Sunday, June 5, 2011

More reasons I hate couponing

I recently got back to couponing. I have had some success but have also been reminded of some of the reasons I got so frustrated that I quit couponing. Here are a couple of those reasons.

First, I would see advertised specials at Walgreens that combined with a coupon would be a great deal, maybe even free. Several times in a row I went into Walgreens for those items and they would be gone. I would try several Walgreens or visit the same Walgreens a couple times that week and still had no luck. That's annoying.

Second, are things like this...
I know I gave the cashier six coupons. I watched her scan each one. Sometimes at Target a coupon is scanned and the cashier has to press a button before it works. It also seems like sometimes the screen shows $0.00 but the discount shows on the receipt. (Maybe that is what happened and it shouldn't have, I don't know.)

I checked the receipt when I got to the van and saw that only five coupons were applied. I chose to buy some of the items only because of the combined sale, Target coupon, & manufacturer coupon savings. Some of the coupon savings are listed by the item, some are listed at the bottom. This means you can't tell which items some of the coupons applied to.

I could have gone back in to the customer service desk (and I thought about it.) I figured what they would do is go to the register I was at and either close it down or make people wait. They would have checked the coupons and saw that there was one I did not get credit for. We would then have had to go back to the customer service desk where they would have given me the value of the coupon. It was either $.75 or $1.00. That would have taken a long time. My time is more valuable than that. Let's say it would have taken ten minutes (and I think that is a minimum, I really think it would have taken much longer.) I'm going to spend ten minutes trying to get $.75 or $1.00? No, I don't think so. I decided not to go back in. The entire thing made me frustrated, though.

This leads to my last reason for thing couponing....

I'm not very good at it.

I have read a lot on blogs and in magazines and books about couponing but there are just some things I have had to learn on my own.

In general, I do not enjoy doing things I am not good at. Actually, I tend to avoid them. I am determined to get better at this, though. So, I'm working on it. (I'm planning on writing a post about my improved coupon binder this week.)

2 comments:

  1. I sometimes hate couponing too, but when the deals work it's worth it. Walgreens can be especially frustrating because they are often out of things. And I can't usually get the good Target deals because mine has higher prioes that what's usually outlined on blogs.
    I'd like to see your binder. I recently switched from a coupon box to a binder, and find that I like the binder better.

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  2. Just wanted to let you know that my target messes up my coupons almost every time. I hold onto the receipt for a few weeks because inevitably there's another one they messed up in the meantime. I just circle the receipt where I think the problem was - even if I have no clue I just make my best guess - and take them to customer service BEFORE I shop the next time. Kids aren't cranky yet and I don't have perishables in bags. They have ALWAYS given me cash back without hesitation. They even have a code on their return register that is for "missed coupon".

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