Why I’m On The Fence About Using Coupons 
63 Comments
While I like saving money as much as the next guy, I can’t say I’m really in the habit of using coupons. I do try to use them sometimes, but it often forces me to spend more or it just wastes time.
Now that I’m trying to eat healthier and avoiding processed foods, it seems harder than ever. When was the last time you saw a coupon for something like broccoli or spinach? Or what about organic food or free range meat? Instead it’s all the processed foods and sugar filled crap that they need help clearing out.
I think that in general coupons and promo codes for Canada are much harder to come by than US coupons. From what I’ve read on US blogs, it is typical for your Sunday newspapers to be full of coupons. That’s just not the case in Canada. I’m not sure why that’s the case. Perhaps that since there are far fewer newspapers, they might charge a high price for ads, making coupons on top of that price too costly. Or maybe a larger percentage of Canadians would take advantage of those coupons making them too expensive to publish in the paper.
Shopping online is a bit different since most of the big companies are in the US. I definitely take the time to find a coupon code when any website checkout form asks for one. It is just too easy to do a quick online coupon search which will uncover some decent coupon codes. So I have no problem spending 2 minutes to save 10% or more. The only catch is that coupon codes for free shipping may not apply to Canadian orders.
I guess I’m also a little disorganized about it all. Since I so rarely come across a coupon I would use, I put it in my junk drawer. If I’m lucky I remember it before it expires. More likely I dig through that drawer for something a year later only to find a bunch of outdated coupons to recycle.
I know the more hardcore coupon junkies keep big binders full of coupons that are all organized. I hope they use lots of those coupons, because that just sounds so time consuming. Rather than spend my spare time chasing savings of 50 cents or a dollar at a time, I prefer to put work into marketing my blog and other websites. If things go well, that should make far more money.
Of course if the coupon selection here improved I’d probably still jump on the bandwagon. I do use some for fast food when I feel the urge to sneak in some greasy food. Also I had bought an Entertainment book a while back. I’ve used that for some restaurants, an oil change and groceries.
The problem is that it encourages me to spend more which doesn’t work well when you’re on a major frugal streak. For example, to use the grocery coupons I need to spend at least $50, but I’ve got in the habit of doing mini $20-30 grocery shopping trips. It obviously worked out a lot better when I was actively hitting up the stores in there.
In the past I was also a lot more willing to try different brands if there was a coupon, but that often led me to buying something that I just wasn’t satisfied with. Now that I’m getting older I’m more set in my ways. I end up paying a bit more to go with my trusted brands.
Using coupons may have their pros and cons, sites like Answers.com coupons can give you a good reference, and if you choose that route can help save you some money.
Maybe as Eddie from Finance Fox suggested, I’ll start using coupons while dating. I’m a bit hesitant about it, but would be a good test to see if the girl can accept frugality without judgement.
What’s your take on coupons? Do you regularly use them? If so, do you manage to save a lot of money? If not, how come?
63 Comments
I almost never use coupons, because you are right – they are more for the crappy, processed stuff, and Canada doesn’t have as many coupons. If we do, they just aren’t worth the hassle. I only use Superbucks for Superstore when I get my gas there, and that can shave a lot of money off my bill.
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I used to do the superbucks thing too, but now I’m just close enough to walk to Superstore. The one with a gas pump is a little further away. I just starting getting paranoid over rumors that gas from those kinds of places tended to be a lot dirtier which may be hurting your car’s engine.
I agree with both you.
Coupons in Canada are ass compared to US.
I almost never use them… My wife clips a few for laundry detergent and such. But as you’ve already pointed out, coupons are few and far between in Canada.
Similarly with reward points, there are too many different types of points to collect. And, I find most of them (like aeroplan) require that you have about eleventy-billion miles before you can fly anywhere.
That’s why my spending is done on a cash-back credit card.
I’m the same way, I just use a cash back credit card for most of my spending. It just keeps it nice and simple and ensures that I use those rewards. I think to get really good coupons here you either need to buy stuff like the Entertainment Book or be following the companies on Facebook. It’s just not as easy to find the coupons.
We rarely use coupons because it seems that there are only coupons for name-brand items. Instead of scouring all of the ads we simply buy store-brand products if we need to buy something that’s processed.
We’ve recently gone to a diet though that is mostly filled with fruits, vegetables, and some grains…so we’re trying to avoid meat and processed food as much as we can. It should be an interesting experiment.
You do save a lot more money by just switching to store brands. It’s crazy how much cheaper some of those store brands are and the quality is often very similar to the big brands.
That sounds like a great change in diet. You already sounded like you were eating super healthy. So if you can cut out the processed foods and meat you’ll be doing awesome. I’m not at the point of being able to give up meat, but I eat way less processed foods than I used to. I’ve never eaten so much vegetables either.
We use coupons, but are not hardcore. I end up spending a lot of time organizing them only to find a better deal on the store brands a lot of times! If there’s a better deal on a store brand, I just go with it and don’t use a coupon. I’ve saved as much as $60 in a shopping trip with coupons even with using the store brand if cheaper! I usually only save about $10-20 though per week since I’ve quit bothering with coupons for the items I *routinely* found to be overpriced compared to the generic brand.
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That’s pretty good savings Michelle. I just don’t think that it’s possible to save so much here though. You’d have to do some intense scouring to find that many good coupons. $60 is pretty awesome savings from one trip, but you’re right that you have to look at overall price and not just the savings.
I’m waiting for CanadianBudgetBinder to pop in and say I’m wrong. I know he does quite well with coupons, but I haven’t read up on his tips much yet.
I don’t really use coupons. If they are attached to the item “save .50 now!” and I was buying the item in the first place, I don’t mind them obviously! But in the small town that I live in, most of the coupons are “go buy 2 of these types of food that you never use and save a whole $1!” So I tend to only use them if I happen across them by chance. I do buy generic on most items though. That tends to save me some money.
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I really don’t like the coupons that require you to stock up on an item. As a single guy I just don’t go through most stuff fast enough to want to buy several at once.
I used to use coupons. Not a ton, maybe 1 or 2 when I’d go shopping. I did get a lot of shampoo, toothpaste, etc for free, which was nice. But I HATED the hassle.
Well if you can get the items for free from using a coupons, that would definitely be worthwhile. It is often a big waste of time though.
Yeah I just recently had to actually buy a bottle of shampoo. Haven’t paid for that in years! But it’s not worth the hassle.
Only coupons I use tend to be for fast food restaurants like A&W, McDonald’s, or KFC because I receive coupons from them in my mail box occasionally. I also don’t like to buy more of something just to get the discount so the BOGOs and buy a burger and get a free meal coupons are the best kinds. I signed up for Groupons awhile ago and get their regular emails but so far I’ve never actually used one lol.
Those fast food coupons in the mail were the ones I’d be using the most too. Those companies seem to be some of the only ones regularly mailing coupons to Canadians.
And yeah I did the same with Groupon. I decided to see what it’s all about, but I just keep deleting all of their e-mails. One of these days I’m going to have to subscribe since it never seems to be anything I want.
We eat a lot of organic and whole foods which there are never coupons for. I only cut out coupons for non-perishable items such as toilet paper, soap, cat food, etc…
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Yes those kinds of items are still fairly coupon friendly. With stuff like toilet paper and soap I have no problem using a different brand if it has a coupon.
The foods I buy rarely have coupons or if they do I haave to buy 5 to save a dollar. Generics normally don’t have coupons either. I will use coupons for online shopping and restaurants though.
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Restaurants are one of my main exceptions too. With so many great restaurants out there, it is easy enough to find a coupon for some of them. It’s an easy way to save $10-15.
I live in America (obviously) and I clip coupons for EVERYTHING.
I also sign up for all those loyal restaurant email clubs to get the free appetizer coupons. Now I know I shouldn’t eat out, but when I plan dinner with my sister on a Saturday, I just signed up for that email club under ANOTHER email around Wednesday to get that coupon. And then I unsubscribe after I print out the coupon
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Good point about those e-mail clubs that many restaurants have these days. They do often send special coupons on there, such as a free menu item on your birthday. I would sign up for all of those but I hate getting newsletter spam. Also it would probably tempt me too much to go out to restaurants more. Sneaky move to use multiple e-mail addresses lol.
Given that I teach about couponing on my other website I use them all the time. If you take the time to learn you can save a lot of money and it’s not just processed foods. Whole foods even has coupons. The key is matching a coupon with a sale.
You can easily save hundreds of dollars at drug stores. I don’t remember the last time that I paid more than $1.00 for shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, ect.
That is all true in the US, but not so much in Canada. There’s no way you can save that much here and I never see any coupons for whole foods. If I were living in the US I would be taking advantage of that kind of stuff.
Whole foods has coupons on their website. You can also stack manufacturers coupons with their store coupons.
I don’t live close enough to a Whole Foods, but thanks for the heads up. You just have to make sure you click into the Canada section of the coupons page. Most store coupons here cannot be combined with other coupons though.
I’m not enthused about coupons, either. We don’t receive a newspaper but occasionally I’ll check a coupon site online, but rarely print any because we simply don’t buy the items that have coupons. I think we’re doing pretty well getting most of our food from discount/warehouse stores and then looking for sales and buying store-brand in grocery and drug stores.
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I think that kind of scenario happens with most casual coupon users. They don’t find much when they do check so it never becomes habit. It seems that you have to keep checking back to find the coupons that you would really use, but then it wastes too much time. From what I’ve heard it’s the Sunday newspapers in the US where the real deals are.
Your time is worth something and I tried this for about a month. Most of the stuff was for crap I dont buy anyways and the time spent was just not worth it. Personal Finance is all about the 80/20 rule with me and coupons reverse that rule.
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Great point about the 80/20 rule. This would usually fall into the area where it is more effort than it is worth. Of course it depends on what one would be using the time for instead.
I don’t use coupons, but I sometimes get annoyed by those around me that do. For example:
At work last week, we decided to get lunch. After deciding on the place, a co-worker asked what we were getting. She then opened her entertainment book, pulled out a coupon and handed it to us, and said “Since you two are each buying entrees, mine should be free”. Really??? Handing over a buy two get one free coupon instead of paying?
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hahaha too funny. That is the definition of cheap. I don’t know anyone who would have the nerve to try that. Anyone with any amount of common sense would realize that she should just be splitting the bill with you. I’d be curious to hear how you responded to that.
HAHA that is amazing. By amazing I mean tacky. If I ever had a buy one get one free coupon, I’d never assume I get a free meal – I’d say lets use this so we each pay half. Right?
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It does encourage me to spend more. I’ll usually save coupons for free appetizers or desserts or 1/2 off meals at restaurants that I know I will go to. As for grocery store stuff, not so much. I like using online promos all the time though.
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It is tough to pass up those good restaurant coupons, but I find it just makes me end up dining out more. If it wasn’t for those coupons reminding me, I’d probably just end up cooking at home instead.
Am I the only fan of coupons here!
I agree that many coupons are out there and not all are good for you. We even have a page that lists all the printable coupons available in Canada (http://www.groceryalerts.ca/printable-coupons-canada/). It has everything from yogurt, health products, energy bars, frozen veggies, vitamins, and personal hygiene products).
Everyone uses these products!
On a personal note, my wife and I have saved over $4,000 in 2 years tracking our coupon savings (I love to track things)!
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I am quite surprised how few pro-coupon people there have been commenting so far.
I did quick browse through that list, but I couldn’t find anything I already buy. Or some things that I do buy were for brands that I don’t remember seeing in the grocery store. If it was stuff I buy anyway, I’d gladly use the coupon.
$4000 in 2 years is decent savings, but I suspect sticking to store brands more would probably save even more.
Most of the time you can save more money by looking at offers on similar products & brands than you do using a coupon. You might get 10% off with a coupon for a pizza but if another brand is half price it’s obvious which will save you more.I prefer to just look for the bargains when I’m at the shops!
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That’s true. A lot of the time it is a more expensive brand that has to offer a coupon to entice sales. Or sometimes stores actually bump up prices when a coupon is available.
I totally agree, coupons in Canada generally suck. I used to want to get into couponing after watching too many episodes of Extreme Couponing but then realized all these people were buying were processed foods, cereal, chips, and pop, and we don’t even get any good coupons here anyways!
For sure. If you don’t mind eating unhealthy food, coupons are pretty awesome. I do love my cereal, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen coupons for the kinds I buy. A little while back they did have pretty cool coupons on the cereal boxes…either for a bunch of bananas or a can of juice.
Yup, agreed. Coupons suck. I know they’re better in the States, but even then I think its just plain weird that people keep huge stocks of things after using about ten million coupons. A friend of mine watched too much Extreme Couponing and decided to try it here in Canada at a Pharma Plus. She asked first if she could use multiple coupons for the same item (like you can in the States apparently) and they told her ‘yes’ (probably had no idea what she was asking) so she proceeded to pile household items into a cart and took them to the cash only to find out that she couldn’t use all her coupons. She put some of the stuff back but not all of it because she was too embarrassed, haha.
On another note, I’d be seriously ticked if I was at a grocery store and someone in front of me pulled out a thousand coupons.
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I can’t say I’ve actually seen Extreme Couponing, but it sounds like those people take things a little far. I guess they have to in order to be considered ‘extreme’. I think those people are likely just fulfilling a hoarding obsession. I just wonder when it was decided that Canadian couponing would be so restricted while US couponing would be no holds barred. Maybe it’s something to do with the constitution, who knows.
I definately always use coupons for toiletries and cleaning supplies! Aside from that, I don’t eat a lot of processed food either, so not a lot of food coupons are of use to me, but there are some finds every so often. And I always google “item” + coupon to try to find any online offers for food I’m going to buy.
Another tip, try to find out when the vendors of some of your favorite foods make their deliveries and make a habit of shopping then if you can. Get friendly with them and they will be more likely to hand you really awesome coupons that don’t get widely circulated. My wife once scored 5 coupons for a free dozen Eggland’s Best eggs.
Hmm, not sure if I want to know how friendly your wife got with the egg delivery man to score the 60 free eggs lol. Interesting tip though. At the grocery stores I go to, it is the grocery store staff that actually stocks shelves. So I think I’m out of luck there. I have a feeling that the egg delivery man wouldn’t fall for my charm either haha.
Toiletries and cleaning supplies are good items to get coupons for since usually the brand is more flexible and there seems to often be coupons for that stuff. Just googling coupons doesn’t work as well for Canadians since all the US coupons fill up the results.
Haha. Actually, she works at the store, so she’s developed relationships with all the vendors. At her store, most of the items are delivered on a company truck and stocked by store employees. But some companies send out their own delivery truck and stock their own items.
Perhaps adding the word “Canada” to the search query would help?
Ok I don’t want to know about all the relationships Edward lol. If it gets free eggs though, who am I to judge?
I could try some search terms including Canada, but based on past experience, it would likely be a waste of time.
We use coupons, but we aren’t extreme about them at all. We compare the item with the store brand and see ifthe coupon makes the name brand item cost less. If it does, and it’s an item we normally buy anyway, we use the coupon. Otherwise we stick to store brand. Personally I dont see the value in saving a few bucks if it costs you the better part if a Sunday afternoon organizing and collecting all the coupons.
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Sounds like you’ve got a good view of the whole couponing ‘hobby’. I think the people who spend a whole Sunday organizing their coupons must just really like collecting in general and it provides them some amount of enjoyment. Usually store brands are the better deal though.
I rarely buy any newspapers, so the only coupons I tend to get are those put through my letter box (I live in the UK). I will only use a coupon if it’s on something I’d normally buy anyway, or, it’s on a substitute product I’d normally buy and the coupon would make it cheaper than that usual purchase.
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I wonder how coupon use in the UK compares to here in Canada and to in the US. I’d think it would be closer to the Canadian level. Companies do tend to give out less coupons for stuff that is selling well on its own anyway. So it is a lot harder to find coupons for stuff that you already buy all the time.
I don’ t think we use coupons a lot in the UK. We tend to get them on new products so as to encourage consumers to make their first purchase to try the item out, then they hopefully get hooked. We once got a coupon through the door which, if we placed it outside our doors on a certain day, gave us a packet of Kelloggs cereals which had just come out. On that day a car driver delivered the packs to all those in our area who’d put the coupon outside. I thought that was a good way to promote, but is rarely used.
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That’s an interesting way to redeem coupons. I guess it might’ve been cheaper than having people mail in the coupons and mail the cereal back out. That’s how they did a free cereal sample I sent away for a little while back.
If I’m making a large purchase online, I’ll search for promo codes to save some money. It usually works rather well. That being said, I usually don’t buy the types of items that they print coupons for in the paper.
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Even if it’s not a larger purchase I’ll look for a promo code when shopping online. Since I don’t even have to leave my chair or print anything, it’s just too easy to pass up. I generally don’t make many small purchases online though. Usually it’s stuff where the coupon could save me $5-10+.
Most of the coupons I find are for things that I have no interest in buying. Every once in a while I’ll find one to use. I also bought an Entertainment Book. I got it for $15 and through ebates which gave me another $7 cash back. So, it ended up costing me $8. So far though, I haven’t used it for anything. I’ll have to look through it again though!
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$8 is a great deal for the Entertainment Book. You’re bound to find something in there to recoup your $8. The easiest ones are groceries and restaurants.
Even in the US coupons are most often for processed foods. There are however a lot of great deals to be had on bath products like toothpaste,floss etc. Other than that I don’t really use coupons. I rarely Groupon or Living Social either–unless it’s something I’m specifically in the market for. They just want you to spend money you hadn’t planned on!
I do wish I had used more coupons back when I was living less healthy and eating all those processed foods. I could’ve saved a lot of money.
For someone who is talking up the extremely frugal life they lead, you are certainly downplaying the benefits of keeping $0.50 or $1.00 in your pocket!
I think you are also overlooking the fact that there are TONS of coupons for items other than food, which can expand your grocery budget available for food if you are saving on other items like shampoo, oral care, etc.
It is very rare that a food coupon requires you to spend $50 in order to save anything, and if you really want to you can absolutely find coupons for fresh food as well! I currently have coupons for ANY fresh produce, fresh chicken, milk, and more:)
I would suggest doing a little more research, as organic coupons are readily available in health food stores, as well as at http://www.thehealthyshopper.ca.
Coupons have completely changed my family’s spending habits for the better, no little peice of paper can FORCE you to spend more than you were planning, the decision is in your hands.
I truly believe that the proper use of coupons on items that you will use can absolutely save you lots in your budget, those $0.50 and $1.00 savings add up:)
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I do live pretty frugally, but not at the expense of wasting time. If I spend hours trying to save a few bucks, I am working slave wages. Instead I put that time to making money through various business ventures.
I admit that I do need to at least do a better job of finding coupons for non-food items. In the end though, it is still usually cheaper for me to buy a lower end brand. It usually isn’t really saving money if you are going with a more expensive brand to do so.
And I do have lots of grocery coupons that do force you to spend $50 to redeem them. Those kinds of coupons just aren’t listed online to print.
I’d be interested to hear where you find coupons for things like chicken, milk and produce though. Not knowing where to find those specific coupons is a big part of why I’m biased against coupons.
As I had mentioned, you can find coupons for organic and natural items at health food stores, or online at the site I posted.
Those coupons in particular for chicken and produce I got from Ziploc bags, which I also got on sale with a coupon paying only $0.47 for the bags, and receiving $4 in fresh savings in the process.
Its all about strategic shopping, if you go any old time to the store then maybe that no name brand might be cheaper, but if you do your homework, 99% of the time that brand name is WAY cheaper after the coupon, sometimes free!
I appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however, I think its offensive that you keep saying coupons are only good if you dont eat healthy. My family eats very well, and you constantly repeating that implies that anyone who actively uses coupons eats nothing but processed garbage foods, which is not the case.
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I did check out that healthyshopper link, but I didn’t see anything on there that I would buy. I definitely wasn’t meaning to imply that all coupon users only eat unhealthy food. It just seems like the vast majority of food coupons out there are for unhealthy things.
I guess I just don’t know where to find good coupons, because all of the ones I’ve tried using always ended up still being more than the store brands.
Really though the main thing that turns me off from coupons is the time it takes to search them out, print them and keep them organized enough to remember to use them. Unless I start finding better coupons, it’s just not a very productive use of my limited time.
I might have to e-mail you for some tips or follow your blog.