Couponing Class Week 8

To Buy Or Not To Buy...

Today's lesson is geared toward the purchasing of coupons.  Why would you want to purchase them?  Are there really any savings when you do choose to buy coupons?  Doesn't buying coupons defeat the purpose of saving money?  If there is a sale, and you buy coupons for the sale, will they arrive before the sale is over?  Isn't purchasing coupons illegal?  These are all questions that I have heard in recent months, and up until recently I had never purchased any.  I too thought that it defeated the purpose of saving money.  That is until recently when I purchased my first coupons. 

I will share with you what I did.  Chef Michael's Dog Food came out with a $3.00 off any one size bag of dry dog food coupon.  At the same time Target too came out with their own Chef Michael's dry dog food coupon for $1.50 off 1 any size bag.  Now at Target you are able to "stack" a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon on the same item.  The small bags of dog food are only $4.49 each.  This means that each bag of dog food will be free.  I have two dogs, a black lab that weighs about 90 lbs, and an English Mastiff which is weighing in around 200 lbs.  So needless to say I go through quite a bit of dog food.  I am always on the lookout for deep savings on any type of dog food.  (there is only a handful of brands that I can't use due to some allergies.) 

After I used my orginal 8 coupons that I had for this item, which I got from family and friends,  I was out.  I looked at the expiration dates of both the Target and manufacturer coupons, and saw that I had a couple of weeks to continue to get this incrediable freebie.  In my area we have 2 Targets within a 2 mile radius, and both are very close to my home, so traveling on a daily basis to pick up a couple bags is not an issue.  I also have a great shopping buddy who will go in and purchase a couple of bags with me, so I can get double the amount I normally could and make fewer trips in the process.  I purchased 30 of the $3.00 off 1 coupons, and 20 of the BOGO FREE Chef Michael's canned food.  ( I use to flavor the dry food when my Mastiff, decides that he is going to be picky.) I was able to stack this BOGO coupon with Target's BOGO coupon in order to get both cans free as well. 

Now I must say first that I am actually not purchasing the coupon itself, but I am paying for the handling, and shipping, since it is illegal to actually buy a coupon.  So for $170.00 worth of dog food, I paid only $6.80 for shipping and handling.  I received my coupons within 3 days, and still have almost 2 full weeks to be able to use them all.  To make the savings even greater, I used the money I earned from my Light Speed Survey Account to pay for this, so the way I look at it is I didn't really pay anything for this transaction. 

Now before you decide to start buying coupons, you first need to look at each item on an individual basis.  Here are some key questions to ask yourself before you make the purchase:

♦ How long is the sale going on for?
♦ How much money will the shipping and handling be?
♦ Will there still be dramatic savings if I purchase the coupons?
♦ How far away is the store, where I will need to use these? 
♦ What are the expiration dates on the coupons?
♦ If I can't use all of them, is this an item that typically goes on sale a lot?

What, if any coupons have you purchased? 


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