I Quit Couponing and now I save even more – using a rock solid system to get the best deal on real food. It’s super easy to follow and works week after week! For more on saving money on real food without coupons, sign up for my Grocery Budget Bootcamp!
Do you remember the extreme couponing era? I sure do, and I don’t hide the fact that mastering coupons helped us pay off our debt.
I originally started couponing for necessity – two kids in diapers on one income in California doesn’t leave a wiggle room for much else.
But a few years later, I quit coupons… for several reasons.
I’m betting that there’s at least one person who is trying with all their might to pinch pennies for a greater cause. To pay for college, or medical bills, or to bridge the gap through a season of unemployment.
It’s been on my heart lately to share why I quit coupons with you, so that’s what I’m doing today. It’s a deviation from the typical real food recipe or natural living tutorial for sure (which you can find plenty of those here and here respectively), but it feels right.
If you wonder whether it’s worth your time and effort to clip coupons and learn how to use them – this post is for you.
(By the way, it’s okay if your story is different. You might want to use coupons for a variety of reasons and there’s nothing wrong with it. I’m just sharing my experience.)
I Quit Coupons Because of Guilt
After couponing for several years, I knew that coupons and sales went hand in hand.
It’s a marketing strategy for brands to issue coupons about the same time as a sale through grocery stores. Consumers (you and me) would see the coupon and think, “Oh cool, here’s a coupon for such-and-such. I’ve always wanted to try that.”
Then we’d flip through the grocery ads and see that same item on sale. Suddenly, we feel compelled to have that item because a) it’s on sale, b) we have a coupon and c) we want to try it anyway.
Coincidence? Nope. It’s a carefully crafted plan and it works.
I also learned that sales are cyclical. Just about everything goes on sale at the grocery store every 6-8 weeks. If something isn’t on sale this week, wait a few weeks and it will be.
Combine these two concepts together and my brain knew that just about everything could be purchased on sale at some point in time, and when I used a coupon for it too, I could get it for a VERY low price.
This led to me feeling guilty for buying something without a coupon. As silly as it may sound – even if the item was on final markdown for just 50¢ and it was something I used on a daily basis, I couldn’t justify buying it because of the guilt I placed on myself for not using a coupon.
This guilt led me to create a stockpile of unhealthy portions.
I Quit Couponing Because I Became a Glutton
It didn’t matter if I had 20 bottles of shampoo, if I could get more for free, I did. The same went for shampoo, body wash, deodorant, hair dye, cleaning supplies… just about anything you could find at a drugstore.
Because I knew I COULD buy items for incredibly cheap, I did. Whether we actually used the items or not, it didn’t matter. I bought them anyway.
I had an entire closet dedicated to my stockpile. Two sets of shelves similar to these were filled to the brim with all sorts of toiletries and goodies that drugstores have to offer.
My kids were little at the time, so their use of the stockpile was negligible. Somehow though I thought it was necessary to have 20+ sticks of deodorant for my husband and myself when WE DIDN’T EVEN WEAR DEODORANT.
“But what about food Tiffany? You can’t do that with food that goes bad.”
Oh friends, yes you can. I applied couponing to grocery stores and stocked every cabinet in the kitchen with umpteen boxes of cake mix, tuna, canned soup, crackers, salad dressing and pasta, just to name a few.
I’m the only one in my family that likes tuna and I can only eat it once every few weeks, but did that stop me from buying several cans when it was super cheap? No.
We had lots of kitchen storage in our townhouse – 10 cabinets and a very large pantry – and every ounce of space was full. I also had two more sets of shelves, just like the ones for my stockpile, which I kept in a closet under the stairs. Those too, were filled to the brim with food.
I Quit Coupons Because I Was Addicted
The coupons themselves aren’t an addiction. Yes, I find enjoyment flipping through the circulars and seeing what items were on sale. It brought me joy to match a coupon up to a sale at the store.
But going through checkout was an adrenaline rush. Having the conveyor belt completely full with food, while handing over a wad of coupons, carefully matched up with the items in the cart. To watch the total gradually get lower and lower. To see the look on the cashier’s face at the new total after all coupons had been scanned through. I liked watching the reaction of the person behind me when they saw I was getting three times as much food as them yet paying only a fraction of what their bill was going to be. To come home, proudly display my loot on the kitchen table and declare to my husband that I got ALL THIS for ONLY THIS MUCH.
Few things can describe it, and it was addicting.
Woe be to the cashier who said I couldn’t use a coupon because I didn’t meet the requirements.
Don’t you dare miss that 25¢ coupon – I know exactly how much my total should be and I’ll know it if you skip it.
Couponing Took Up Too Much Time
I’m sure there’s a way to use coupons responsibly, but as I mentioned, I was addicted and I didn’t know how.
I had a big binder like this one filled with coupons, organized with dividers and baseball card holders. Planning a shopping trip took several hours worth of clipping, organizing, making lists, double checking sales and even a check-out strategy to ensure I paid the lowest out of pocket as possible.
I did this at least twice a week, and this doesn’t include the time it took to shop or keeping up with the binder (i.e. throwing away expired coupons, keeping them organized, etc.)
When my responsibilities at home started slacking – laundry not getting done, late starting dinner and not doing such-and-such activity with the kids – my husband asked me how much time I spent couponing.
I don’t remember the exact answer, but I’m pretty sure I skewed it so it didn’t sound as bad as it was. That was one sign that it was time to stop.
I Stopped Using Coupons Because Our Food Goals Shifted
Shortly after I scored an incredible deal for cake mix at just 25¢/box (I bought 12), my husband gently put his foot down. He was tired of eating out of boxes. Tired of foods with directions to “just add water” and wanted to start eating healthier. For our sake, and for our kids.
With the shift towards real food, I found myself couponing less and less. My husband and I watched food documentaries on Netflix (Fork Over Knives and Food, Inc) and I bought the book Nourishing Traditions.
I learned how to decipher labels and read ingredients and became skeptical of everything that came in a box.
When I flipped through the coupon booklets with glasses of suspicion, very few items, if any, made the cut. There just weren’t any coupons for the food we wanted to eat.
I Quit Couponing Because it Encouraged Me to Buy Boxes
Not all food in boxes is bad, but in my experience, buying boxes leads to relying on boxes, and that is a slippery slope.
It’s easy to buy one box of Annie’s macaroni and cheese to have “just in case” for a busy weeknight (although my 15 minute homemade mac and cheese is WAY better). But before you know it, that box is part of your weekly shopping list.
Just to be clear – I’m not judging you if you buy boxed food. I’ve done it myself and I still do on occasion.
But our real food goals were to cook more food from scratch, and buying boxes didn’t help that goal.
There are VERY Few Coupons Available for Real Food
I can almost hear it now – folks are going to chime in and say they use coupons all the time for real food. That their grocery store has coupons for produce each week and they use rebate apps…
Here’s the thing. E-coupons were fairly new when I quit coupons. In fact, I’m pretty sure I knew more about e-coupons at the time than store employees did.
To be honest, e-coupons back then were nothing more than glorified paper coupons. 95% of the time they were the exact same thing that came in the weekly newspaper. It was a waste of time to look at the store’s site because I knew what I’d find. And since the paper coupons in the newspaper weren’t aligning with our real food goals, knowing I’d see the same thing online, I stopped looking at the store sites altogether.
The couponing system as a whole has changed nowadays, and it’s true that some stores do offer coupons for products that are NOT identical to the ones you find in the weekly paper.
But of all the coupons that are offered as a whole – store, paper, digital – there are probably less than 5 each week for real food. And frankly, that feels generous.
I’m sure there are some people who could flip through a coupon booklet in 2 minutes flat. They could scan the store’s coupons and in 5 minutes, have a great game plan for using coupons on real food.
That’s not me. I study coupon inserts like it’s my job, because at one time, it was. The time it takes me to review the inserts, look at store coupons and then compare it all against weekly sales wasn’t worth the $2 I *might* save on that shopping trip.
It still isn’t.
Since Quitting Coupons, I Found a Better Way to Save Money
In the years since I quit coupons, I refocused my energy into meal planning better and shopping smarter. I now have a rock solid method in place for getting the best deal I can on real food and it works every week.
In fact, I tested it recently just to make sure it really was a good system and I wasn’t missing any savings by not using coupons.
I spent a month of Sundays, inspecting the coupon inserts, reviewing store sites for digital coupons, digging up rebates in Ibotta and comparing it all to the weekly sales.
I made a grocery list of items that meet two criteria:
- They were 100% real food
- I had a coupon and/or a rebate
After a month of preparing, my grocery list had three things listed. THREE.
- canned green beans: 40¢/4 coupon + 20¢/4 rebate
- chicken stock: 50¢/2 coupon + 50¢/2 rebate
- diced tomatoes: 55¢/2 rebate
If I went shopping for these three items at the designated store to get the rebates, I would have paid $7.27.
I had three problems with this turn out. First, a shopping list with 3 items isn’t worth a special trip to a local store for, especially in Atlanta traffic. Second, I didn’t need 4 cans of green beans. I could have used 2 cans at the most, but you had to buy 4 to use the coupon. Third, I didn’t need chicken stock because I always make homemade chicken stock in my slow cooker.
Using these few coupons for real food meant I was buying things I didn’t need and spending money that wasn’t necessary.
To compare, my tried-and-true method for getting rock bottom prices would have given me a checkout total of only $1.76.
Essentially, coupons were making me spend more than I needed to.
30 Minute Dinners Sample Meal Plan
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I still use a few mainstream techniques for saving money on real food without coupons, like finding rebates on Ibotta and shopping in bulk.
But what has REALLY helped hone in my savings is a technique that I teach in my online course, Grocery Budget Bootcamp, enrollment is currently closed, but you can join my FREE 5-day Crush Inflation Challenge and start saving money on groceries tomorrow!
Would you like to learn more? Sign up HERE to join the waiting list and you’ll get an email when enrollment is open. You’ll also get a 3-part video training series called Simple Ways to Save. It’s all about practical ways to stretch the food you already have at home, helping you eat more and shop less!
Here are two enjoyable books I got some helpful ideas from:
Fridge Love
Organize your refrigerator for a healthier, happier life, with 100 recipes.
by Kristen Hong ( you can also see Kristen on You Tube). hellonutritarian.com
(I wanted the inside of my refrigerator to look prettier, be more organized!)
Freeze Fresh
The ultimate guide to preserving 55 fruits and vegetables for maximum flavor and versatility
by Crystal Schmidt wholefoodhomestead.com
(I am scared of canning and the risk of botulism, and looking for other ways to preserve foods.)
This is a good discussion about couponing and saving. Glad to see the book “Nourishing Traditions” mentioned. Good nutrition should be at the heart of grocery shopping and that book is an excellent choice. It is based on the wonderful book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Weston Price who documented how processed foods contribute to a degenerative condition. More information available at the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation in Southern California 415-389-9432. Nourishing Traditions is another helpful book. .
Thanks for your great post.I like this very much, please write more about these,wait for your update.
Late to the party here but I would not have listened then. Now? I am nodding my head at all of the things you wrote. It took a pandemic to make me stop and take stock of what I was doing and why. I had reasoned with it by donating it etc but it really was an addiction masking real issues. Eating real food is the way to go for me. Not fully there as yet. But having gone through this whole rollercoaster, I will not judge others choices. Live and let live. I have seen the light. It took me a long time but I survived. Nothing to the extreme and even the definition of extreme is changing for me. I may coupon for stuff like toothpaste and detergent etc but not stockpile years worth. Thank you and Bless you for the well written, open talk.
So, glad this post helped you, Gina! I know that the pandemic changed a lot of peoples perspectives.
I have tried using coupons in the past but I never had the organization nor the time to comb through them, and then find the right ones when I went to the store. I’m better at both time and organization now, but when I go through the coupons I find they are all for brand name stuff (I almost always buy generic), or for prepackaged “convenience foods” that I never use – I cook meals from scratch. So for me they are pretty much a waste of time,.
I want to thank you for your time and effort in making paths for us. I grew up in a budget free family, and your help with this skill is invaluable.
I have similar experiences like Lei Leni…I still coupon but have cut back since my kids have moved out…did the many online rebates like Ibotta, Saving Star, Mobisave, and Checkout 51…for me it is like a game but I still only buy what I will use ….not the chips or boxed foods….I also will buy the items I get for free with the rebates and coupons and donate to a local charity food group. I enjoy the chase but only what I usually buy or will be using….but I still will stockpile the detergents and paper products of the brands that I want when they are close to being free with the use of coupons and rebates…..Also I am retired so I have more time now to get/look for the better deals of what I use frequently. I have been couponing for over 30 years so have seen many changes in couponing and other forms of saving.
I can understand your reasons to stop couponing. I started couponing as a way to save on the products that I purchase. I always wanted to be an extreme couponer (the TV show gave me life). I scaled back when I realized that I was spending so much more chasing the deal. I also started to coupon again when I realized I could use coupons to help me maximize my donations to a local women and children’s shelter. I have line in my budget for donations and feel coupons help me contribute even more. Clearly a part of me still enjoys chasing the deal, I just have to do so responsibly.
I couponed for about a year when we moved to a city with higher cost of living and higher rent. I had quit working when we moved to stay home and take care of our son. The best part was that the store was across the street so I’d do my list during the day and walk over when my husband got home. I was part of a couponing group in our community and a facebook group. we met once a month to trade coupons and share stories. I quit couponing when I too realized I was buying a lot of packaged food that we don’t normally eat. My son starting depending on the toddler prepackaged snacks and we had enough cereal to feed a small nation. When we moved to a neighborhood further from the store and literally no kitchen storage, I quit couponing.
Now I garden and preserve fresh foods during the summer and purchase meat in bulk then individually wrap it for recipes.
My goal for 2017 is to do more baking and have fresh veggies already prepped for salads and snacking.
Thanks for your Blog – I love it!
Someone commented on using coupons to stockpile for donation drives… and I think that’s a genius idea! I’d love to see a group organize a Coupon Donation Drive and stockpile a ton of products to give to a local food pantry. That’s a worthwhile reason to coupon. 🙂
My church has a 7 acre farm that they use to give real food to families. You can “rent” a plot for free or volunteer to work the fields. The farm produces several tons worth of squash, potatoes, okra, tomatoes, honey, etc, which they hand out among local food pantries. If you have any charities like this in your area, then you can get lots of free produce by volunteering to work in the fields! Not only do you help people with less resources than you, but you get free food too!
Add in a food allergy diagnosis and this is my story too! Did you ever wince a little when you cleaned out the binder and had to throw coupons away?? (I even found a way to send those to military wives overseas to alleviate my guilt…)
I did! It felt like HOURS of time wasted, not to mention the brain power that went behind it all too. I wish I had the follow-through to send them someplace good, but alas, that didn’t happen. I was able to repurpose one storage container though, and we still have all the shelving! 🙂
I can totally agree with this Heather!
I totally get what you are talking about here, Tiffany, because I see people that are addicted to couponing and go way overboard all the time in the one coupon group that I’m a part of on Facebook. And it bothers me. I have no problem with people”buying” lots more deodorant or shampoo or even beans than they’ll ever use when they can get them for free…BUT only if they plan to donate them or give them to someone else that can use them! I used to be way more extreme with my couponing too, but the one thing I started realizing is that by having a huge stockpile of stuff that I didn’t really need or was way more than I truly needed, I was cluttering not only our house, but also my mind. Because physical clutter does cause mental clutter too.
All that being said, I still am a fan of using coupons. I realize that in some areas of the country it is more worth it than other, and I happen to live in NE Pa where I have some really great grocery stores that make couponing totally worth it for me! We aren’t 100% real food people, but pretty close- I make most of our food from scratch- and believe it or not, I still can do amazing with coupons. For instance, recently I got a bunch of Sargento cheese for $1.00 a bag, butter for free, salsa that made me $5 after coupons and sales, all natural Turkey Hill ice cream for $0.75, frozen fruit for $0.50/bag etc. I typically ignore the processed food deals and focus on what works for us. And of course there are lots of great deals on personal care items and household things like toilet paper, tissues (just got a bunch for free!), sandwich bags and the like. And I do admit, that once in a while I do end up doing a deal on processed foods too, like last night when I got a couple of bags of Sun Chips for free thanks to a deal. That’s not the norm though! 🙂
Honestly, I feel like coupons have been a huge blessing for our family. Our $225 grocery budget is one of the things that has helped us be able to get ahead financially to the point that we have no mortgage and are totally debt free and are now working at putting my husband through school for his Masters without going into debt too. So I guess I’m just grateful for the way that they’ve helped us meet our goals. They feel like a tool that God has given us.
I do respect your reason for stopping and I realize that coupons are not for everyone (because of the time investment that is required). AND I also know there is a huge temptation for some people to not know when to stop with stocking up on a “good” deal. It sounds like you were wise in realizing your limitations and knowing what you needed to do to be the best mom/wife/homemaker for your family. And I love that you’ve figured out a method that works for your family and that you care about helping other people learn that too if they are interested in it! I appreciate you and your blog!
Yes, great post! I am in the middle of “the shift”. Although I don’t think I will stop couponing 100% (will never turn down laundry soap for $1 or less since we’re a family of 6 and always have laundry), I am definitely using coupons much less. I shop sales more often than coupon matchups now. When things we use go on sale (apple juice, canned black beans, ground turkey, pasta and sauce, tuna, cheese, butter… don’t ask me how much cheese and butter I have in the fridge/freezer!!), I’ll get as much as I feel comfortable buying to get us through to the next sale. It is way too time consuming, and as you said, entices me to buy unhealthier alternatives. And much of the junk food sits around because I don’t want the kids to help themselves so I hide it. Ridiculous waste of space! I love Ralph’s weekly Facebook coupons ($5/$15 produce is my favorite!) so will always take advantage of that. Trying to be better at meal planning – got an Instant Pot for myself so cooking is exciting again 😊
I would have written this exact article! (Except for the extreme part of couponing.) We, too, never use coupons. At one point I calculated my “wages” from couponing and it was so low, I decided to spend my time on something more valuable (hello garden!) We eat real food that doesn’t have ingredient labels. Thus, there are too few coupons to make it worth our time.
I agree! I am so tired of nickeling and diming, looking through ibotta or cartwheel for the scant produce coupons, while there are huge discounts for beer, soda, expensive branded items, etc… I am sick of target trying to confuse me by making me purchase 100 dollars in diapers to get a gift card! I hate coupons and the time it takes me to go through looking for a deal. Target is the worst- they will have branded items with a coupon and cartwheel and then put their generic on sale at the same time! So then I have to whip out my calculator and talk to myself like the crazy person I am!
I use to use coupons but never to the extent in your article. Now it’s mostly for the eye drops my son likes (the coupon comes in the package ready for the next purchase) or the store where I buy our milk and meat has started issuing a coupon once a week for a free item in their newsletter. That has given us an opportunity to try a new product without having to buy it. Since we’re there getting milk and meat anyway, there’s no special trip involved. This store also gives military and senior citizen discounts during the week, plus the free item. Their milk, most meats and most produce are locally sourced – a big plus in my book.
I do have some friends who try do extreme couponing. They also know that I like to buy in bulk but can’t understand why I don’t coupon with them. It’s simple, what they think is a good deal isn’t a good deal for me. Most of my bulk shopping is done at Sam’s for our staples like olive oil, vinegar, sugar or paper products, plus they don’t take coupons. Most of their “bulk” shopping is done at Wal-Mart where they’ll buy a slew of little bottles of shampoo or detergent, or little packs of toilet paper simply because they have a coupon. They don’t look for the best price passed what a coupon appears to offer. We also make our own soap and laundry detergent which saves even more. Components are cheaper than the finished product. We’ve even replaced expensive cleaners, fabric softener, and even conditioner for the hair with vinegar.
Because they have coupons for them, my friends also buy a lot of processed, nutritionally empty foods and 2-liter bottles of sodas that we don’t eat or drink. They have a hard time understanding that cooking from scratch or near-scratch is cheaper and better for you than using the highly-processed foods they do and it isn’t difficult. In fact, I taught my son how to cook when he was young so he wouldn’t have to eat junk. Also, he needed to be more self-sufficient at an earlier age than most because his dad and I were both in the Air Force and could have been shipped anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.
With a little thought and planning, extreme couponing isn’t necessary. Just because something has a coupon doesn’t automatically make it a good deal or smart buy.
Well said Linda! I love how you’re using a coupon at your local store, that you would shop at whether or not you had a coupon. The fact that you do is icing on the cake. Like you, I now buy in bulk from Costco, make a lot of our cleaners and toiletries with homemade and have found that components are cheaper than the products in the long run. It just took me extreme couponing to learn it, lol!