Comments on: Coupons — Are They Worth The Trouble?

By: An In-Depth Look at How I Spend Very Little on Groceries

An In-Depth Look at How I Spend Very Little on Groceries — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:16:08 +0000

[...] items as diverse as toothpaste, flour and pasta. Although I use some coupons, I am a far cry from a coupon queen, who feeds her family on $4 per [...]

By: Barbara Fallon

Barbara Fallon — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:44:45 +0000

Don’t you think it is immoral to expect to get almost $300 of food for only 1c. If she is not paying for the food, then who is. The food certainly not get onto the shelves of the supermarket by Tinkerbell waving her magic wand. Someone has worked hard to produce this food and should be paid accordingly. The savings she has made are not paid for by the shareholders of the company but by people who supply the stores and their employees, who are probably paid very little anyway.

By: WilliamB

WilliamB — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:58:48 +0000

Ask your store(s) for their policies.

Some stores always double coupons or always double coupons under a certain amount ($.50 is usually the dividing line which is why so many coupons are for $.55.)

Some stores always double for store club members, or always double under a certain amount.

Some stores have double – or occasionally triple – coupon sales, usually for coupons under a certain amount, such a $1.50.

Some stores let you use both a mfgr coupon and a store coupon on an item, others don’t. Not all store staff are well versed in their stores’ policies; it can help to bring a copy with you.

When dealing with a $X of $Y purchase, find out if $Y is before or after coupons are applied. See above paragraph about staff’s policy knowledge.

It pays to ask. It really pays to ask nicely. I had a very positive experience at Shoppers (formerly Shoppers Food Warehouse) about $X off a $Y purchase. No one knew the policy so the manager told me to try. If the register didn’t allow $Y *before* coupons, he’d make up the difference out of store funds.

By: Tami

Tami — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:29:51 +0000

I am curious; I’ve heard about doubling coupons, but I’ve never seen coupons doubled. Is it only some stores that do it, or do you need to do something in order to get it doubled?

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:08:48 +0000

We also have the Chinook Book up here in Seattle and I absolutely love it. I get one every year. My local co-op (PCC, Puget Sound Consumers Co-0p) sells them at a discount when they first come out in November and I’m always tempted to buy more than one, since the coupons inside save far more than they cost. Kudos to your friend’s husband for coming up with the idea!

By: Coupons and Toiletries — A Follow Up « The Non-Consumer Advocate

Coupons and Toiletries — A Follow Up « The Non-Consumer Advocate — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:44:31 +0000

[...] am loving all the comments in response to the recent column titled, “Coupons — Are They Worth The Trouble?” It does seem that many people are finding ways to make coupons work for them, despite an aversion [...]

By: charlie aka oldboyscout2

charlie aka oldboyscout2 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:51:39 +0000

I do confess to checking Fred Meyer coupons as I “cherry pick” them every couple of weeks. That said, I wonder if anyone has figured how much total time they spend getting the coupons vs. how much they save, that is , how much are you being paid an hour? Just wondering.

By: Magdalenaperks

Magdalenaperks — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:44:42 +0000

Coupon distribution is sometimes regional for the clip-it type; online works for those who don’t buy a newspaper or get one without coupon inserts. I can feed the two of us on about $25 CDN a week if we don’t eat dairy or meat, I can wild-gather or glean or cadge vegetables from other people’s gardens. Even our toiletries are limited, so coupons don’t mean much to us. Now that we are in an expanded household (3 adults and toddler) I will try some of the online sources, if any apply to Canadian shoppers! It is an advantage, I’ve found, to be in Ontario or BC rather than the Maritimes or the North – fresh, cheap food is much more available, with a lot of locally grown produce.

By: Meg

Meg — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Cheese keeps pretty well. With hard cheeses, you can cut away the mold and dry spots and it’s perfectly fine, though I forget exactly how far in you’re supposed to cut.

Also, I’ve heard that you can oil the cheese to help seal it. So long as you re-oil it you shouldn’t have problems, but if it gets mold on it it’s super easy to wipe off then.

And if you’re really serious about it, you can wax it.

As for what I do… This is one of the few things I put in a zip-top bag. And I keep it in the original plastic as well as much as possible. After I bag it, I squeeze the air out as best as I can and stick in back in a drawer in the fridge. I can work on a piece of cheese for months without seeing anything growing on it that shouldn’t be.

My husband and I eat a good bit of cheese, though, in quiche, scrambled eggs, chili, sandwiches, grits, quesadillas, tacos, salads, etc. And a small block makes for a nice, filling snack.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:37:25 +0000

I used to get huge blocks of cheese at Costco, and found that cheese does freeze well as long as you are going to eventually cook with it, as freezing tends to change cheese to a crumblier texture. Divide the block into 1 pound packages and wrap well. Don’t freeze cream cheese though.