If Angela had started her blog this year it would probably have been called “The Frugal Living Project”.
After a year of slowly stockpiling, I am finally seeing the kind of reduction in grocery spending that I want. I only get 2 copies of the Seattle Times and 1 Red Plum in the mail. So I can’t get more than 2 of anything at the sale+coupon price. I also know I’m not saving as much as possible because I don’t buy cheap toilet paper or paper towels. (We like quality products.) We love fresh fruits and vegetables, so our grocery bill is never going to be cheap.
That being said, at first I thought that free toothpaste was like the holy grail – a myth. It took a while, but the sales for toothpaste did show up at Rite Aid (now I have almost a year’s worth), as well as my other “budget busters” – mouthwash, shampoo, razors, deodorant, etc. I don’t know why, but even toothpaste is a seasonal sale item. Do the manufacturers really think I don’t brush my teeth all year long? Yes. They also think I only shave my legs in June and July.
I don’t think the coupons are going away, they’re just hiding in free samples and on Facebook pages.
The other thing is to look for specialty grocery stores like Grocery Outlet. Uwajimaya is an Asian grocery with good prices on produce and harder-to-find foods. Apna Bazaar has some amazing prices on mostly Indian foods, but you can get cheap nuts, spices, flour, mixes, pastries, and a little produce there. Last week I happened upon Champion Market in Issaquah (next to Rite Aid). The prices were great – I saw lots of brand-name foods, organics, gluten-free, and baking ingredients at stock-up prices.
I think it takes a serious commitment to being a Bargain Hunter, as well as creativity. It’s more important to be smart, patient, and creative than to have a million Smart Source inserts.
You taught me the ropes of couponing and I have followed you every since. I am taking your coupon class again next month can not wait! Thanks
“Others plan their meals around coupon deals” <—- That's what I've been doing for over 20 years, we plan meals by what is on sale combined with what we have. I have personal price points for items that I don't usually go over, I stockpile but mostly I work off of sales combined w/ coupons for meal planning.
I'm fortunate to have adventurous eaters in my home that are willing to try new things and many years ago I discovered a talent for cooking I didn't know was in me. I'm actually proud of my ability to open a kitchen cabinet and create a tasty meal quickly w/ random items…sort of like Chopped.
I agree with the lackluster coupons of late, mostly health and beauty and very little food. Seriously, who needs a coupon for mascara and hair color EVERY Sunday?
Speaking of sale cycles, I've been prepping for Cinco de Mayo sales for weeks and am hoping the stores don't skimp out and that there will be awesome printables. This is the time of year we stockpile tortillas, Rosarita's, taco shells and canned chile's.
maybe your situation is like mine: we live in an area (wisconsin) where one store doubles, but the shelves are always empty when I get there, so I don’t bother. we’ll never see the kind of deals the big chains in other parts of the country offer. I chased the deals and ended up with a small stockpile of stuff that we didn’t use, but was expired by the time I got around to donating it. now I clip the coupons for stuff I know I will buy, and try to match it with a sale for maximized savings, we eat real food, not the processed coupon foods.
Thank you Angela and everyone else for reading and replying to my email that I sent to Angela. I am not sure totally if it has helped or not. I am still somewhat confused. I am on facebook also several times day and people post pictures of deals that they have gotten with coupons. ThT really turns my head because I am like where did they go to get all those items and like I had stated in my earlier email is where did they get the coupons for those items, because I am diligent every week I clipping. I am still somewhat lost in a sea of coupons.
It’s hard to address that concern without knowing the specifics. Do you ever try using a coupon database such as this one: http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/coupon.php? You could just try typing in say TIDE to see what Tide coupons might have been available. Another thoughts – have you tried asking those people outright on FB (where did you get _______ coupon)? Without knowing the specific situations, this is really difficult to address beyond what I’ve said above. If you can point to a specific instance, I’m happy to try to help you dig further.
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