Are Coupons Worth Your Time?

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One personal finance tip that you see pop up over and over again is to clip coupons. Some people claim to save hundreds of dollars each month just by clipping coupons. There’s an entire site dedicated to helping consumers get the best deal on their groceries using coupons.

I don’t clip coupons for groceries. Never have and I’m not sure I ever will. I’ve tried clipping coupons on Sunday, but usually give up after 5 minutes. I just don’t think it’s worth the time investment. Here’s a quick break down why I think clipping coupons is a waste of time.

Coupons for stuff I don’t buy. Every time I’ve sat down to look through coupons on Sunday, I mainly find coupons for stuff I just don’t buy. I haven’t eaten a Lunchable since 4th grade, so I’m not interested in getting two for the price of one. We have to remember that coupons aren’t printed because food manufacturers want to help out our budget. Coupons are a marketing strategy to get consumers to purchase something they wouldn’t buy in the first place. I’ve also noticed that coupons get issued for stuff that’s already overpriced to begin with. I can save 15 minutes of my time and save the same amount of money buying the generic brand than clipping a coupon for the name brand.

Coupons can increase travel time. Some coupons are valid only at certain stores. Instead of doing your grocery shopping in 45 minutes in one store, in order to get the good deal with your coupon, you might have to drive across town, extending the amount of time of your errand. In addition to wasting time, the extra driving to get the deal wastes expensive gas. After you factor in the cost of gas, the extra effort to get the good deal will probably be mitigated.

Extra clutter. Clipped coupons means just one more thing to keep track of. I’m really trying to reduce the amount of stuff in my life and extra pieces of little paper floating around won’t help. I’m sure many people have established awesome systems to organize their grocery coupons. If it works for them, more power to them. Personally, I don’t think establishing such a system would be worth the time investment.

While I don’t clip coupons for groceries, I will clip coupons for restaurants. Restaurants offer great deals in the Sunday paper. My wife and I have had several cheap date nights thanks coupons from restaurants. Our favorite breakfast place, IHOP, often has coupons in the paper for buy one meal get the other free. You can’t beat that.

What do you all think? What’s been your experience with coupons? Any suggestions on making coupon clipping worth it? Drop a line in the comment box. I’m looking forward to you suggestions!

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14 Comments

1. fn on 21.12.2007 at 23:33 (Reply)

   I’ll scan the Sunday coupon insert for big ticket items I frequently buy such as laundry detergent, toiletries, haircare products, or cereal. Most other processed food coupons are a waste of time for our family.

   My problem is not the cutting out, it’s the remembering to take the coupon folder into the store.

2. vh on 22.12.2007 at 21:10 (Reply)

   Thank you! After reading the paeans to coupon-clipping from crowds of PF bloggers, I was beginning to think I’m the only cheapskate on the planet who doesn’t collect grocery and drugstore coupons! I’m SO contrary, I actually canceled the local Sunday paper because I was paying to have about three pounds of advertising delivered straight to the recycling bin.

   Because I eat real food (that is, with as little processing as possible), about 95% of coupons are useless to me — matter of fact, about 95% of “food” in grocery stores is not real food. As for laundry detergents, toiletries, and wines under $12, I’ve found the store discount cards knock down the stated price pretty well, and Costco usually offers better deals than coupons, assuming you have space to store a lifetime supply of your favorite shampoo and conditioner.

   Chasing around the city after some coupon bargain seems kinda counterproductive to me: at three bucks for a gallon of gas, how much does it cost you to save thirty cents at the grocer’s? And how much is your time worth? If I were doing a project for you, I’d charge you my standard rate of about $60/hour. So schlepping an extra 20 minutes each way to a second retailer (for a total of 40 minutes) means a fifty-cent savings on a bottle of dish detergent consumes 40 bucks worth of my time. The time I have when I’m not working is worth one heckuva lot more than $60/an hour to me, and I sure don’t want to waste it trudging from grocery store to grocery store.

   I suspect coupon-clipping works only if a) you’re very, very savvy about price comparisons; b) you have several grocery and drug stores within about a one-mile radius of your home; and c) you assign no significant value to your “free” time.

3. Christine on 23.12.2007 at 09:43 (Reply)

   I don’t clip coupons (mostly for the reasons you list - I don’t buy a lot of processed food, and it’s time consuming), but I do sign up for e-mail bonus offers from places that I shop at a lot. My favourite clothing and shoe stores send around great offers for discounts (usually about 25% off), and I get regular updates from all the airlines that I fly on regularly of seat sales and whatnot. If I’m not planning on buying anything at the time the e-mails arrive, it takes less than a minute to delete them… but if I’m in the market for something new, it’s worth the time to open the e-mail and print off the coupon.

4. Early Retirement Extreme on 23.12.2007 at 10:51 (Reply)

   I rarely see coupons for store brand food items that are on sale anyway, so I guess that’s a no for that. I do use coupons for consumer discretionaries where available.

   PS: It seems that your little math test does not respect operational order.

5. Michael on 23.12.2007 at 16:04 (Reply)

   Happy Birthday!

6. Karen Eaton on 24.12.2007 at 09:17 (Reply)

   I tried the coupon clipping thing for about a month in conjunction with the subscription service thegrocerygame.com. Basically, the Grocery Game provides you with a store-specific list that combines coupons with in-store sales and tells you the best time to “play” your coupon. There were some people in a forum I belonged to that swore they saved hundreds of dollars a month.

   I didn’t keep up with it because:
   (1) It was a ton of work - you either need to clip all the coupons for items you buy and file them or keep all the circulars and go back and clip out the coupons each week when it is time to play the coupon. It was also a lot of work once i got to the store - matching the circular with coupons, making sure I had the right product - the first week I must have spent an hour in CVS finding all the right stuff that was on the list.
   (2) I don’t get the Sunday paper, and didn’t see the point of subscribing just for the coupons, so I had to beg my mom (who lives nearby) for hers each week.
   (3) The start up costs were high. Besides the $5 per store per month subscription cost, the Grocery Game relies on stockpiling, so you only buy items when they are at the lowest point - that means one month your stocking up on lots of toiletries, the next on something else - so for the first 6 weeks or so, you ending up spending more money, not less.
   (4) Regular grocery stores are expensive no matter what you do. I found its much cheaper to have a $150 freezer, buy in bulk at Costco and then fill in around the edges with food from Walmart and a local discount grocery store. I only go to the regular grocery store when I absolutely have to - usually for low fat dairy products that aren’t available at the other stores.

7. Jamie @ Surviving College Life on 27.12.2007 at 10:34 (Reply)

   I shop store sales instead–I look for the yellow tags under regularly priced items. I also stock up on things I use often whenever there is a sale. It makes my weekly budget a little more variable, but I feel like it saves me money in the long run.

   I also use a LOT of restaurant coupons. I sign up for restaurant email newsletters, and they often send coupons or freebies. Also, always check the back of your receipt! A lot of restaurants will give you a freebie if you call in and take a short survey!

8. Kimberly on 29.12.2007 at 03:41 (Reply)

   Well looks like I’m going to be the odd one out on the comments but I am all about the coupons…. My local stores double coupons so I get tons of stuff for free or super cheap by using them in conjunction with store sales.

   Now, if the stores did not double coupons, I probably wouldn’t use them and just go store brand..

9. paulette on 05.01.2008 at 12:20 (Reply)

   In my opinion cuopon worth saving. All you have to do is have a dedicated storage of this. Because this clutter can help you save a penny

10. lei on 08.01.2008 at 12:22 (Reply)

    Theres no harm i collecting coupon. Maybe a toaster or a dinner isnt bad if it is given to you free.Although sometimes it is really irritating in the purse because it adds to clutter.

11. lei on 08.01.2008 at 12:30 (Reply)

    I dont like collecting cuopons. First because it is very promising. Second it adds clutter to my pocket

12. Erica on 19.01.2008 at 15:50 (Reply)

    I have to disagree with you on this. I usually clip coupons while watching the Today show in the morning or Letterman in the evening, so I don’t feel that I’m wasting time because I would just be sitting on the couch anyway. Also, while most coupons are for products that I wouldn’t ordinarily buy, many (such as coupons for shampoo, eggs, cleaning products, soup, cereal, and coffee) really come in handy, and the coupons make the brand-name products even cheaper than the off-brands. On average, I save $5-10 per week using them, making up for the cost of the newspaper subscription plus some!

13. girlieLA on 14.02.2008 at 11:23 (Reply)

    Are you kidding??:-) We save anywhere from 50-90% off our bill every week. I use a drug store chain with a great savings program and have spent as little as 50 cents for a cart full of necessities. (deodorant, toothpaste, trash bags, shampoo, razors, OTC meds, paper products, cleaning products…). We purchase a lot of “real food”, organic, healthy eating type items as well and still realize better than a 50% savings when that is the bulk of the order. No, I’m not a very organized person either. BTW, I use one grocery store and one drug, theres one other grocery store that I visit about 2x’s a month because they have great meat and deli prices. Never go all over town to save money. Good luck to those who try. There’s lots of coupon sites out there with great ideas to help you out. Some even tell you which coupon to take to which store so all the guess work, is gone.

14. Overwhelmed With Joy! on 26.08.2008 at 14:49 (Reply)

    It’s taken me a while to get into the habit of clipping coupons but now I do. Using it with the Grocery Game website, as well as www.couponmom.com and wwww.mygrocerydeals.com has made a significant dent in our grocery bill!

    Let me give you an example.

    This morning I went to Fry’s and purchased 4 grocery bags full of groceries.

    So here was the breakdown of my receipt:

    Fry’s VIP card savings: $34.56
    Coupons savings: $27.00
    Total savings (76%): $61.56
    Final cost: $19.11 (for 4 bags of groceries)

    These groceries for items that we’d normally buy anyway. I’m trying really hard not to buy items just buy for the sake of buying crap that’s on sale. Know what I mean?

    Using coupons does help!

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