Ok, I know if you've watched an episode of Extreme Couponing on TLC by now, you have also gone to the store armed with some Sunday coupons ready to leave with a cart of free groceries.
And then wondered why your grocery bill is unchanged or maybe you saved around .58 off your normal bill only after stumbling down the aisle awkwardly shuffling some tiny pieces of paper while figuring out which sized box of macaroni it matches as the 3 children you are with start getting impatient with your extra long 3.2 minutes (compared to the usual 1.2) on the pasta aisle.
Here is my summary on couponing:
1. To be effective you have to use and match 2 coupons per item: Both the store sale item/in store coupon with the manufacturer's coupon.
Otherwise you are better off just buying the off brand products, they are usually cheaper than name brand even with a coupon.
2. A lot of things that coupons are good for are not good for you...candy, junk food, and random household goods you probably don't need anyway and wouldn't spend $3 on even if you get $2 off.
3. You also need a Sunday paper every Sunday which costs $2 so you have to subtract $8 a month from the coupon savings you are going to earn.
4. You need free time to cut coupons, organize them, figure out which are expired and which store has sales when.
5. You need the time and energy to go to more than your local grocery store to really save...HEB does best when you just shop off brand, and use their own instore deals. Randalls is good, but they don't have a buddy buck machine, the lines are long at the register and you have zero help unloading your cart. This is a big deal when you are keenly familiar with your local HEB when the sweet people rush to your cart to help you unload it to the belt, then offer your kids prizes while you check out, AND help you to your car.
Just to reinforce my thoughts, here's a fun example:
I needed batteries, you know, for important things like race cars, remotes, and baby toys...
I was super excited that HEB had an instore $2 off coupon for energizer max batteries. And even more excited when I saw a free $10 gift card manufacturer's coupon inside the pack I bought....but then I saw you had to buy THREE packs of batteries to qualify. So the next time I went to the store they were still on sale and I bought 2 more packs. I think it was around 4 each after the 2 HEB coupon. So if I could get the $10 coupons that would mean 24 batteries for $2.00!!! ($4 x 3 packs=$12 minus $10 gift card)
As soon as I got home I logged onto the engergizer site. Now all I needed to do was register my email with them and put in my three passcodes. Then tell them how I wanted my money (paypal for free or donation to the national park of my choice) Great, now I feel guilty for taking the money, oh well.
Ok, it takes my codes and I only have to stop about 7 times to break up arguments, feed snacks, and rock a crying baby while I'm working on my "coupon savings"
Now it says my $10 will be in my paypal account soon!
That was on May 5th...fast forward to yesterday, I think to check paypal and see if its there. No luck. Till today, one month later I get an email saying I have to go to paypal and retrieve my $10 or it will be given back to Energizer. No way!
Log on to pay pal, but I must verify my account (its a new account that I created with my junk email address since I wasn't sure about the whole thing).
Send email verification, Log onto junk email, verify account.
Return to account, I have $10, now I just have to send it to my bank account from paypal. Oops, my bank account is already linked to my original paypal account and I can't link it to more than one.
Thats ok, I can send the $10 from my junk paypal account to my real one.
Problem, there is a limit on my junk account b/c I haven't done some special registration so I can't send my $10.
Thats ok, all I have to do is register my debit card with my junk paypal account and they will let me send my $10. Done.
Retry to send $10. Success.
Log out and log into my real paypal account.
Woohoo, there it is...my $10.
Now I just have to send it to my bank account. Fortunately that information is legitimate in my real paypal account, hit send.
Transaction will take approximately 4 business days to hit my bank.
So that means THURSDAY, June 9th I will officially have gotten 24 batteries for only $2 and it only took me 32 days and an hour or two ignoring my children while messing around on the computer to get it...
