What DOESN’T Work for Me Wednesday
May 7, 2008 by Loral
One word- couponing! When I read about all the lovely ladies who save oodles of the green stuff by CVS-ing, clipping coupons and doubling them and rake in regular cash with rebates….I think ‘God bless them!’ But I’m not one of them, and there’s a list of reasons why:
1. Too disorganized- I’ve bought the coupon carriers, added notes to my routine, like ‘cull old coupons’, dutifully toted said organizer to the store….but at checkout the coupon never seemed to match the item exactly (wrong size, etc) or was expired. Usually, it was the latter situation.
2. Not many coupons to be had- We live in a small, rural town where many (maybe even, most) people do not get the ‘big city’ newspaper. Our small Podunk Daily has a small insert of coupons on Fridays (no weekend edition), but not like we would get in a metro newspaper. For a long time, I would purchase a Sunday paper, call family and friends, find out if they had bought the Sunday paper and beg for their inserts, then clip coupons like a good wifey and get to the store to experience Situation #1.
3. Our diet changed- My dd, now 11, was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy at 18 months. So many processed and packaged foods were now out the door, often because of cross-contamination issues. As I started to cook so many things from scratch, our palates changed and many off-shelf-convenience foods didn’t taste as good as homemade. I was finding that I rarely bought things that had a coupon offered through my limited coupon sources.
What does work for me and my grocery budget? Buying whole foods and preparing meals and snacks from scratch. Serving simple side dishes with simple entrees. A serving of white/brown rice is usually cheaper and definitely more nutritious than a Cheesy Dehydrated Potato Mix, not to mention, easier! Shopping at a discount store (Sav-A-Lot) and buying store brands at our local grocery and Big Box stores. The quality, on most items, is comparable and the price is the same, or even lower, than I would achieve with couponing. For more information on comparing prices of homemade items to those prepared with convenience foods see ‘The Complete Tightwad Gazette’ by Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced ‘decision’). Her explanation on page 396 on how to figure the cost and value of both really changed my perception of the dollar value of our food.
Brain flash! Coming soon- a mini-tutorial on how to make my favorite biscuit recipe and I’ll buy a ‘whack-em’ package of biscuits and do a cost-evaluation study. I love playing scientist in the kitchen 
I hear you sister! I’ve tried it all. I hate spending hours planning, clipping and shopping. It’s just not worth it most of the time. I have just started doing the CVS thing, but not regularly and I refuse to buy 20 nail files to get 5 ECB’s. I do want to do more cooking from scratch, but need to be more educated about it. Good post.
I understand what you mean. I think I get the joy of cutting the coupons but to actually remember to use it is a different story. I’ve signed up to do the CVS thing but never have done it. I’ve realized that I don’t need another store to shop at. I do want to do more cooking from scratch but I have lots to learn.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has never really been able to master the coupon thing….I also have found that store brands are often cheaper than name brand with the coupon discount and it’s cheaper and tastier to cook from scratch!
I completely identify! I don’t do coupons any more, even though I used to do it & do it well. Coupons these days are mostly for things we DON”T use. Wouldn’t it be nice if they put out coupons for something like Produce??