In the last few years there have literally been thousands of couponing sites that have sprouted up throughout the web. While couponing has been around for decades, the most recent recession and wave of media coverage on ‘extreme couponers’ has propelled couponing into a very popular money-saving art form.
But it hasn’t come free of criticism. Coupon critics are quick to point out that many families spend hours to save a few dollars and don’t take the time to calculate how much money they’re saving compared to the time spent on the entire couponing process.
The very idea behind couponing is to save your family money, but if you sacrifice spending hours with your family just to save a few dollars each month, is it really worth it?
The truth is that while most people like the idea of couponing, they really don’t understand all that goes into the preparation, organization, and research involved with couponing. While there are plenty of resources to teach you how to coupon, the fact remains that you just aren’t going to be an overnight couponing success. It takes a lot of dedication and hours each week in order to save hundreds of dollars each year.
Calculating The Cost of Couponing
So before you jump onto the extreme couponing bandwagon, let’s do some math to find out how much couponing really saves someone on average.
First, a reality check.
The couponers you see on TV who plan for giant purchase in order to pay $12.00 for $700 worth of goods (yes, it’s possible), spend an enormous amount of time and effort collecting hundreds of coupons. In my opinion, it’s not worth letting coupons consume your life like that.
A more reasonable approach is to aim for 20-50% savings on items that you normally buy without buying way too much in terms of quantity.
From our experience in using coupons over the last two years, we found that on any given week, we’ll spend an average of 3 hours a week.
Time Spent On Couponing
- 1 hour clipping and sorting coupons,
- 1 hour looking for online coupon and planning our Sunday shopping trip,
- 1 hour shopping at Walgreens for the deals we’ve found that week.
Now for the math. On average, for a coupon trip to Walgreens, we will spend about $10-15 on $50-$60 worth of items. That’s a savings of about $45 per week just on Walgreens items (toiletries, paper goods, deodorant, etc). At three hour a week, the savings calculates to a little over $15.00 an hour for that example.
Have there been weeks of much higher savings? Sure, but that’s a conservative estimate on how two people reasonably use coupons.
Is It Worth Saving a Few Bucks?
Admittedly, $15 an hour isn’t huge savings, but it’s not bad considering the amount of work we put into it. For our family of two, the savings are small – but for a family of four or more, the savings can easily double. The good news is that it doesn’t take much more time to coupon for a larger family, so your savings can be significantly higher simply because of the extra volume that you buy.
At the end of the day, you just need to be honest with yourself about how much time it takes to coupon. If the savings are worth it to you, then go for it. Your time is valuable and saving money is important. But if you don’t take the time to calculate what your time is worth, you’ll let the small savings keep you from doing the things you enjoy most. Plus, you might find that your time is better spent on ways to make money instead of trying to save with coupons.
What do you think about saving money with coupons? Is it worth your time? Would you rather devote your time to saving money or making money? Leave a comment below!
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I consistenly save 50% off groceries and more than that on toiletries with the help of coupons. I only commit an hour a week to couponing and I can prepare for those shopping trips while watching tv or in other downtime. I think that hour is a great investment because it allows me to be a much better steward of my resources and more generous to those in need because it lowers my expenses.
I respect those who do this. Anything to save money is certainly worth the effort. “Earning” $15/hour that you would, I assume, otherwise not be paid for is not something to ignore. But couponing doesn’t work for our family. I have spent several hours hunting down coupons for items we buy, but because we tend to eat whole fresh foods/organic there aren’t food coupons. We are particular about personal care products (if you can’t eat it, it shouldn’t go on your skin)–and there aren’t coupons. Maybe for toilet paper, but I don’t think it is worth my time and effort to save $.50 on a 12 roll.
I also would encourage people who are doing couponing to be sure to look for things that they would already buy. Not necessarily by brand, but just by item. The term “save” can lead SO many people to buy things that they wouldn’t have bought, so really they didn’t save anything in the end. It’s just a retailing trick, really. If you’re looking for something, or would buy it for your pantry (or anywhere, really), then heck yes: try to save a little bit if you can. But just buying things because you have coupons can be extreme. I stood behind a woman at a checkout who had about 30 bottles of one deoderant in her cart, and a stack of coupons in her hand. It seemed silly to me. I can’t imagine that the shelf life of some products will even last long enough for someone to buy that many. Did she end up wasting some of her time and money on some of them? I’d be willing to wager, Yes. Using coupons can be great, but I do think that it can get a little outrageous pretty easily.
Extreme Couponing doesn’t seem to work well in Stores in Indiana. Meijer and Kroger only double 2 coupons up to 50 cents each per purchased item, and there’s also a limit after that, how many coupons Stores accept. When I buy larger quantities, I donate most of the items to the Food Pantry at Church.
The problem I find is there is no store in my area grocery (HEB, Randalls), discount-department (Walmart or Target) that will accept online printed coupons. They claim ‘too many forgeries’ and refuse them. When I lived in the midwest, it was the same thing. I would like to know who accepts online coupons? I do not print them, as it ends up being a waste of ink–which is also costly! I do however use what I can on things I would normally purchase that are in the Sunday paper..but that comes up to about $5 a week.
Tina as far as I know walmart and target accept online printed coupons. I live in Florida. Target even has manufacturer and target web coupons on their website for printing. Publix also accepts online coupons. However I remember a situation trying to get an item free at walmart with a printed manufacturer coupon and I was denied. Apparently walmart does not accept online printed coupons for free items. Publix has an even more relaxed policy with regard to coupons and will accept an online coupon for a free item once the cost is under $5. I haven’t had much time to coupon this year so those policies are of last year.
Here is my thought on couponing. I think it can be tricky. You can spend money on things that you wont use because of how the coupon is worded or if it is a new product that isnt up to your standards then you are stuck with it. On the other hand you can save money on the items or groceries that you would normally purchase. I use coupons now and then but I have too many things to do to devote my time to Couponing. I would probably do more research on how to make money vs spending time on clipping and printing. Thank you for the article. God Bless
I used to do Couponing when I first became a stay-home Mom about 3 years ago. But I don’t anymore. For one thing, the time was not worth it to me and it only works if you are eating what is on the shelf in the major grocery stores. It is virtually impossible to do couponing if you switch to whole foods and organic. So co-ops, Trader Joes and Peapod actually have become a factor in big savings for our family. It saves time and I can buy in bulk. Since, switching to whole food cooking and organic I’ve actually shaved $200 off my groceries. Pre-packaged is more expensive I’ve found. I cook A LOT more, but it’s great because my girls are learning how to cook from scratch at ages 5 and 6 1/2 unlike me at age 42.
I agree with Tina about printing coupons. Also, I don’t know of any stores in my area that will allow doubling or more on coupons which limits possible savings. Finally, coupons are typically on brand-name products and compared with the lower price of store-brand or off-brands, I usually save more buying them than using the coupon. It’s not uncommon for me to leave the coupon on the store shelf with the brand-name item after I’ve chosen to buy the store brand!
I recently blogged about how I get the most out of couponing and price matching.
Here in Canada we don’t usually have the option of stacking or doubling coupons. I find I get the most out of pricematching and couponing together. I also take advantage of my credit card/ store points and any special offers the stores are running (this weekend I got a $20 gas card for spending over $75 at a store- money I had to spend anyways). I get the most savings on over the counter drugs like Tylenol and Advil. I got two bottles of childrens tylenol for $2 each last weekend because I price matched them at $5 at my local store and then used $3 off coupons. I have a smaller coupon pile (I only save the ones for products I regularly use) so I always know exactly what coupons I have.
Our family isn’t able to take advantage of grocery store coupons that often, but we have found that organizing all of the retailer and restaurant coupons that come in our mailbox to be worth our time.
I set up a notebook with clear pages – one for each letter of the alphabet. Our area sends out tons and tons of coupons and flyers. I keep the ones for businesses that we frequent and file them. Then when someone is heading out the door to get a haircut at the barber shop, it’s easy to find the $2 off coupon. Bed, Bath & Beyond is a thick section since their coupons never expire.
The notebook also works great to hold my Customer Loyalty cards, gift certificates, Daily Deals that I purchased, and favorite Entertainment Book coupons.
I never used to check grocery store ads. Our grocery bill was $6-700 a month. Checking the ads alone and sticking to what’s on sale as much as possible has cut our bill down to $300-400. I am happy enough with that. I don’t have the time or energy for coupons
You know, I used to be a big time couponer and I HAVE to agree with your logic. It’s not worth the time.
I hardly coupon at all anymore…and I still save. I just make things myself or buy them used. The time spent is way less…and I have more time with my daughter. She’s only young once and I would hate to spend my life cutting coupons instead of playing with her.
Like Kathleen, we are unable to find coupons for the things we already use. Coupons tend to exist for factory foods, not food the way God made it. And since we rarely eat factory foods, the choices are slim. Also, when you live in a rural area, it is a hassle (and costs gas $) to drive out of your way to save at CVS or Walgreen’s super, must-have-the-card deals.
Tim – I would like to know how to do the couponing with Walgreens. If you have time, send me an e-mail. Ryan Sebree
Ryan – you might learn quite a bit from the posts at http://www.moneysavingmom.com. There are weekly posts on how to make the most of coupons and ads at places like Walgreens. Complete with links to online coupons too!
Hi there,
“A penny saved is a penny earned!”
Yes, I do think couponing is worth it, I dont spend all of those hours at it though. Its part of a strategic process.
It s not just the coupons, but the store cards, the sales flier research, and knowing your prices, etc..
I have saved 50 to 75% and even 100% on a few occasions.
My savings like that are mostly at Walgreens and CVS. As far as the supermarket, there arent coupons for most product items/fruit, vegetables, chicken, meat, etc.. So in that respect, its best to know your prices to be a smart shopper, and if you can get a coupon for the item you use like the cleaning items, toiletries, etc.. then even better
So true! It boggles my mind when I watch these couponing shows and hear that they spend 40hrs/week clipping coupons (often in addition to working a job!) – these people have families…. I can’t help but wonder how much quality time is spent with them.
Then they have stockpiles that’d last them YEARS. Seriously – nobody is going to use 500 tubes of toothpaste… before they expire! Pretty much everything has an expiry date…
I agree with what you said except there are a few other things to calculate into it.
1- Couponing can be looked at as your job. I have to stay home to care for my parents and have to be available for them at all times. No other job would allow me that kind of flexability. Couponing does.
2- the money I make from my “job” (aka couponing) is tax free. Even selling on line or other at-home-business will still require you have to pay taxes on your earnings. NOT couponing.
3- It has made me a lot more aware of ALL my spending. My eating out has changed as I look for coupons before I go and don’t go if I can’t save on the meal. I find that I become a much better steward of the money God has given us.
I suppose it also depends on what else you might have been doing with the time you spend clipping and organizing coupons. If you would have otherwise been watching TV or playing video games then yes $15 an hour is a very good trade off. And for many people $15 an hour is more than they might be making at their jobs (on an after tax basis) so couponing is a very good way for them to increase their savings.
Like anything else you get out of couponing what you are willing to put into it. Sometimes time has more value then money. Sometimes you have the time to devote to it and it’s worth it. In the end that choice is up to each and every person and their individual circumstances.
My Thoughts, Susan Cooper
I wish they would also state on Extreme Couponing how much some of those people spend to “buy” the coupons. That has to add up, though they are still getting good deals.
I used to visit CVS and get most of our toiletries for free. The trouble is that I would have to buy many items that we didn’t need to get the deals for the items we do need. I got out of it when my third child was born and haven’t started again, though I know I should. . .
I got married in December and my wife’s got 8 kids, meaning that I now also have 8 kids. I have never even considered couponing before, but my wife has one website that she trusts that sells coupons (not give away) and they generally have pretty good deals.
For example I said I want to take everyone ice skating at some point and without mentioning it again, my wife found coupons for a nearby ice rink. At $17 for over 13yo (5 of us) and $13 for kids (another 5) as their normal price, there’s a lot of room for discounting.
My wife didn’t go looking for coupons, but once a week she gets an email from this website and reads the titles to see whether she’s interested in any of the deals. For this to work you have to be pretty frugal (as my wife is) as I imagine the temptation would be great to buy things you don’t need when that email comes around every week.
The kids also came running to me this weekend with a bunch of coupons for the local video store because they knew they could get New Release for the same price as the older weeklies that we normally get.
Even with a family of 10 I don’t think we’d easily spend time actively hunting for coupons (time is even more scarce when you have 8 inquisitive minds demanding your attention all day), but I do think it’s worth considering whether you want it if something does pass in front of your eyes like the video store coupons and possibly finding a good, well established website with coupons in your area.
A common myth is that couponers often buy wasteful things. But, savvy couponers actually do save big on great products they actually want and enjoy using on a daily basis. The secret to there success is that they simply ask companies for coupons.
Most companies love to hear from consumers. They typically will reward you with high value coupons and sometimes even free products just for dropping them an email. Simply visit the company website and click on the “Contact Us” button. For example, if you prefer Nivea body lotion, you would go to Nivea.com and tell them how much you enjoy using Nivea and request a few coupons. Try doing this with your favorite products. You’ll be surprised at what you receive in the mail!
For more couponing tips, visit http://www.couponcodeworld.com
Also, I recommend that you read Extreme Savings. It’s must a read that will teach you everything you need to know about couponing. Search for “Extreme Savings” on Amazon.com
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