Thursday, December 21, 2006

Coupon time (budgeting)

76%. That is the percent of the population that are using coupons according to Promotion Marketing Association (PMA). PMA has a great coupon info site (here). Sad to say I was not one of those 76% till I got married. Talk about wasting money… the coupons not the marriage. Now we use coupons as much as we can, mostly on food. Again PMA has a stat for the food coupons. They report that on average people save 11.5% on their grocery bill. We are close to that, we save about 8-10% each week on food. That 8-10% turns into real money by the end of the month.

To do even better my wife trades coupons with another lady at work. Trading this way we get extra coupons that we actually want without having to buy an extra Sunday paper.

What I really want to know is where do these people shop? I rarely see people with coupons at the checkout. I do see signs of them, an extra coupon left behind on a shelf for someone else to claim. The first time I saw my wife leave a coupon I was lost. We didn’t need it and it was close to expiration was the reason she gave me. At the time I thought it odd. Now I pay more attention to the shelves and every so often I see an extra coupon just sitting there on the shelf. No doubt left by one of those 76% people. If you aren’t doing coupons you should. There is money to be saved. So grab a Sunday paper, clip a couple and join the majority.

Do you leave extra coupons you don’t need on shelves?

That’s it for today. Whoever left that yogurt coupon last week, Thanks. Keep an eye on your EveryDay Money.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally use them, I always have, sometimes with the double coupon option, I even get them free, like mustard and ketcup when it's on sale around the holidays, memorial day, etc.
Last time we went shopping I saved 80 bucks with coupons and the bonus card from Giant.
My father subscribes to the wash. post and I get him to save it for me so we have a double helping of coupons each week.

Good blog, I will visit often!

Mom2fur said...

I love coupons! I save an average of 40% when I shop. My best savings was 65%, but alas, that only happened once. Earlier this week, I got $170 worth of groceries for a little over $90. I belong to a site called "The Grocery Game," which helps you combine coupons with currents sales. This is how you save the big bucks. Example: if mayo is 3.00 and you use a 50 cent coupon, you're paying 2.50--2.00 if the coupon is doubled. But if it goes on sale for 1.99--now you get it for as cheap as 99 cents! The idea is to buy it before you need it, when it is on sale and you have a coupon. You build up a stockpile in your pantry. Grocerygame.com is a fun site you might want to check out. Have fun!

Tag_Ends said...

Thanks for the tip on the Grocerygame.com I’ll look into it. If we can get a little more organized I would like to try the stockpiling way. It seems like a good idea. Thanks for dropping by.

Tag