Couponing is a strategy by which many families can stretch their dollars. I personally used to be very deep into couponing–spending probably 5 or 6 hours a week seeking out the best bang for my buck. In fact, couponing is why I began my blog (family and friends wanted to learn how I was doing it, so blogging is how I shared it).
But as I have learned about and personally experienced the negatives of mass marketed products (food and non-food), I have found myself dropping couponing almost completely.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a clever deal seeker and I will go the extra mile to save money and seek deals. But, in trying to be a good steward of my family, I have come to the conclusion that couponing (especially extreme couponing) is unnecessary and often even detrimental to our healthful lifestyle. I will still use some coupons upon occasion, but for the vast majority of my shopping, I pretty much avoid them any more. Here are my three big reasons for not couponing so much any more:
- Unhealthful items. The majority of coupons are for unhealthful, highly processed foods or cleaning products riddled with unhealthful chemicals. Since I have been researching healthful living and making baby step changes (which, by the way, have had a tremendous impact on our health), I have been learning about these unhealthful products. And it makes me really want to avoid them if I can.
- Excess purchases. When I couponed, I often (or at least was very tempted to) purchased a bunch of items that, ordinarily, I wouldn’t get at all just because it was a great (often free) deal. Which meant that our house became cramped with said items that we didn’t really need or I would donate them to someone else who probably didn’t really need them either. One such example that comes to mind is air fresheners.
- Too time consuming. I would spend hours finding, matching, and clipping coupons. For things we didn’t really need or things we really shouldn’t be using. Then, about once a month, I’d spend even more time discarding the coupons that had expired that we never got around to using. This was robbing time from creating balanced, nutritional meals and it also distracted me from spending time with my family.
So, just how do I now keep within the borders of our budget without couponing? Here’s how:
- Coupons and coupon codes. Say what? I just said I don’t coupon any more. Actually, I said I don’t coupon {much} any more. But, yes, there are very few coupons that I still use–mainly ones that come free in the mail or that are accessible online (the printable ones, the ones you load onto your loyalty card, or coupon codes). We DO NOT subscribe to a newspaper and I spend maybe a mere 5 minutes per week obtaining coupons.
- Shop online. A good chunk of my shopping is done online, mostly on Amazon.com. There are often great deals to be found online. And quite often, upon shopping online, I can find those handy coupon codes that give me discounts on certain items or free shipping.
- Buy locally and in season. Farmer’s markets are a great place to get inexpensive items like meat, honey, fruits, and veggies. And super fresh, too, which means they’re rich in nutrients. Also, buying in season at the local super market is a far more healthful strategy than buying out of season (I’ve heard apples alone are about 6 months old by the time they reach the produce department when they’re not in season!).
- Hit up sales. I keep my eyes on loss leaders (those are the items on the front of ad circulars wherein the store will lose money on those sale items to lure customers into the store with the hopes they’ll purchase other, full-price items) and any other deals that our local grocer holds and try to take advantage of these so long as they match our healthful lifestyle.
- Buy in bulk. One of the key things we purchase in bulk is grass-fed beef. We’ll buy a side at a time from a local cattle ranch and freeze it. Typically, this makes the beef cheaper per pound than it would be to purchase its less-healthful, grain-fed brethren at the super market. Other items we buy in bulk include wheat berries, rice, and dried beans.
- Make my own. I make a lot of stuff–food and non-food–from scratch. This means that I can ensure they’re full of healthful, nutrient-dense ingredients that are safe to put in and on our bodies while at the same time saving a LOT of money. This also simplifies things because homemade items contain so few ingredients compared to their processed counterparts.
- Swagbucks. I love and adore Swagbucks. I do a TON of online searching, so by doing it through Swagbucks I am also able to save (or rather earn) money. After every 450 Swagbucks that I earn, I redeem them for a $5 Amazon.com gift card. Just by searching online (which is something I’d do anyway), I earn about $20 per month to spend at Amazon.com!
Love this! I feel the same way. My sister is a big couponer and teases me a little that I am just not into it. My reasons are basically the same as yours!
I could never make couponing work for us. I started watching the sales and planning our meals and buying a lot more generic brands or store brands and that cut our food bill a lot.
I’ve come to find that very often the store brand, at full price, costs pretty much the same as or less than the name brand with a coupon and sale–but it’s a lot easier to grab that store brand jar than it is to wait for a sale and clip a coupon to buy the name brand, lol! An insider secret (and you probably already heard this) is that a vast majority of the store brand products are made by the name brand companies anyway, so it’s the same stuff!
I’ve never been able to get into couponing because most coupon items are for things I really don’t use. I also usually purchase the private label/store brand of items rather than the name brand. IF only there were coupons for fresh fruits and veggies!
In my extreme couponing days, I actually did upon occasion find coupons for produce–but they were VERY rare! I have a City Market loyalty card now and (almost as rarely) they will mail me coupons for produce, too. But, yeah, they are ridiculously rare and I wish there were more. 🙂
Like you I used to be a big couponer but found also that I was purchasing things we didn’t use or things that were unhealthy. I still coupon but not to the extent that I used to as the healthier products we now use don’t have the sales/coupons as other products. I still bargain hunt, though:)
I completely agree- I hate that the majority of coupons I see are for unhealthy, processed, big-name products. I’ve had some luck with the online Safeway coupons (the kind you load onto your loyalty card)… they actually have coupons for fruit, veggies, etc. from time to time.
Great post!!
I use to use coupon a lot and now I don’t either. I still try and save as much money as possible. Couponing does take a lot of time and energy and really I don’t have that right now. I’m exhausted from day to day stuff and can’t fit it in anymore. However, that doesn’t stop me from pinching pennies.
Thanks for the honest and insightful post, I will have to check out Swagbucks. I have some of these same concerns, but financially have little choice at this time. I no longer pay to subscribe to a newspaper or magazines because for me it was not usually worth the cost. I am so grateful for couponing, as my budget for food and household items is so low and I am trying to stop using charge cards. I do my best to get the healthiest items I can with coupons and sales – low or sodium free, sugar free, whole grain, less chemicals, etc…. I do not use the entire packet of seasoning and/or add lots of veggies so that I do not eat all the chemicals and sodium at one time and have seasonings leftover for other meals. I give thanks for the coupons sites and manufacturers and that I have the time and energy to be a couponer. Unfortunately, 2 of my coupon books were lost or stolen in the last couple of months, lost lots of free coupon and high value coupons, but am hoping whoever got them needed them more than I do and enjoyed the savings.
Have you taken Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University? Most cities hold it locally in churches and what-not. That was the turning point for my hubby and me. We still have thousands and thousands in debt to pay off, but we’re doing a million times better, and we’ve become our church’s FPU coordinators. It’s a small investment up front, but boy is it most worth it! Also, taking advantage of co-ops has saved us a ton of money.