Last year over 3 billion coupons are used, saving consumers approximately $3.7 billion. That seems to be a significant savings, but are you really saving money by using coupons?
The recent recession has made Americans much more cost-conscious and coupon clipping is no longer an exercise reserved for the ultra-frugal. Over 88 million people plan on using coupons this year. That represents 1 out of every 3.5 person in America.
It’s not just clipping coupons out of the newspapers anymore either. The age of the daily deal coupons allows amazing deals to be delivered right to your email or mobile phone. Groupon, Living Social and a host of other daily deal providers are delivering compelling savings to American consumers.
Still the question remains are you really saving money by using coupons?
Too often these coupons are used to buy something that you never intended to buy in the first place. That’s why merchants use them…to try and entice new customers to try their products or services. A coupon may save you 50-70% off the retail price, but if you never were planning to buy it in the first place that coupon is actually costing you money not saving you dollars.
The other big mistake coupon users make is not actually “saving” the money that they saved by using coupons. If you are able to save $10 on your trip to the grocery store by using coupons that’s great! So where did you put that $10 that you saved?
Many people just end up increasing their overall spending to offset (or more than offset) the savings they received from using coupons.
Others simply forget the savings altogether.
Coupons can and should be used to save you money. However, in order for you to actually save money by using coupons, you have to know how much you’ve saved.
After you get home from a trip to the store, calculate how much you saved by using coupons or buying items that were on sale. Then set aside that amount of money. It may just be a few dollars for each trip, but after a few months it will really add up.
After a year of following this practice you will see how much money you truly have saved by using coupons.
Originally from here
Picture from here
Posted on Shalom Adventure by: Brenda Miller
