artofthecoupon.com

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I started using coupons seriously in March of 2007, approximately 1 year and 4 months ago. I was inspired by an MSN money article called Secrets of Superstar Grocery Shoppers, and by reading about the great deals people were getting at CVS. On Sunday, I dutifully bought my paper, clipped my coupons, made my list, and headed out to CVS. Now, less than 2 years later, I buy 4 papers a weekend. I do at least 8 transactions at CVS a week, not to mention approximately 4 weekly trips to Wal-Mart and assorted other grocery and drug stores. I am what you might call a Coupon Addict.

This has had some obvious affects on my life. My linen closet is completely filled to the brim with a lifetime supply of body wash and shampoo and shaving cream, etc. etc. We go through about 2 1/2 gallons of milk a week and it’s been a loooooong time since I’ve paid more than $1 in actual cash for milk; or for that matter for orange juice, or canned peaches, or tuna fish, or any number of other things I can get with Extracare Bucks.

But, in addition to helping me save lots of money, couponing has changed my outlook on a lot of other things in life. When two carts full of stuff costs approximately $0.65, I start to feel like spending that same .65 (or more!) on a can of soda from the vending machine at work is simply insanity. The $5 coffee at Starbucks would equate to about 7.6 carts full of stuff from CVS… and perhaps I could even figure out a way to work in some of those bottled Frappucino’s to satisfy the same craving for sugary sweet delicious coffee!

Once I started measuring everything in terms of how much I could get for the same amount of cash at CVS, I woke up to how much money I was wasting in my every day life. It is easy to justify spending on little luxuries (or even big luxuries) by saying to yourself “its only $1 here, its only $1 there” but by doing this, you ignore the fact that all those little expenditures are still money that could be better used elsewhere. A $5 Starbucks coffee that equates to 7.6 carts full of stuff at CVS could also equate to $5 more a month to pay on your debt or add to your savings; and often people lose site of the real opportunity cost of spending that money one way instead of another.

Couponing also helped me realize that you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money to live well. There are a lot of opportunities out there to get the things you want in life, without necessarily walking into a store and paying full price. There are coupons and discounts out there for restaurants and fast food joints (Restaurant.com sells discount gift certificates and the Sunday paper or entertainment book often has 2-for-1 coupons). There are groups you can join online to test great products (I got a brand new Sonicare Elite toothbrush valued at $185 last year from Bzzagent, and all I had to do in exchange was tell people about my experience with it!). For clothes, wait for end of season sales and if you dress in a classic style, you can get beautiful things for a fraction of the price. I won’t list the thousands of examples here (thats what the rest of this blog is for!), but the point is you do not, and should not, pay full price for things when there are discounts out there for the taking.

Couponing may not be for everyone, and even for those who do coupon, the simple act of saving a few (or many) dollars at the grocery store may not be enough to change the way you look at money. What is important, however, is finding something that does for you the 2 things that couponing did for me 1) helping you to realize the true opportunity cost of spending money and 2) getting you excited about how much you can save with a little bit of effort or creativity.

So, today, I urge you to do step one. Find something that you think about before spending money, something which makes that expense real and not just the exchange of paper or the swipe of a card. This could be anything… you could look at spending $1, or $5 or $10 as losing the opportunity to buy X carts full of CVS items, or 1/4 of a pair of shoes, or a toy for your child. The point is simply to think before you make any purchase about how the expense costs you more than money… it costs you the opportunity to purchase something that you might value more; that might make more of a positive impact on you, your family, or even the planet.