Do you Coupon?

[Anonymous]

And if so, do you do so casually or aggressively?

[Anonymous]

I do and I love it. I am SAH mom, and this is my way of contributing financially, in a backwards kind of way.

But I have to be careful not to buy "junk" that I would not buy otherwise. Unfortunately, many of the coupons are for crap, so I'm really careful about what I do/don't use.

The big way to save is when you combine the coupon with a sale item, which isn't so hard to do with laundry detergent and other cleaning items, and toiletries.

[Anonymous]

I coupon casually.
I have a full time job and I have 3 kids, I do it aggressively for a few weeks, get burnt out and then stop.

But for another 2-3 weeks, when I have to buy stuff full price , I get so upset, I go back to couponing for another 3-4 weeks, then stop again.

Its a lot of fun, its help me reduce stress (you kinda get a high from knowing you pay next to nothing for some things) but its a lot of work as well

[Anonymous]

Nope, I don't buy the kinds of things they make coupons for. But we make our grocery list based on the sale circular.

[Anonymous]

No. I don't need the money and don't have the time.

[Anonymous]

I go in cycles. It's great for things like crackers, yogurt, cheese, cereal, etc. But, I hate the couponing show- they are just selfish hoarders! The one woman had 200,000 feminine products and had a hysterectomy! Just like the boy who had tampons and everything like that.

If you do it wisely, you can save a lot of money. Otherwise, you might as well be Honey Boo Boo.

[Anonymous]

I used to, very aggressively. I did not have a fulltime job or a child at the time though.

It's SO much work. soooo much work to stay on top of the sales brochures, ordering coupons from ebay/coupon sellers, reading all the blogs to see what everyone else is doing and the deals that are hot.

TIME is MONEY now.... I do not have the time to spend on it. My (very little) free time is more valuable than the $50ish bucks I would save, since most of my grocery bill is produce & raw ingredients that there are no coupons for (winetags back in the day, but I don't know if they are allowed in DC/MD/VA - and also very hard to find).

[Anonymous]

casually. I use coupons for things like toothpaste and paper products. I don't find the food coupons all the great. I do try to use coupons at clothes stores when I can. I am not obsessive about it (because like others have said - it takes a lot of time) but it sure feels good when you get a good deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do and I love it. I am SAH mom, and this is my way of contributing financially, in a backwards kind of way.

But I have to be careful not to buy "junk" that I would not buy otherwise. Unfortunately, many of the coupons are for crap, so I'm really careful about what I do/don't use.

The big way to save is when you combine the coupon with a sale item, which isn't so hard to do with laundry detergent and other cleaning items, and toiletries.

Yes I do this too.

[Anonymous]

I coupon casually. It is a really good feeling to see the savings.

[Anonymous]

Let's see, save 50c on some name brand or save $1 by getting the Giantwegway's brand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I go in cycles. It's great for things like crackers, yogurt, cheese, cereal, etc. But, I hate the couponing show- they are just selfish hoarders! The one woman had 200,000 feminine products and had a hysterectomy! Just like the boy who had tampons and everything like that.

If you do it wisely, you can save a lot of money. Otherwise, you might as well be Honey Boo Boo.

Okay, buying maxi pads when you've had a hysterectomy is just plain crazy. I once saw a show where the folks had cans and cans of cat food and yes, you guessed it, THEY DIDN'T HAVE A CAT!

Yes, some of those folks look like they're preparing for Armegeddon. They give up bedrooms to set space to do the coupon clipping and entire basements are lost to food store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's see, save 50c on some name brand or save $1 by getting the Giantwegway's brand?

well obviously not in that situation - you have to do the math! I just saved like $20 at target with coupons for toiletries and such.

[Anonymous]

I like Safeway digital coupons - they usually combine pretty easily with any paper coupons out there and they are also offered on stuff I buy regularly. If we didn't need to stretch our dollar I wouldn't bother with paper coupons ever - but at this point every dollar helps. I am careful not to buy things that I wouldn't if a coupon wasn't there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I don't buy the kinds of things they make coupons for. But we make our grocery list based on the sale circular.

I agree - this is a simple way to eat seasonally.