Lessons in Couponing

I have been stepping into the world of couponing. Learning the ropes, learning the language. It is a whole new world. It takes much study and practice. I have been at if for about 3 months now. I buy the Sunday paper every week, then check different coupon sites for the current deals. My biggest question is...

Is it worth it?

Is couponing worth the time and effort to save a few extra cents?


I haven't figured out the answer yet. Over all, I think it is different for each person. Depending on your buying habits, coupons may or may not be beneficial. For example, we buy a lot of generic brand items. I don't care if I am using Hill Country Fare brand mustard, buying Kroger select bread, or eating Double Stuffed Kiddos. I will even buy the shampoo that looks almost identical to the Panteen Pro V bottle, but is actually the generic look-a-like.

Obviously, generic brands do not offer coupons. They are already cheap. And they are usually still cheaper than the brand name products even when you use a coupon AND your store doubles or triples* your coupons. (See bottom of post for what that means if you don't know...I just found out a couple months ago)

Plus, sometimes you have to buy in bulk to get the benefit of coupons. There might be a coupon for "40 cents off when you buy 3 gallons of milk". Um, what? We would never buy 3 gallons of milk at once. But later on, when we have little ones running around, this might be a great deal.

The thing I am learning about coupons is - if you just use coupons by themselves, you probably won't save that much money. You have to combine coupons with a sale. Most coupons don't expire until a couple months after they come out in the paper. Sometimes they are good for 6 months. So I check different coupon sites and blogs which tell you all the current coupon match-ups. For example, maybe hand soap is on sale for $1.00 at Kroger one week - then you can use a "35 cent off hand soap" coupon that came out in the 4/19 Sunday Paper, which Kroger would triple, and you would end up getting it for free.

But then I think to myself - Hmm...I have already done my shopping for this week, is it really worth it to make an extra trip to Kroger just to get one bottle of free hand soap? I might spend that much money on gas to get there, and I don't even really need hand soap. It just depends. Not every deal is worth it.

I have learned a few lessons over the past few months that I will share. If you have any tips or advice, please share because I am still really new at this and could learn a lot from the more experienced couponers :)

Lesson 1: Couponing at Target is not worth the hassle.
Lesson 2: Playing the "CVS game", has been fun, and I do think beneficial for me so far
Lesson 3: Even though at first I thought CVS and Walgreens basically had the same "game strategy" (Extra Care Bucks @ CVS seemed the same as Register Rewards @ Walgreens), I think CVS has a much better system, and it is not nearly as easy to save a lot a Walgreens.

All three lessons will be expounded upon in a later post.

*Doubling or Tripling Coupons means that your store will double or triple the value of the manufacturer's coupon. Some stores do this, some don't. The Kroger by me will triple coupons up to 35 cents and double coupons up to 50 cents. (I think...but check your own store to be sure). So if your coupon is for 30 cents off rice, when the store triples it, you will be getting 90 cents off rice. If your coupon is for 50cents off shampoo, you get $1 off shampoo.