Let's Talk About Couponing...

It's all the rage right now, thanks in part to the TLC Extreme Couponing show.  I admit to watching the show and getting all excited at the prospect of saving 1000's of dollars on stuff.  What they don't stress on the show is that the results on the show are nowhere near typical.  If you watched all the shows you also see that they are all "stocking up" on the same items like Purex detergent, Yakisoba Noodles (I have yet to see a coupon for these), Barilla Pasta, Vitamin Water, etc... They are also lucky enough to live in towns that have stores that do double coupons, in some cases up to $1, and they are combining these with rewards cards and the like.  In the town I live in we have ONE chain that doubles coupons, but only up to/including $0.50 and they only double 2 like coupons.  This store also does not have a rewards or loyalty card, they don't price match and they don't have triple coupon days like they used to when I was a kid.  Until the tornado we had a Dillons, they had a loyalty card and they doubled coupons...I am SO ready for them to re-build!

I went all gung ho, like I do with just about everything and I built this binder within a couple of weeks of starting to coupon.  I wasn't too sure about the binder thing, but after a couple of trips where I had to flip through tons of coupons just looking for something I realized that this was going to be the way to go.  It's WAY easier to find stuff, but I don't like to carry it into stores, it's too big, and it's a total pain to get in and out of a bag.  I am in the market for a good sturdy zipper binder, but I am just in the looking phases so far.  I like that when I am in the store and I see something on sale I can just flip to the section I need to see if I have a coupon.  Otherwise I try to plan my trips out as much as I can.

This is where we come to my couponing pet peeves and complaints!  I LOVE Walgreens now and I love to get Register Rewards, to the point that I have to rein myself in or I will just buy stuff to get the RR...it's crazy, I know, but it's totally addictive!  Here is where my list starts...

• I coupon to save on the things that I need, the things I would buy normally, not to stockpile.  For instance, Walgreens had a sale a couple weeks ago on Purex Laundry Detergent, the paper that week had a coupon in it for the same detergent.  I had 2 coupons and I got 3 bottles.  They were on sale for $1.99, the coupon made them $1.49 and I paid the sale price for 1.  I ended up with 3 bottles of detergent for $5.  I was overly happy with that, I was paying almost $4 a bottle for one detergent I like. I wouldn't go buy 10 papers to get 10 coupons so that I could buy 10 bottles though.  That's another point altogether!
• I don't buy things that I won't use.  I don't even keep the baby coupons, or dog food coupons, most air freshener coupons, etc...  I don't use Airwick things and just because I can get them for free with a coupon doesn't mean I am going to go get 10 of them!  What's the point, it's a waste of a trip, of gas, etc... for something that I don't use.  Same goes for things like bottles of hot sauce or post it notes, the list is endless!
• I don't buy more than 2 papers.  I get one Joplin Globe and one KC Star and some weeks I don't even get the KC one.  Dollar Tree will have the KC Star for $1 but 9 times out of 10 they are sold out before I get there less than 2 hours after they open.  I know the reason they are sold out is because people are buying stacks of them for the inserts.  It's annoying so I just go pay and extra $1 somewhere else.  Buying too many papers is hoarding...plain and simple.  They say a couponer should buy one paper for each member of their family, but I don't even see the need in that.  It's enabling someone to go and clear a shelf before some of us can even make it to the store!
• Shelf Clearing, plain and simple...it's just wrong.  We just recently had 2 new Walgreens open up, but before they did the one I shopped at would have shelves cleared by Sunday afternoon.  I went in a couple weeks ago when they ran that Revlon RR.  It was on a Sunday at about 4:30, there was a lady at the cosmetics counter with, I kid you not, several carts full of stuff and inside the carts were baskets full of stuff where she had separated all her transactions.  The counter was literally covered with stacks of coupons.  She also had a basket full of Revlon nail polishes and a basket full of the Pert Plus bottles that was another of the good RR's that week.  Consequently, there were no more bottles of Pert Plus on the shelves and only a handful of Revlon polishes left.  She had been there for some time already and I shopped for about 30 minutes...she was still there, still with carts full of unpaid stuff when I left.  It's annoying to see that, really.
• I don't do multiple transactions, I don't roll my RR's in the same trip.  It's a personal thing for me.  I am not very confrontational and I feel like it's wrong to do that.  I know that it's not, but it makes me feel weird for some reason!  It's a pet peeve, I guess.  I feel like if I were the cashier I would be totally annoyed and I don't want to cause that for someone else.  To me it's like taking advantage of the system or something.
• I always want to use coupons the way they are intended to be used.  People who take advantage of the system are the ones who are making stores change their coupon policies.  That's why Price Cutter only allows 2 like coupons to be doubled, etc...  If a coupon says $1 off a $4 purchase, it means you spend $4 on the items that the coupon is for and you get a $1 off, leaving your total at $3.  It doesn't mean that you buy 4 things for $1 each and use 4 of these coupons so that you get them for free, it doesn't mean that you have to have a combined store total of $4 or more. It means you spend $4 of the products to get $1 off...SIMPLE.  Just because the store pushed it through after an hour of trying to get it to ring right doesn't mean it's right.  It means that when the store sends those coupons in to be reimbursed for them they are going to come up short and then they are going to change their coupon policies.
• Coupons are to help you save money, they aren't supposed to be a way to get things free.  Sometimes you do, but in most cases you are going to be lucky to save 50%.  I am happy when I save even 30% of my total with coupons and I feel like I have done good.

I am really not trying to rant, but there are things about this whole idea of Extreme couponing that are just plain wrong and I feel like the show kind of advocates that.  I think that in some cases stockpiling is hoarding and on the show there were several women who did just that.  For the most part they were donating excess and sharing with family members and I applaud that wholeheartedly, but there were a couple who just hoarded plain and simple. 

That's one of the reasons I don't like carrying my binder!  It's so stupid, but it's all about perception, I don't want people to see me with my coupon binder and just automatically assume that I am a crazy hoarding couponer, I so am NOT!  I am just trying to save my family a little money.

I don't stockpile.  I think I have 5 bottles of Laundry Detergent, I bought 2 big packs of Charmin yesterday (40 rolls) and I have a couple extra bottles of shampoo and conditioner, body wash, shaving cream, etc... but that's the extent of what I will keep here.  I have no room for it and really, since I am trying to save money, it seems pointless to spend it on stuff just to be able to say I have a stockpile!

Oh, and I LOVE getting samples and freebies in the mail!  It's fun to get the mail every day to see what I have.  This is what I got today.  I got a sample of Kashi Cereal and a coupon, a sample of Burberry perfume in a fancy glass bottle, a Gain coupon and a coupon for a FREE box of Garnier hair color.  Facebook is one of the best places to be for the free stuff.  Most brands will do some type of sample or giveaway at some point in the month.  I should have stuff rolling in every week from this point on.  I even got a subscription to Shape Magazine for $2.50 off a tip from someone on Facebook!

So, I am interested in what you all have to say about couponing.  Do you coupon?  Do you have pet peeves and annoyances like I do?