Last week, I had a short chat with a Shoprite employee. She told me that since the launch of the TV show, Extreme Couponing, people have been storming the store with envelopes full of coupons. They are also demanding employees to make multiple transactions in a single visit. While couponing is a good way to save money on groceries, as I have written in my previous posts, there are also some downsides that probably beginning couponers are not aware of.
Here are some of the things to think about before heading to the grocery store with your 5-pound coupon binder:
1. Space Issue
So far, all the participants that I’ve seen on the show have houses that either have extra rooms for storage, a garage or a basement where they can store their groceries. Their mantra is to take advantage of the sale whenever possible and buy as much as they can so they would not run out of an item and be forced to buy it at their retail price. While this is a good strategy, this could not work for people who are living in smaller spaces, like, erm – us. We are now living in a one-bedroom apartment and there is just not much space to store all the stockpiles of bathroom tissues, paper towels and hundreds of cereal boxes.
So I designated a certain drawer or closet for our supplies (one drawer for haircare products, one drawer for dental supplies, one closet for bathroom supplies and so on), then once a particular space has been filled up, we just stop buying items for that category. That way, our stockpiles would not invade our space. Everyone needs a place to sit and relax without having to stare at bathroom tissues and pasta sauces, right?
2. Savings Defined
This one’s the trickiest. The couponers on the show boast of having “saved” a lot of money in their grocery trips. One participant even said that by saving 600 dollars on their groceries in her last trip, they were able to book their next vacation. Did she really save 600 dollars?
First, you need to look at what you are willing to allocate for groceries in a month. If you have allocated 100 dollars every week, your utmost priority is to stay within that budget. If you spent a total of 120 dollars for your CVS, Shoprite and Walgreens purchases in a week because there were great deals, you actually overspent during that week! Even if it says on the receipt that you made a savings of 600 dollars by paying 120 dollars, you still exceeded your weekly limit. Hence, you should not spend those 600 dollars for other things, like travel, because that amount was not in your weekly budget in the first place.
For me, savings means the difference between the amount that you actually spent and the amount you’ve allocated for your groceries. If you spent 40 dollars from your 100-dollar limit, you have my permission to get that 60-dollar pair of shoes you’ve been wanting for a long time.
3. How will I get that many coupons?
Okay, assuming that you have the space to store cereals that will be good for one year and a thousand razor blades plus two hundred Dove deodorants, you should ask yourself up to what extent you are willing to dive for coupons. On the show, people would jump into dumpsters, drive around town to get other people’s inserts or knock on other people’s doors to ask for their coupons. I’ve even heard of a story of a couponer who would ask a gas station manager to pull out all the inserts out of the newspapers before returning them to the newspaper company on Mondays.
Ask yourself, are you willing to do all that?
As for me, I’ve been pretty satisfied with buying four Sunday newspapers, printing online coupons and getting the drugstore monthly book of coupons. That’s it. And even that could be overwhelming sometimes.
4. More is Better?
I’ve noticed that with paper towels, for instance, I tend to use more if I know that there is an overflowing supply of Brawny in our closet (that is supposed to be used for coats). I unintentionally give myself a pass to frequently change sponges, use bathroom tissues for every tiny mess in the bathroom or use paper towel for picking up a tiny grain of rice from the floor.
Bottom line, we should be aware of our consumption. Also, with kids around, they might think that the supply of juice boxes is endless so they never intend to finish a box before throwing it away. First, it is bad for the environment, and second, you are not really saving a whole lot by consuming more.
5. Time Issue
Some of the couponers I’ve read about and watched on the show would spent as much as 35 hours a week for clipping and sorting coupons, and for planning their weekly trip to the grocery. Again, while this is good for some people (particularly those who have grown kids), it might not be ideal for someone like me who has a small child in the house. I try to limit my time for planning my grocery trips to 2-3 hours a week then I go to Shoprite for an hour, CVS and Walgreens for 30 minutes each. And I usually do all those while my little one is either sleeping or at school. That way, I would not feel guilty of spending much more time with my coupon binder than with my husband and daughter. Sometimes, we should put things, even if they do us good, into perspective.
In spite of everything, I still am a fan of couponing. It should be kept in moderation, though. Too much of everything is destructive. And who needs a box of toothbrushes and deodorants anyway?