I think I’ve already stated that the area where I live has very limited double coupons. Limit of 5, must spend $25 on items other than the coupon items, occurs only one day per week. Lots of restrictions; you get the idea. We certainly don’t have stores that triple coupon - or quadruple coupons (still having a hard time wrapping my mind around that concept.) Often, I don’t spend $25 at a single store, so that pretty much keeps me from doing double coupons, period.
Now, despite that, I do use coupons. Mainly for health and beauty items, or cleaning items (using them with Walgreens rebate items is particularly rewarding), but also for some food items. Tomatoes come to mind, canned tomatoes. I’ve gotten some really good prices on Red Gold tomatoes, using coupons (beating Aldi’s canned tomato prices, my previous low cost leader in this area). And recently, I got the large sized cans of organic plum tomatoes for 25¢ each. There are lots of other items I use coupons for, but I don’t think you really want me to list them all.
As I alluded to in my post about fun with the Sunday papers, the glossy little coupon flyers that are found within the papers are a highlight of my Sunday paper experience. I look forward to going through them. I don’t even check the coupon previews online anymore, because I don’t want to spoil my fun. Yes, I am a coupon geek. After perusing today’s coupons, and reflecting back on the previous several weeks, I have to ask: Are coupons being rationed? Because there sure seem to be fewer and fewer these days.
In early January, there were a few good weeks. One in particular had, what, 5 different coupon inserts? You can only imagine my glee upon discovering that.
But recently - well, let’s start with today. Sure, there were coupons, but there were also full page ads for mail order items like table covers, address labels, a watch with a local college sports team logo (this is nothing new. I live in Wisconsin, and you should see all the ads for Green Bay Packers plates, figurines, etc., during the fall), credit cards, clothing, and I forget what-all else, because if any pages just had merchandise with no coupons on front or back, they hit the trash pronto. I know there are people like my mother-in-law who just love this stuff, and order it all the time. (To say she has some interesting decorating ideas would be an understatement.) But all these ads for merchandise really cut down on the number of coupons in the flyers.
There was a week, not too long ago, where in among all the items for sale, the flyer had two coupons. Two. I guess I should be glad there were coupons, period - some weeks, there aren’t any.
Finally, while this is not an observation about today’s coupons - despite what the heading for this entry says - what is up with the short, short, SHORT time frame on some coupons? A couple of weeks ago, there was a coupon for a free item. I love coupons for free items, but you probably already guessed that. This particular coupon was sort of “blink and you miss it”, as it expired in 10 days. At least I redeemed this one before it expired, unlike the last short-dated free item coupon. I’m usually pretty good about expiration dates. I didn’t realize how short the previous coupon was until I attempted to redeem it - too late. THAT was embarassing. So the lesson in this little story - check those expiration dates. And if they’re really good coupons - ones that will save you lots of money, are for items you use or truly need, or are for freebies - be sure and use them before they expire.
Okay. I still love coupons. You’ll be hearing how much I love coupons quite often in future blog entries, I’m sure. Especially if, in the next few weeks, I see lots and lots of coupons. With several months to redeem them before they expire.