I used to be the person that jumped at an excuse for my reasons not to coupon. “It’s a waste of time.” “You can find good deals without coupons.” I’ve said it all.
It wasn’t until last year when my wife and I saw how foolish we were being. We were leaving so much money on the table before we started couponing. In fact, couponing has saved us so much money that we recently created an eBook called How To Coupon that shares the ‘secrets’ to how we buy things for pennies on the dollar. 
But we couldn’t save 80% on everyday items like toothbrushes, deodorant, and shampoo if we stuck to these excuses. That’s why I hope you’ll take the advice of a ‘coupon-convert’ on why these excuses don’t hold any water.
1. Couponing Takes Too Much Time…
I’ll be honest, it’s not uncommon for us to spend 2-3 hours a week finding, cutting, and organizing coupons. But before you yell, ‘2-3 hours!!’ ask yourself if you’ve ever wasted 2-3 hour in one evening on something like TV or Facebook. Usually cutting the coupons takes the longest time, but it’s mindless work. That’s why we like to listen to podcasts or watch our favorite shows while we cut coupons.
We’ve calculated that a normal month of couponing will allow us to buy $200 worth of goods for about $40. Every little bit helps, and if spending a few hours clipping coupons allows us to save close to $200 in some months, we’re going to keep it up!
2. Coupons will make you buy things you don’t need…
I used to think that too, but the problem isn’t the coupon. The problem is the person using the coupons. If you’re a disciplined person (and I imagine most money savers are a little more disciplined) a coupon that brings a useless item down to $0.10 won’t cause you to run to the store because it’s a ‘great deal.’ Even when we are in stores and we see that a certain item is on sale, we’ll make a decision based on whether we’ll use it or not. Sometimes, couponing will give us the opportunity to buy items that other people can use. Just because we can’t use something doesn’t mean that another person can’t use it.
3. Shopping Takes Longer With Coupons…
Actually, our shopping trips are shorter since couponing because we know exactly what we need and how much we’re going to spend on it. We don’t need to search the aisles looking for the best price because we’ve already done the research and know exactly what we’re looking for.
Trust me, before we started couponing, I was the first to pull out one of these excuses. But now that we save money with coupons, these excuses couldn’t be further from the truth.
Do you use coupons? Have you ever made any of these excuses about couponing? What are some other excuses that you’ve heard?
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It can be tempting to buy things because you have a coupon. You have to realistically ask yourself whether you would buy the item anyways. If we’re shopping at the grocery store and have an item with a coupon we would probably buy in the next few weeks (as long as it’s a freezer item or one we can store in our pantry shelf) we’re good with it. If it’s a ‘oh I’m not sure’ type item, then we generally won’t buy it. As you said, it’s all about discipline.
So You Think You Can Save´s last [type] ..Save Money By Keeping Your Car Longer
My family loves to coupons and while people are amazed at what we save, I try to tell them exactly what we do. Their excuse? It’s just like you stated, “I don’t have time”! This is how I see it though. For starters, most of my shopping trips save me at least $25 to $40 in coupons. It normally takes me no more than 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to do this. I’m sure if I went to these same people and said “Hey! I’ll pay you $40 to watch my kid for an hour.” They would do it in a heartbeat!
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