This morning, Money Saving Mom pointed me to an article on Yahoo Finance that provided eight reasons why you shouldn’t use coupons.
As you can imagine, I got as feisty as MSM did! This article is completely ridiculous. So here are six reasons you should use coupons.
6 Benefits of Couponing
1. Coupons Save Money on Must-Have Items
Yes, sometimes I do buy toilet paper on supersale without a coupon, but I can usually find a coupon that will save me big bucks when combined with a sale. It’s not like I could stop buying toilet paper, so I might as well save money on it.
2. Coupons Help You Try New Products
I have tried new products, or new brands of products I already use, because I had a great coupon. It tends to be for things like cleaning products, not for packaged food that I don’t really have a use for. For example, I got a coupon for a green cleaner that I wanted to try, and I needed an all-purpose cleaner. Coupon+sale=a chance to try something new without spending a lot of money.
3. Some Coupons Get You Free Goods!
I’ve received free orange juice, free shampoo, free toothpaste, and a variety of other products free by combining a coupon with a sale.
4. Coupons Help Manage Food Costs
If you’re trying to save money on food, but want to buy more fresh, whole foods, then coupons can help you manage the costs of any canned, frozen, and packaged goods you need to buy. That leaves more room in the budget for locally-grown produce and grass-fed meat.
5. Coupons Save Money on More than Groceries
In addition to the usually food, personal care, and paper products coupons, I’ve received coupons to clothing stores, restaurants, and local services. If you need to buy new clothes or want to go out to eat, a coupon is a great way to get what you need or want while still saving money.
6. Coupons Make Splurges More Affordable
If you want to buy something expensive, for example a pair of Droids and the new phone plan to go with them, using coupons to save money in other areas makes that manageable. One of the big reasons we still manage to save money after buying a house, and even avoided debt while my husband was on disability, is because we’ve found so many ways to cut costs. Coupons are one of those ways.
Yes, you have to take a few minutes to flip through the circular and clip the coupons, but it’s really not that much time. I file my coupons at the same time that I pull out the expired ones, which is also when I plan my menu and make my grocery list. Simply match coupons to list and you’re done planning your coupons. Is that really so hard?
