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COUPONS AREN’T FOR SISSIES
Coupon Your Way To A Richer Life
Does the thought of using coupons make your feel like a pauper? Do you think those who use coupons are penny-wise and dollar foolish? Do you think coupons make you look cheap, petty or simply silly? Are coupons for wimps? If you answered yes, yes, yes and yes, shame on you! You’ve got a lot to learn. Coupons are for smart people who want to be wealthier than they already are. They’re for those courageous enough to fear not what others might think of them. They’re for those with enough moxie to step up and say ‘you offered it, now honor it’. Coupons are for those who literally want to save themselves into a small fortune. To illustrate: Let’s assume that a couple goes out to eat just three times per week and that they spend just $10 apiece for the food portion of their bill. That’s pretty reasonable. Many spend much more and eat out more often. Now if you get in the habit of using the typical two for the price of one coupon, you’ll save $10 plus tax and tip or about $13 per meal. That may not sound like much but it adds up to $39 per week, $2,028 per year, $20,280 in ten years or $40,560 over the course of 20 years, without compounded interest. If you add on only 5% interest compounded annually over 20 years you can roughly add on another 50%. That’s without even trying to get a good yield. The example given is on the low end. If you eat out more extravagantly, more often and include drinks in your dining experience, you could easily double, triple or quadruple the above number. Couple that with higher rates historically available on other investments and the return on your savings invested becomes staggering. You could be looking at a number closer to $200,000 to $300,000. And this is only one area of your expenditures. Just this item alone is enough to make the difference between someone who has a substantial investment portfolio and someone who has a beer can collection. Add on groceries, clothing,
equipment, vehicles, repairs, hardware and everything else in between and
you’re talking about a pretty impressive sum of money. It’s enough to
make the difference between being rich or being poor on the exact same income.
Do you still think coupons are wimpy? What
Kind of Coupons Are We Talking About? There are coupons for almost everything. Dining, food, toiletries, dry cleaning, car washes, new cars, appliances, entertainment venues, airline tickets, hotels, car repairs, gasoline, vitamins, exercise clubs, cosmetics, luggage, electronics, photography, hardware, software, pet products, flowers, doctors, dentists, and counselors. Coupons are even offered for massages. Massages? When that gets competitive enough to start offering incentives, look over your shoulder for the vice squad. There’s probably a guy at the next table with a badge pinned to his short shorts being kneaded and pleasured at the taxpayer’s expense. (Where do yah get a job like that anyway? There has got to be a huge waiting list kept in a secret bunker somewhere.) Somebody is offering coupons for nearly everything. If it is a product or service in an area that is even slightly competitive, a discount is being offered. You just have to be alert enough to recognize those that are sufficiently beneficial. They’ll show up in your mailbox, local newspaper, coupon books and all over the Internet. There are even hidden coupons. For example, you can sign up your credit cards with dining programs tied into airline frequent flyer programs. For each dollar you spend on a registered credit card you will receive anywhere from three to fifteen points on the airlines free travel programs, entitling you to free flights. The great part of these programs is their invisibility. You can couple them with several other promotions offered by a restaurant without their knowledge, thereby doubling and maybe even tripling up on your discount. Of course, if you’re aggressive enough, you’ll proactively attract coupons and discounts to you. You’ll search the Internet, buy numerous newspapers and coupon books and sign up for all sorts of promotions that put you on lists to receive incentive offers. You’ll figuratively paint the word ‘s-u-c-k-e-r’ on your forehead, big and bold, just to attract the vultures to you. Then you’ll reel them in just to take advantage of their less than market offers. The methods are easy enough to figure out once you delve into the process. You just have to be sold on the value of ‘couponing’ and the rest will work itself out if you have any common sense at all. Greedy
Gets It As with any other type of discount buying, you have to buy smaller everyday items in quantity to make the whole process worthwhile. You have to buy with both hands and both feet. It’s not the time to be shy if you want to make this couponing game pay off. You have to make it worth your while. Learn the rules. Buy as many deeply discount items as you can with your allotted coupons. Then, if possible, go to another store in the same chain and repeat the process. Have some fun and count up the savings as you go along. With groceries, in particular, look for double and triple coupon offerings. These can result in such dramatic savings that many items become free. When you discount a product and then triple the coupon, the reduction can easily exceed the value. Manufactures, wholesalers and retailers all anticipate that you’ll see an advertised discount product and rush out to buy it. They expect you to buy in relatively small quantities, while buying much larger quantities of regularly higher priced items. Disappoint them. Buy only the discounted items in mass. Don’t get ‘hung up’ on the concept of ‘coupons’. It is a relative term. Know your values and look for good prices, regardless of further coupon incentives. A good value is a good value. Most of the time a coupon can bring you a good deal. Other times you can buy an alternative product or service for less without a coupon. Even if a coupon is not being offered, if an item is 50% or more off of its’ normal price and you typically use it, buy it, and buy it in as large a quantity as you can afford to spend and store. If you’re going to use it anyway, why not use it at half off of its’ usual price.
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