I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. I love what they *can* do with planning and diligence. I hate how they can turn me into a crazed obsessive $0.50-saver. Also, here’s another little confession: I felt like I had a really good coupon groove down when we lived in COLORADO. Ahem, more than eight years ago. But in St. Louis we lived in three different locations and I never really had MY grocery store that I went to every single time. Sometimes I would coupon at one store and sometimes I’d just skip it altogether in favor of Walmart, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s. Here in Oklahoma City, I’m feeling much the same way – should I shop at Walmart? Aldi? Buy For Less? Homeland? Crest? I’ve never even been inside a Crest, but I hear they are all the rage…
We live in the middle of two different Homeland stores. I like to refer to one as Skanky Homeland and the other as Wonderland Homeland. We’ve been here over 18 months now and I set foot inside Wonderland Homeland for the first time last month. I will never go to Skanky Homeland again. And Wonderland Homeland may have very well just made a Homeland shopper out of me. Except for when I go to Aldi or Walmart…
Anyway, most of the coupon awesomeness happens at Walgreens and CVS anyway, right? It’s a ton of work to keep up with and I feel like major Mrs. Homemaker when I walk out with a cart on the cheap. But it takes so much out of me to get the list compiled and coupons collected in the first place and then sometimes I miss going to the store I need to go to within the right time frame and all that work was for nothing.
Yet here I try again. I clipped, I sorted, and I made a list. Try, try again. Or something.
To coupon, or not to coupon? That is the question. What do you do?
7/365
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I rarely use coupons anymore. Case in point: Last week my kids really wanted a 120-count box of Crayolas. I bought one at Target for 6.47 with the proviso that if Michael’s had the same thing, I’d buy it there with the coupon. Michael’s did have it, but for $11.98, which even at 40 percent off would be higher than Target’s price. The lesson that I’m repeatedly learning is that CVS and Walgreens are also higher in price than other stores, so even with the coupons I’m not saving enough money to made the clipping and organizing worth the hassle.
Yep. Very good point. I think I’m about to give this up altogether, but something inside says to give it one last try. But after that, I may very well throw away that stupid green box for good.
I’ve pretty much given it up – it seems that coupon hoarders really have changed the game a lot in the last year or two. The deals just aren’t what they used to be around here at least and it doesn’t feel worth the investment of time for 0.30 off a $4 item.
Plus, the time spent running around? I decided it wasn’t worthwhile. I just bought a Sam’s membership and am going to maximize that with weekly grocery sales – wish we had an Aldi’s!!!!!