Has the coupon craze got you?

Here are a few things that you may want to know before you go coupon away!

I am new to the coupon business and yes if done correctly, it does contribute to your savings. However, since of late I have begun to wonder whether my spending has also been on the rise due to couponing. So I ask this question: does the coupon craze really save your money?

Let me share a few examples from my day to day life to show you the impact of couponing and how it has affected my life.

I get to the gates on Thursdays to collect the fliers from various stores around and the little booklet of coupons which comes with it. Then like most clever couponers I try to combine the stores best deals with the coupons that I have collected over a few weeks. Combining two or more coupons just may get you the best deal there is around. However, since most coupons have an expiry date, I am pressured to get to the stores in time to use them or I would just have to throw them in the recycle.

My kids have their favourite brands of juices but I had coupons to a different brand which probably is slightly more expensive so I decided to buy it. However by the look on their faces I soon realised most of the juice is going to be wasted. So for me this was more of a waster than a saver.

Also for diapers you can drive to the nearest drug store or wait for your grocery store to have a deal on the older diapers but if you did subscribe and save on Amazon then you may find that they offer a pretty competitive deal. If you put together the cost of your time and fuel, I think two day free shipping with 150 diapers at your door step is a very hard to break deal.

Finally we all know that there are those things that we really dont need but we just buy because there's a $10 off on a $50 you spend or a store closing sale or Clearance stuff that you never planned on owning. One thought you may want to consider is on a scale from 0 to 10 how bad do I want it. If its below 5 may be you can pass. After all saving $40 is better than saving $10 and coming home with something that needs additional closet space but not much usage would be got out of it.

I am interested to know what works for you and what doesn't. Are you a diehard saver or do you coupon whenever it is convenient? What are some of us to be aware of before we coupon? Come share your thoughts!