My family and I journeyed to Tulsa over fall break (by way of Kansas, incidentally, since I failed to navigate one of the more important turns we should have taken in Oklahoma City). While we were there, every time I used something, my friend Holly told me, “Oh, I got that free at Walgreen’s.” “I got that free at Walgreen’s too.” “That was only 99 cents at Walgreens.” It became the running joke to me that if we used it and liked it, it obviously must have come from Walgreen’s. For free.
Holly explained to me how the Register Rewards work, and how through websites like Couponing101 and others, you can really learn to save big bucks at the grocery store and drug store. I made a habit of cutting coupons a couple of years ago, and I finally got tired of having too many Sunday newspapers to throw away, since all it did was just break even for the expense of the paper. But now I know that I did it all wrong. You can’t just cut a coupon and then take it in to the store for your discount. Oh noooooo. You cut the coupon, then hold on to it until the item goes on sale, then pair it with a store coupon, use it when they double it, and get the product for pennies on the dollar. And if you play it right at Walgreen’s, with the Register Rewards you can actually MAKE money instead of spending it. Imagine…making a round through the drug store, picking up a few things you need, checking out, and the clerk hands you your goods and some MONEY!?! It’s possible. Totally possible.
So, being the tightwad that I am, I decided I would be wrong to not at least give couponing one more decent effort. I started online. I read up at Couponing 101 to find out the whole scoop. I scouted and scraped and printed, printed, printed. We’re talking hours of hard labor to gather coupons online. On the way home from church today I stopped in to Walgreen’s for a sales paper (that you can also view online), and I stopped by United for a Sunday paper and a store flyer. When the machine gave one of my dollars back to me, I knew it was a sign that I would save lots of money today. I spent the ENTIRE afternoon cutting coupons, organizing them by product type, and scheming which store would be the most beneficial for claiming each bargain. I even hired some child labor to help with the process.
Finally, armed with my makeshift coupon notebook, the Walgreen store flyer, and VERY detailed lists of what to buy, in what order, and which coupon to use, I headed off to Walgreen’s to get started. I immediately found myself overwhelmed, as I realized that I had to juggle the notebook and piles of coupons to figure out EXACTLY which product, which quantity, and which flavor to buy. You can’t buy the wrong thing, or the coupon won’t work. It’s a good thing I did not take a child with me. I might have headed straight back through the door. I did, finally, find almost everything I planned to buy. I deliberated more than once over whether the cost with the coupons was more than it would cost paying retail at Wal-mart, and I did decide to leave some things on the shelf for that reason. Before I was done I hit the jackpot with the clearance gift bags. At $1 each, they were Dollar Tree prices with Hallmark cuteness. I had been meaning to stock up on gift bags anyway, so that was a perfect little surprise.
As I aimed my buggy for the register, undoubtedly filled with more goods than the Walgreens buggy manufacturer intended, a sense of dread immediately set in. I had read about how ladies get a bit nervous when they head into a store with an armload of coupons, and I thought they were pretty sissy about it. Why would you be ashamed of being a smart shopper? You walk out richer than anyone in there. But it happened. My heart started beating faster, my knees got a little wobbly, and I realized I had to face the dreaded Walgreen’s clerk with shaky hands and a toppling load of toilet paper. I started my transactions rolling with the first few items that earned Register Rewards. I had SO CAREFULLY planned what to buy with the best coupon and Register Reward combinations. The clerk ran the final total, I scanned my card, and as I signed on the dotted line, I saw my pile of coupons sitting there. Unused. What an idiot! Could this get any worse? I of course became more flustered and then had to sort through the coupons to see if there was any way to rectify my mistake with the next of the three transactions I had to run in order to effectively scam Walgreen’s.
There wasn’t. So I started loading up my goods on to the tiny little counter. Three 9-packs of Big Rolls of Quilted Northern ($2.99 each). Umpteen gift bags. Two Emergen-Cs (Buy 1 Get 1). A motherload of Huggies wipes (whose $2 coupon also made it home). Six padded mailers (that I wasted $6 on since my coupon got stuck in the folder pocket.) A $2.50-gallon of milk. The list goes on and on. The line behind me started to pile up, and I suddenly felt ashamed of myself and frustrated for the people behind me who all had the token 2 or 3 things people normally go to Walgreen’s for. This is NOT Wal-mart. You are not supPOSED to buy a whole buggy full here. You come in for the good deal they lure you for, buy two extra things that are ridiculously overpriced, and check out before you lose your whole paycheck. I could hear all these things fuming from the line behind me, even though none of them were spoken audibly. I would have been thinking the same thing. But I was already in too deep to turn away. I had to USE all those Register Reward coupons for which I bought stupid stuff to receive.
I quickly wrapped up my transaction with coupons, reward certificates, and receipts flying and flew to the car with my buggy, which, unfortunately isn’t made for groceries. They don’t mean for you to actually buy more than you can carry in a sack or two. When I got home, I was stressed, mad at myself, and wondering if I wasted money or saved money. But when I tallied up the total, I was quite pleased with how it came out. Despite missing FOURTEEN DOLLARS of the coupons I had clipped, I still saved over $58. I spent $92, so I counted that to be a pretty darn good coupon trip. Had I used the $14 in overlooked coupons, the totals would have been Savings: $72; Out of pocket: $78. That would definitely have sounded better. I can honestly say that everything I bought was something I would have used in the near future, with or without the coupons, or something I will substitute for something I would have used. Like some things are a slightly different brand, or a different quantity than I normally buy, but still relatively the same product. The only thing I bought that I never ever buy was Zantac. And it turned out to be free with the Register Rewards. The only reason I bought it was because I had a $1 off coupon, which would have actually given me a ONE DOLLAR OVERAGE. And then I forgot the coupon.
I still anticipate saving another $20 with the coupons I’ve clipped that I plan to use this week at my other two stops. So all in all, I think I turned out with a pretty good week of savings. The trouble is, I’ve already spent over SEVEN. HOURS. Yes, that’s right. Seven hours it took for me to do all that scouting and printing and organizing and whatnot. I calculated my wages down to an anticipated $11.31/hour saved/earned by couponing. Had I not forgotten that chunk of coupons, I would have made like, $13 an hour. Or something like that. I think with some practice and some experience, I could probably scootch that up to a decent amount of money I could save by couponing. That’s pretty good return on investment, really. However, if I had actually spent my couponing time on my current work list that is staring at me from the sticky pad next to me right now, I could have made a heckuva lot more money and had time left over to relax.
I’m not quite sure if couponing is worth my time. I’m not done with it altogether, though. If I can find some ways to trim down the time it takes to prep for the shopping trip, and if I can overcome the stress and aggravation and chaos that the couponing grocery trip creates, it might be worth a try. Given these economic times, it’s good to know that I can find a way to save literally hundreds of dollars a month if I put the effort into it. I’m sure there are a lot of ways I could be more organized and more intentional about saving money if I really put my heart and soul into it. The question is whether or not I want to!
