Coupons can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Take the other day for example. I was picking up a framed photo from a local craft store, a national chain in fact. I always try and combine my errands with other errands and had planned to buy some specialty craft materials for my grand-daughter as stocking stuffers. Now, this store is not cheap and in fact often jacks the price up but I was in need of very specific items so, armed with my list, I picked up my framed photo and filled my shopping card with the crafting materials Santa was going to deliver.
When I got to check out, I was armed and packing. With coupons I mean. I had several coupons that I knew could be used together. One for 40 percent off, another for 50 percent off and a discount card I’d be sent in the mail. By the time I finished checking out my bill had gone from $125 to roughly $63, a savings of about 50 percent.
That’s a lot of glitter markers.
So, a frugal strategy for coupons is easy to remember: DMF (also known as Do More Frugally )
D is for Deadline: Be sure you are inside the deadline of the coupons or discount cards. I needed to use up my coupons within a couple of days but the discount card had a much longer shelf life, I’d been saving it for months.
M is for Multiples: Be sure you can use multiple coupons and discount cards at once although I see nothing wrong with buying what you can and then coming back 10 minutes later to use the rest of your discounts. Do what you have to do is my motto.
F is Flexibility: Be sure the coupons and discount cards are applicable to everything you want to buy. It does you no good to get a coupon for $10 off a fully baked honey ham if you need a turkey.
So, be sure and use all your discounts, especially at the holidays when you budget can be stressed to the max.
One more bit of advice, keep track of all your on line coupons by setting up a new folder in your email. I get a lot of offers and discounts that have deadlines so I actually resend these to myself with the deadline in the subject line and then I file them electronically under “DEALS”. I check that file often, just to be sure I am not missing anything of value. Even so, I ignore the offer because it does not benefit me financially in any way, I have plenty to choose from that will save me money.
thefrugallife 