Coupon Questions About This Page:

[Teresa]

A few of them, actually.

Do you use coupons? We do - for everything we can use them for. We usually won't go out to dinner unless we have a coupon!

Who's the coupon person in your house? - DH is here, but I think he's about ready to be dethroned - reason why in next question's answer.

If you use them, how do you sort them? - DH keeps all of the dinner/play coupons in an envelope and just riffles through it when we're going out. The grocery ones are the ones that irritate me and may lead to a coupon coup! He sorts them by DATE only!
There are hundreds of coupons in a pocket of a flexible folder thingy for each month. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it. I just sorted through them, after making a list of what we need. There were dog food ones, followed by cheese, then maybe feminine products, then maybe juice, etc. And I found a coupon for Egg Nog in the Feb. pocket because that's when it expires!! Like that's when we'll use it!!

Last ? : Do you shop based on coupons, or coupon based on needs? DH tends to just sort the coupons out, picking whatever he thinks sounds good, and then shops exclusively from those. Sometimes he'll come home with tons of meat, a dozen boxes of cereal, bags and bags of snack food, and no veggies!! (we shop for a month at a time, and then do milk/egg/emergency runs to the grocery as needed)

[Colexis Mom]

I use them and am the keeper. For the food store, they are arranged by aisle at the store. I usually use them when I need something, or it's additionally on sale at the store. As for restaurant ones and others, I usually keep them in my pocketbook.

[lazanya]

DH is the coupon king. He uses them for groceries and dining out. He sorts the coupons by item type & expiration date in an file folder organizer. We shop coupon based on needs mostly.

[Cam22]

I use as many coupons as possible and I am the keeper of them. I have a small accordion folder for grocery/Target type coupons arranged by store aisles and sorted within each pocket by item and date of expiration. For dining coupons, I have a small pouch that I carry in my purse.

[chezp]

I don't use that many, but I'm the keeper of any we do use.

[Belle*]

We use them primarily for dining out. They are clipped together with a magnet on the fridge. We also use some for groceries but mainoly the kind you get with your receipt. We used to clip coupons but we eventually began to feel like the time we took, the cost of the newspaper and the new items we were likely to buy offset any actual savings. So we cancelled the paper and read it online! This gives us more family time on Sunday morning and DH is usually at the grocery store earlier that morning.

[stretch2864]

I have an Entertainment book and use those coupons for things like restaurants, oil changes, haircuts and car washes. Otherwise I personally find that clipping and sorting coupons is not a good use of my time. Many of the coupons that were in the paper (back when I got the newspaper) were for brand name items or for things that I might not ordinarily use. I find that we save much more money by buying groceries at Super Target where their regular prices are lower (especially on store brands) than what I might spend even with a coupon. We also shop ALDI where food prices are considerably lower as well as sales at our neighborhood grocery store.

[Caldercup]

I have pictures of my very beleaguered coupon box over at my blog: $aving$ » The Sublurbs

I'm definitely the grocery store coupon-keeper. I have things organized into broad categories, which makes it easy to sort the ones I clip when I have my coffee on Saturday mornings. At the store, it makes it easy to find what I want quickly. I throw any expired coupons in the back section of the box and clear it out when it gets full.

I keep the restaurant/store coupons in a section in the front of the box, and I keep the box in my car except for Saturday mornings, when it comes to the kitchen.

For the entertainment book coupons, those I keep in my junk drawer (clipped together) and we grab them as needed. My hubby keeps a few of the movie ticket coupons in his wallet/car.

I'm just surprised that, during the economic downturn, many manufacturers actually slashed the number of coupons they gave out. I realize they want to save money, but they'd actually have more of a chance of capturing a new customer (like me) if they offered coupons for their products.

[Lemap760]

I use them sometimes. I won't buy an item just because I have a coupon. I also won't use coupons where I have to buy 2 or 3 of something just to save a few cents. I like the coupons that print out with your receipt at the store. At least they are for items that I buy anyway.

[JoanneS]

I'm the keeper of the coupons. The grocery coupons are sorted by category. Anything else, goes into a small bag that's in my purse. I think just about all my daughter's underwear came from free coupons from Victoria's Secret! I have no shame when walking in and picking up just the fee item for which I have a coupon!
We don't really eat out very much so I can't say that I've ever used a restaurant coupon. And I only buy what we need, so if I see a coupon for something we don't use/need, I don't bother to clip it.

[Muffinator]

I use coupons if it's for something I buy. I collect the ones I regularly use (like kitty litter!). I very rarely use the coupons for two or more items because it's just me and it ends up being a waste. I also very rarely buy name brands, even with coupons most of the store brands end up being less costly. I organize my coupons alphabetically and clip them to my shopping list. Mostly I print them off coupons.com.

[jbd]

We don't usually do grocery store coupons. I find that there are rarely coupons for items/brands that we actually use. To use a coupon would have us buying something that we wouldn't normally buy. We do, however, use the coupons from BJs. Every couple of weeks my husband will do "a BJ's run." He'll flip through the coupon book that comes in the mail and usually there are coupons for items we buy a lot of--juice boxes, yogurt, fruit snacks, etc. He's definitely the keeper of the coupons.