Is Couponing Worth It?

Introduction

Although using coupons, or vouchers appears to be a time consuming and a traditional activity to save a few cents on the goods you purchase at the grocery or any other store. But if you use them appropriately, then this couponing can make you save a lot of money annually. Despite everything, most coupons don’t carry a face value over $1 and, usually, their worth is far less.

·         What Is Couponing?

You can understand up to the full extent the real importance and benefits of couponing if you know what couponing is?.

A coupon is a kind of ticket or voucher that helps you to get a discount (cash) for a particular product you buy. Some times this could be in a form of dollar-off deals and sometimes percentage-off deals and coupons can also be combined and stack up. Thus, more than coupons can be used for one product.

In other words, couponing is a practice or an exercise of collecting coupons systematically from different magazines, online ads, newspapers, product flyers, product packaging, coupon apps, and e-coupons on various coupon websites and exchanging them excellently to earn money on groceries or other regular products purchases.

This is a stress-free option to earn money with coupons is by tying them with other coupons available or using refunds. You can combine store coupons, manufacturer coupons, and rebate offers on one item but can’t have two of the same coupon per item.

Couponing is an act of finding the available deals and steals on products and services by taking out ads from catalogs or newspapers, looking for online product promotion codes to save at the checkouts. You might consider couponing as a fun or a game, the collector’s version of words with friends.

You would feel happy that the stores that offer coupons don’t lose a single penny even when you use such coupons while buying items. these stores earn more money when customers use such coupons to save. These stores, not only get back the full value of the coupons but also get entitled to receive around 8 cents on each coupon redeemed from the manufacturer.

·         Why People Use Coupons?

Always wondered, how come a coupon, a single, minor portion of a newspaper having some discounts or rebates on it can become a lifestyle and a routine activity. This routine activity can lower costs or prices on products or something we all spend for each month, every year.

People use couponing because of two reasons. First, it is very easy and simple to use, and secondly, people use coupons to save money on grocery bills and later on use somewhere else such as family holidays. Some people consider using coupons is a way of living.

Coupons are considered a fun way to earn money on goods you have already planned to buy for your household requirements.

Therefore, if you are in the mood to buy from the market something like home décor items, picture frames, or other home appliances, then not to buy at the lower prices through using coupons.

·         How Does Couponing Work?

You surely would have some budget for the items to buy monthly you need. If you do a little planning in advance likewise people then you can earn and save some money through using coupons.

You can gather different magazines and newspapers having coupons. You can get separate all coupons from magazines and newspapers. Now you can take all coupons with you while visiting different stores and get discounts on certain goods you are intended to buy. These coupons work similarly to cash. For instance, if you have a coupon of $1 off on the box of diaper or cereals, then the cashier at the store will consider that coupon as cash.

·         Why Stores Use Coupons

Companies and stores announce and offer coupons to charge dissimilar prices to different customers by offering some sort of discounts. This couponing activity helps stores to sell more quantity of their products than to sell at a single price. Usually, the stores send through mail to everyone, and the individuals who don’t mind clipping them from papers are outscoring a discount. Companies are aware that the more discount through coupons they offer to their customers on various products, the more they can sell to them to get more money from the customers.

The companies don’t wish you to know that they offer discounts only on those products that they believe they are losing money on such products. Therefore, they offer discounts through such coupons to attract current and new customers to get them at their doors.

·         Types of Coupons

You must be known familiar with the types of discounts through coupons, which are being offered by various organizations these days. Generally, coupons can be of two types, the first is offered by the grocers’ products and the second type is manufacturer’s coupons which are offers on producers of goods like dry or food items’ promotions. Sometimes, the grocers also offer coupons on the manufacturer’s products.

Coupons for discounts can be classified as follows; let’s distinguish the coupons one by one;

• Paper-based coupons
• Digital or e-coupons
• Money-saving Apps

·         Paper-based coupons

Most of the companies and grocery stores are helping the printing industry to survive and alive. Once you visit any grocery store, you may come across with the stand in the corner or at the counter may be as “week’s best savings” on the various items such as cosmetics, food, toiletry, and vegetables like items. Sometimes, such grocers get printed a catalog of discounts for their walk-in customers.

• Digital or E-coupons

The digital or e-coupons are popular and found in online shopping. Even when you sign up for the grocer’s newsletter, you get a desirable 20% off. Sometimes, you may get coupons of discounts upon referring a friend to buy from online stores.

·         Free Shipping Coupons

Once you have identified a deal to buy what you are interested in, now you want to get it reached your home place or anywhere you want is reached. Sometimes manufacturers and online stores offer free shipping coupons. Don’t expect to be supplied or delivered overnight if it is free. In the case of free shipping, items are shipped at its lowest price shipping carriers.

·         Money-Saving Apps

If you are a frequent buyer through online stores, you might be prompted with many options to download a particular store’s App. Upon downloading and using such a store’s App you may get an online folder of weekly cash discounts on the products you buy from that store. Nowadays you may find almost every store is having its Apps to get more customers to buy their products. These Apps sometimes take you to the search engines automatically on different coupon sits for the best available deals and steals.

Things to consider before you start couponing

• Time Availability and Efforts

Couponing related activities undoubtedly take your valuable time slots and effort. While you can earn some amount of money. The time and efforts you exercise in couponing activities could swiftly compensate you with the benefits. To get full benefits you are not only required to spend the time gathering and arranging the coupons, but also you need to spare time to snatch the precise ones you require before you go shopping.

• What you need before you start

You may be required to pay some preliminary costs if you don’t have the provisions of couponing already with you. To start with you will be required to have the following and the arrangements of such required items to start may consume some time and effort too.

• A printer
• A laptop or computer,
• A plastic binder with dividers
• Labels to stay organized
• Store flyers
• Local newspaper.
• Remember the buying limits

Due to the popularity of couponing, many of the stores have fixed the limit of coupons for a single product that may be used to buy at a single time. For instance, using ten coupons to purchase ten bottles of the same brand may not be permitted. Sometimes, you might have observed on a printed on the coupon “ you can only redeem up to 8 coupons for eight of the item a one time.

• Products types and coupons offered

Generally, coupons are offered for various brand names, cleaning products, highly processed and packaged foods. If these are beyond what you are required to buy then coupons may not help you.

• Clutter

It is better to be organized to avoid clutter, because, paper-based coupons may cause clutter ver fast. It also depends on the level of your exciting couponing.

I can suggest you to use a binder to arrange and sort out coupons properly. You arrange them as put the ones of near expiry.

If you stay organized then a minim clutter will come on your way that will help you save the time you spend in couponing.

• Stress of couponing

Although staying organized can help you to save time and money, but sometimes this can be very stressful. But If you love errands, the extreme level of couponing may rob you of the joy quickly.

Sometimes, you may disremember your coupons at homeplace or take the wrong ones. And sometime you may not be noticed a coupon has already expired.

• Space required

If you much effort in couponing, then you might be buying several products such as home necessities in a large quantity. Because of this, you might require plenty of space or a separate storage place for the product you purchase through the coupons you have.

• Is Couponing for You?

I don’t know either couponing is worth it for you or not but it depends on your level of income you make along with some additional factors.

Let’s do some mathematical exercise to find this out. Suppose, someone has spent 7 hours to collect coupons, organize and spend them to earn $105. In this situation, the individual may have earned $15 per hour for his or her efforts.

What do you guess, is couponing worth it? Again this depends on how much you can earn for each hour of your efforts of couponing and that will decide if this is worth the time and effort in your situation.

Possible Benefits of Couponing

Following are the possible benefits you can capitalize through couponing;

• You can get free items or products of your choice
• You can make others to learn the value of money and the importance of parsimony
• You can build a store of food and supplies in case of a backup
• You can reduce your expenses on food and other products you use

If you have decided to get involved in couponing then the following are some tips that can help you.

Couponing Tips for you

• Just purchase those items what you need really
• Don’t buy anything just because you have coupons with you
• Manage your coupons in a way that works better for you
• Be familiar with the terms and conditions of the coupons before you shop
• Combine the coupons of manufacturer and grocers
• Explore coupon websites, newspapers, magazines, apps, and flyers for coupons

CONCLUSION

Finally, you can be as extreme as you wish to be in couponing. If you are considering giving couponing a try, that does take some time to decide if it makes a sense before you begin the start it.

Based on your circumstances, by all means, couponing can help you to earn and save money or this attempt could be a total wastage of time and effort.

I hope this article will help you to decide, either couponing is worth you or not.

Good Luck!