Goodbye Coupons

When I first started trying to cut our food budget I turned to coupons. They can be a great way to save money on the grocery bill, but for our household they’re just not working. My main issues are the products coupons cover and organization.

I’d say about 80% of what I buy are items that rarely have coupons. Fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, milk, cheese, meat, and eggs are the staples of our diet. I’ve been trying to track my coupon usage and so far I haven’t saved enough to break even on the cost of the Sunday paper. As I work towards making more things from scratch I don’t see this improving.

The second is organization. Actually it’s more the time that organization takes that gives me problems. Clipping, sorting, cross-referencing with what is on sale takes me a lot of time. If the overall benefit is worth the time I’ll usually go for it, but since I’m not saving significant money (relative to time) I’d rather shift my focus to saving money in other ways or making money. Between my real job, alternative streams of income, and regular household stuff I’m overstretched and this is an easy area to let go of.

I’ll still use online coupons every once in a while, especially when I’m stocking up on an item. But for the most part I’m saying goodbye to shopping with little slips of paper.