OK- yes, this one I can understand. If you have a full time job, kids, run a business and keep your house under control – you don’t have time. We can all use more time in our day. Most people who are committed to couponing are Stay at Home Mom’s, Self Employed, Unemployed or people who have some spare time.
There is a time commitment to couponing- even with inserts from one paper takes a while to clip, short and put in your binder/folder whatever you decide works best for you.
Here’s my rub with this one- my sister has her own business, has a toddler, and still wants to get into couponing. She recognizes the cost/savings benefits to doing it. She knows there is time involved, but wants to do it to help stretch her dollar so she can provide more for her family.
Yes, I have more time to commit to couponing than most people. But if most people can find a few hours a week. One paper, they could save tons of money.
It costs too much money!
We all have some money invested into couponing. The cost of newspapers, our binders/folders/shelving units/baseball card holders, good scissors. There is an initial cost to setting up couponing, and there is an ongoing cost to couponing.
When I first started I used an old binder I stashed in a closet when I was cleaning out my college binders (why I still had notes from 2001 – I’ll never know!). I did buy 60 baseball card sleeves at Target for $10, and used some binder dividers I had purchased years ago. You can reuse your old items- just sticker over your old labels! The two shelves I recently set up we bought for a similar purpose years ago – one has traveled to shows with me and has been through a few rough trips. I moved them out of the room they were in and cleaned them off. I have had to go out and get more pages, but my over all cost isn’t huge.
You can always use old folders, buy shelving units at a garage sale – you don’t have to buy brand new for everything!
Yes, there is an investment. But take this into consideration. My first month of couponing I spent maybe a total of $200 – I got over $800 worth of products. Do the math.. it more than pays for the other things you need.
Invest a little – get a lot back. In this first month, I have enough health and beauty items for our small household to keep us going for the rest of year. I may need one or two items, but the normal cost of $30/month/person is gone for the year – that’s around $720 I wont need to spend.. Again do the math.
I don’t have a job – 99 weeks of unemployment have run out. The few dollars I have are precious because who knows when the next job may come by way- and I can afford it. Why can’t you?
It’s only for rich people
OK this is silly. Look at the paragraph right up there. I’m unemployed and I’m doing it. I’m not rich by any means. Coupons cost a little money but you can print them offline, you can join coupon sharing groups, you can can get coupon “donations” – friends and family etc.
If you buy the paper, one or two a week that’s only a few dollars- but you can save several. You don’t have to be rich to space a few dollars a week. And the coupons are good more than one week (very rarely are they only 1 week coupon). Save them and use them later in the month. 1 paper is only $1.50, the coupons can be used all month or longer. They will save you more than $1.50.. just saying.
The coupons never are for products I use
Ok – this one is a big pet peeve for me. I have food allergies. Actually more than one. But the big one I have is Celiacs Disease. What that means is I can’t eat bread, I can’t eat pasta, I can’t have anything with artificial food coloring, artificial flavoring, no cookies, no cakes, no brownies etc. So each week when I cut the coupons each Sunday there is a large chunk of them I can’t use (keep this in mind when I had my envelope giveaways!) I use coupons.
Who doesn’t use deodorant, or body wash? Well, some people don’t but they should… but a lot of the coupons out there are for household items, cleaners, toothbrushes and things that people actually need/use.
And lets face it- there are even food ones that people with allergies can use. This is a big excuse for people, to not even try to coupon! If I can do it with my restrictions, pretty much anyone can.
I only shop at certain stores and they don’t accept coupons
Do you know they don’t accept coupons? Have you checked their coupon policy? Do you know they don’t let you use coupons? You would be surprised what stores actually accept coupons. Double check to see if your store accepts coupons. If they don’t, see if another store carries the same item and does accept coupons. It’ll be worth the savings!
