~Coupons - Love em or Hate em!~

I have long held a love/hate relationship with coupons. In my early years out of college I would clip the occasional coupon and it would languish in the bottom of my purse until one day I would go surfing for a piece of paper to write something on and it would come out in a crumpled mess. They never got used. Back then, they cost ME money. You see, if you spend TIME clipping coupons but never use them it costs you. It's simple, your time is valuable.

Now that I'm a mother and a wife and living in a slow, scary economic time I've learned to LOVE the coupon. I've learned ways in which to efficiently and effectively use them.

Here in Canada we don't have the benefit of all the coupon websites and offers that they have in the United States, but they are getting better. Manufacturers' use coupons to gain the consumer. They start out with an aggressive coupon to get you to buy their product. Once that coupon expires the company will often offer another one, but for less off. Sometimes it's half, sometimes less. I assume it depends on how well the product is doing on the market. Sometimes a company uses coupons to improve their image. For example: Maple Leaf foods this year had a recall on thousands of food items; they now have a fairly aggressive coupon strategy out to recapture the average consumer confidence.

Now that you understand why we have coupons let's get down to the dos and don't of coupons!

Do...stock up on as many of a coupon that you can use before their expiry. For example, there is a specific type of cream that I like for my coffee. They have a coupon that expires March 31. So when I first discovered this coupon I collected enough of them to last me until expiry. To do this I figured out how many of the item I would be using in say a week, in this case it was 1 per week. Then I figured out how many weeks were left before the expiry. I got enough of them to cover each week up to the date of expiry plus a couple of extra. My cream, you see, has a couple of week expiry date on it so I can buy a few towards the end of March and they will still be good for a few weeks.

Don't...buy something just because you have a coupon. If you don't use it or if it isn't something you NEED, don't buy it. Just because you have a coupon and it will cost you less is not a good reason to buy it. The only time I veto this rule is if it makes the item FREE. In which case you can either keep it for yourself or donate it to a shelter or food bank.

Do...keep yourself organized Set up a specific day of the week to organize, clip and sort your coupons. Also create a method for organizing them. I personally use mini photo albums that I purchased from Walmart for $2 for mine. I have 2 that I use. I will cover exactly how I organize mine in a later post. Keep all your items necessary in the same area. Some people like to highlight the expiry date on their coupons. I sort my coupons right then and there into what I'll use and what I can get rid of.

Do pick up every coupon you see in the store, whether you will use it or not. Why you might ask? Especially when I said, don't use a coupon just because you have it?!? Well you will need to have extra coupons to use in trades and trains. I will cover these in another post as well! Just keep em, and organize them!

Do...buy on sale with coupons. In order to effectively coupon you need to be a smart shopper. Combining sales and club card discounts with your coupons is the way to go. I will have another post going over this in the future.

Do...take your coupons EVERYWHERE you go. Yes, everywhere. You will never know when you need one. You don't have to use them every time but if you are somewhere and you see something that is on a great sale and you have a coupon for it, it makes sense to have them with you.

Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to use coupons. Every dollar you save counts. I use a simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of my savings. When I see the total add up I know why I do it. If you have a cashier being rude or otherwise making you feel uncomfortable for using coupons just tell them like it is. It is your money and your time. They are being paid for their time to be there serving you and the company will be reimbursed from the manufacturer. Just remember YOUR personal reasons for using that coupon. It's no one else's business. Nope, not even that guy in line behind you rolling his eyes!

So that is the basics of coupons. There is lots more to cover! In tomorrows post I will discuss how to use a coupon to it's maximum potential!