In the weeks that we've gone through the process of clipping and redeeming coupons, so far we saved an average of $15 per shopping trip. We shop every other week, so the savings is about $390 a year. I'm averaging because it hasn't been a year, so I can't add up the coupon discounts printed on our grocery receipts for the whole year quite yet.
Why clip coupons to save money when all we really save is a few dollars? It's an easy one to answer.
To some, saving a few dollars clipping coupons might seem "not worth" the effort, but never discount how much even a small amount can add up to. In ten years, our $15 coupon savings adds up to nearly $4,000. Without using coupons, that would be $4,000 we would have spent, out-the-window. Gone. For no good reason.
Just recently, we heard about a man who saved the change in his pockets at the end of every day. He kept the coins in a soup can, and after many years to the dismay of his wife, he had a lot of soup cans full of coins stacked up in his closet and in the guest room of their home. One day after he retired, he took the coins to the bank and to the surprise of his wife, he deposited 1.5 million dollars. Guess how old he was when he started saving his change?
Our commitment to clip coupons may be part of our overall goal to cut expenses, save money and live happily in retirement. It may be because we want to get a better handle on our financial picture. It may be that we simply want to stop overspending. Probably all of the above.
It's easy to see that today's down economy is a big motivator, but we should have had better control over what we did with our money starting years ago. It took too long for us to understand that pennies add up.
We did come to realize that when you take time to clip coupons to save money, and then put that next to a dozen other steps you take to save money — in a short amount of time, you've saved a bunch of money. Maybe not 1.5 million dollars, but then again...
For much the same reason, one of our golden rules is to only clip coupons for food and products we already use. We didn't want to start buying items we didn't need just because we had a coupon for 50¢ off.
coupons, including Coupons.com -- which is a free online coupon clipping service — and Walmart. Walmart accepts all coupons, and offers their own Walmart coupons so we can save even more. I also like that the web page gives you a running total on your coupon savings as you choose each coupon to clip. Nice.
It's fair to say that it's not as easy as it sounds at first. You need to find coupons for items you buy, organize them by expiration date, remember to take them to the store with you, and locate each item in the store aisle. That is a bit challenging. But after a few shopping trips, it gets easier.
We clip coupons to save money because it costs us nothing to do it, and we gain the savings by spending less.