10 Reasons It Might be Time to Give up on Coupons

Coupons and I have an interesting relationship. I don’t use them; that’s kind of the relationship. That’s not entirely accurate. I will hunt them down like it’s my business when I make online purchases. For example, I will find a coupon code for Bath & Body Works for either 20% off my entire order or free shipping every single time I order new hand soap for our bathrooms. I will not place an order without one (they’re significant savings). But I won’t even take five seconds to look for coupons for my upcoming trip to the supermarket. Perhaps it has a little something to do with the fact that I don’t feel that saving $.75 on two boxes of gogurt for my toddlers is worth it when my kids don’t eat enough of it to make the purchase worth it before they all go bad. Or perhaps it’s the fact that nothing – nothing – infuriates me more than standing in line behind people with coupons in the supermarket and inevitably waiting forever to check out because it takes so darn long.

Either way, I’m all about an online coupon or promo code, but forget paper coupons in public places; it’s not happening. Now, my favorite supermarket does online coupons that I can ‘clip’ on my Publix app and save to my account. I use them by entering my phone number on the keypad when I swipe my debit card. If I remember to look at those online coupons, I’ll use them. But even that is inconsistent and spotty. I just think that coupons are, by nature, not always a good idea. For some, sure, they can be very helpful. But for others, it’s time to put them down and move on. Read on to find out why it’s time to stop with the coupons and just move on.

The time commitment is too great

I tried to coupon once; I really did. I sat down with the Sunday paper and a pair of pink scissors and got to work. Five minutes later I was over it, had no coupons and I was on the couch, coffee in hand online shopping courtesy of Sephora’s most recent email. It takes a long time to cut coupons and go through ads and sales, and frankly, who has the kind of time?

The savings are not always worth it

Like I said above, I might have a coupon for $.75 off two boxes of gogurt, but I would have saved $5 if I hadn’t bought the gogurt in the first place. My kids don’t like it all that much, it’s not their favorite. In this instance, the savings is not worth it. Also, a $.55 off a can of green beans is also not worth it to me since I like only fresh vegetables, and I’d never use them.

Coupons make you overspend

Sometimes you see women with 45 boxes of Q-Tips because they have coupons for them. Really, I use Q-Tips like the rest of us, but it really takes like a year to go through two boxes in our house. So I could buy 45 boxes for $10 (big savings) but I’d better be sure that I need 20 years worth of Q-Tips first. I could have saved that $10 and not spent it just because I had a coupon for something I don’t even use.

Sales are often better than coupons

My grocery store offers great BOGO sales that are far better than any coupon I’ve ever seen. So stick to those. It’s going to take none of your time or effort since you are in the store already.

Is what you’re getting what you need?

How many times did you go through the coupons for your local store and think, “I really need all these things,” rather than, “Well, I can add this to this list since I’m getting it for less,”? That’s what I thought. You don’t need any of the things on your list, you just want to buy them because you think you are getting a deal. How is it a deal when you are now spending money on something you were not going to spend money on in the first place?

Off-brand items are cheaper, anyway

I’ve read this a million times; it’s always cheaper to buy the store brand than the name brand, and the coupons you see are for name brands. So you’re spending all that time cutting coupons so you can spend the same amount of money you would have if you just bought the off-brand item in the first place. Sure, seems like a great way to waste your time and energy to me.

Coupons aren’t for good food

Really, when was the last time you noticed coupons for fresh heads of broccoli or fresh asparagus? Never. You do see them for crackers and processed foods and cookies and all things that are not good for you to consume but that you choose to consume regardless. It’s time to move on and not bother with these things anymore. Trust me; I know what I’m talking about.

It’s stressful

There is very little left to say about this one except what I just said; couponing is stressful. It’s time-consuming, and it requires so much effort to make work the way you want it to work in the first place. Why not just forget the couponing and move on from it, and enjoy your life the way you were meant to enjoy your life?

Organizing your coupons to go with you takes even more time

Now that you have taken all that time to cut coupons, you have to organize them into categories or dates or whatever you feel is most important to you. And then you have to go get them, go through them and take them with you when you go shopping. Who wants to waste all that time? Don’t you have kids you could be spending time with instead?

Because there are better ways to save

There are so many ways you could save. For one, you could plant your favorite herbs at home and save money buying them every week. You can save money planting a vegetable garden, too. There are so many ways to save that it just kills me that people choose not to utilize those instead of spending so much time cutting mostly useless coupons.

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