Five ways to save money without coupons
April 7, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under coupons, save-money, saving money
Since so many of you responded to my post, “Five reasons why I don’t use coupons”, it would be hard to respond in the comments. Hence this post.
First of all while some of you agreed with me, an overwhelming amount of you don’t. I wasn’t surprised. Most of my thrifty pals don’t. That’s why I didn’t entitle the post five reasons why YOU shouldn’t use coupons. To each their own, coupons just aren’t my bag. I like that people pointed out their thoughts though, especially the folks who gave examples that could help others – the coupons I see, and the time it takes me to find them just doesn’t add up to monumental savings for me personally.
The only comment that irked me was the one that noted it was odd to see my post on a thrifty blog. I hate when I’m equated with non-thriftiness because I don’t use coupons. That’s not cool. I have this suspicion that I can’t be the only human on the planet who one, doesn’t like coupons, and two, still likes to save money. It’s always bothered me that so many thrifty books and sites concentrate on coupons, that I don’t like to use, as the major way to cut your budget and save money. I like tips that go beyond coupons.
Since I don’t use coupons what are the major ways I save money? Well…
1. We don’t buy much stuff. I tend to buy what I absolutely need about 95% of the time. Sure I buy cute dresses or lip gloss once in a while and my son will get a toy that’s fun but ultimately unnecessary, but usually we just buy basics. We don’t have cable or two cars or more house than we need. We never buy soda and rarely buy other junk food – although once in while we like it, we just save our money most of the time for something fun we can do together like a trip or new Frisbee. Before I buy anything I ask myself some questions to make sure it’s worth it.
2. We eat low and homemade on the food chain: We don’t eat any red meat or pork (meat’s expensive) and the foods we buy organic are the big baddies, not items like bread and cereal (low on pesticides). We cook a lot from scratch vs. packaged foods, and tend to make easy meals of brown rice, veggies, apples and so on.
3. We make our own cleaners: I buy very few cleaning items which saves a ton. I make my own because it saves money and is better for the planet. In fact, many of the ways we save money at my house come naturally from living green.
4. We use it up and use reusable items: At my house we haven’t bought paper towels for years. We use cloths to clean, cloth napkins for meals, and buy things that have a long life span. We check Consumer Reports (or something like it) before making a purchasing decision. We drink tap over bottled water, buy at thrift stores, and skip lots of basics like foil or plastic wrap in exchange for reusable food storage options. Buying items that are reusable and last forever saves you lots of money.
5. We keep a budget – most of the time to the penny: A book that changed my life was Your Money or Your Life. I liked the whole book, but the best thing I learned from that book was to write down everything you spend, even if it’s 10 cent gum. You learn A LOT, save tons, and figure out how to cut out weird extras you never knew you bought. Also it teaches you how important your life hours are compared to making money. If you don’t want to waste more time making it, if you’d rather hang with friends and family, then you should buy less, not work more.
In any case, I’m sure there will always be people who love coupons, and that’s a-ok. It’s just not my bag. Doing the things above saves me more money than coupon clipping will ever save me.
What’s your favorite money saving tool or idea? I.E how does your family cut cost the most?
[image via stock.xchng]
For my son’s lunch, I bought a lunch box with a thermos and a plastic sandwich holder. That way I am not wasting paper bags, sandwich bags, or using expensive juice boxes.
I’m one of those who doesn’t prefer coupons because I save money by buying the “off”/store brand items. We save money by doing #1, 4, and 5, also. And we rarely go out to eat, we don’t have cable,home phone, or car payments.
Just shrug off the criticism about not using coupons; you’re absolutely right. In fact, I found that buying the store or generic brand is as good quality and is still cheaper than the brand name item WITH the coupon! Making your own cleaners is a good idea,too (although I admit I don’t do that). If you make your own cleaning agents and since you make your meals from scratch, you’re still saving more money than the coupon clippers. I always found I don’t have time to sift through newspapers with scissors, ending up with a stack of papers/fish wrap and then having to go through and organize by expiration date. I found it cheaper to not subscribe to the papers and get news online. Better for the environment and cheaper, and less clutter to deal with.
I agreed with your coupon post yesterday and this great post today. I used to use coupons all the time, but just like you, I found that the coupons were for items we didn’t regularly buy or for name brand, higher priced items. Even with a coupon many of those items were still more expensive than the store brand. I save a ton of $$$ by making my own cleaning products also. I found that the few hours I was spending each week clipping, sorting, and using the coupons wasn’t worth the $10-$15 I was saving by using them. My time is more valuable than that. Just like you, I would rather spend those few hours with my family. For me that time is worth far more than the $10-$15 savings. I use coupons only when it’s for something I would normally purchase. I think it’s great that people can save lots of $$$$ using coupons, I’m just not one of them. It just doesn’t work for our family.
I definately agree with the way you “thrift” through your life. I too find that most coupons want you to spend money on the brand or higher priced items that you don’t really need. I have found one of the best ways of saving at the grocery is to be early – the Great Canadian Superstore, near me, always has racks of day old bread in the morning at 50% off, and that includes many of the ‘treat’ items, like cinnamon buns, cookies, exotic breads. When just plain brown bakery bread is priced at 59 cents a loaf the next day, it saves a whole lot! Meat selection too, can be got at 50% off if you are early in the day — mostly the half price meat is the better cuts though — grilling steak once in a while at half price is a great treat and doesn’t make you feel guilty for spending too much on one meal…
I think too, that a thrifty person quickly figures out that making anything from “scratch” is much more economical that buying the mass produced brand name product…
I clip coupons while our family is sitting around the table on Sundays, so it’s not time I would be working or time away from my family. I’m with you that I buy mostly organic, make lots from scratch, etc., and it’s easy to get tempted to buy junk in the coupon section. That said, I have found coupons lately for recycled paper towels (we don’t use many, but what we do buy, we buy recycled), and I buy cereal at about 25% retail full price by using coupons. Coupons combined with a sale usually do make brand names cheaper than store prices. And by using coupons, yesterday I got $20 of stuff for free at Walgreens — all things that we would use anyway, like big boxes of Lipton tea bags and cereal, and some medical items. Coupons can make sense for any lifestyle, but the key with using them thriftily or for more “green” living is to not let a good deal sway you outside your values.
jennifer..if i offended you in any way, i apologize. that was not my intent. i believe i ended my comment with “while i would never condemn someone for not using coupons…i don’t think my kids are lacking my personal attention or too much of my time is being wasted by skimming the ads and doing a little clipping”. i was under the impression that you were referring to those of us who do choose to coupon were not only wasting our time for a few cents off but also not having enough time for our famlies? i couldn’t agree more with your follow up post on ways to save money…i’ve always done all of the above and then some.
I live 9 miles from the nearest grocery store. During this time of economy I try to make only 1 trip into town each week.
The trouble with coupons is that you actually aren’t getting the best price. Sure you ARE saving more than what you WOULD
But do you ever wonder if you could be getting MORE for your money?
Wouldn’t you like to get a better deal if there was one?
There IS a way to see if there are actually lower prices and IT IS FREE to use.
Download this free tool called the Genie Saver by going to http://www.startyourclicking.com/
It’s free to use. Just download it and type the specific brand and product in your favorite search engine, then click on “compare” at the bottom of the screen. Instantly you will find the lowest prices.
Then you can see if the coupon is REALLY going to save you money.
Click here http://www.startyourclicking.com/rices. You ARE saving on what you WOULD have spent without the coupon.
I have to agree with your post about coupons. I don’t clip them either, and I consider myself very thrifty, as does my whole family. I don’t use 3/4 of the products on coupons, and I am not going to buy something that I don’t normally buy just because I can get it cheap or free.
To save money we: budget to the penny each pay period, we eat at home, we plan our menu each week before shopping, we don’t have a home phone, no car payment, don’t use credit cards.
I would love to learn more about making my own cleaners. I love baking soda already, I use it alot, but would like to learn more.
@Miss Snips “Thrift through life” – I LOVE that. Nice, simple, great motto.
@mom_of_14 – no worries. I’ve been blogging for years, it takes A LOT to really offend me. None of the comments offended me personally, I thought all of them made excellent points, I just get tired of all the coupon bling out there – especially when often people act like that’s the only way to save. It seemed like everyone was open minded to other saving techniques too, so I’m glad people left the comments they did. Also, you say, “i was under the impression that you were referring to those of us who do choose to coupon were not only wasting our time for a few cents off but also not having enough time for our famlies?” I can see why you’d think that. I don’t though – I DO think that family time is more important than saving money, however, you’d have to be doing just about every money saving tool out there to be too busy for family time. Along with the other things I do I don’t have time personally for coupons, so I ditched them.
@Everyone who left a comment thus far – I like everyone’s whole life approach to saving money – good deal! Thanks for sharing all the great tips!