3 Ways Couponing Can Raise Your Expenses

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3 Ways Couponing Can Raise Your Expenses

Why do you use coupons?

To save money, right?

Did you know that coupons can (sometimes!) cost you more than they can save you?

When you’re couponing it can be easy to get caught up in the game, but if you’re not careful, you can spend more than you intend to and not even realize it. It’s not that coupons aren’t a great way to save money because they are. It’s more that they can become a huge waste and often, that huge waste goes unnoticed in the day to day humdrum of life.

Not sure how?

Let’s take a look at 3 ways couponing may raise your expenses.

1.When You’re Buying Items You Don’t Actually Need

It is incredibly easy to allow yourself to buy something simply because you have a coupon and it’s on sale. Unfortunately, this is a great way to waste money as well.

If you’re buying things only because you have a coupon and not because you have a true need for it, you need to ask yourself if it is a product that your family will actually use or if it will simply end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust. When those items do more than collect dust or expire, you’ve wasted the money you spent on it. It doesn’t matter if you only spent $0.25 on it, eventually that $0.25 adds up to a significant amount of money added onto your grocery budget.

Instead, make sure that every item on your shopping list is an item that you truly need. By doing so you won’t be wasting valuable money from your grocery budget.

(However, if that 25¢ item can be donated to someone who CAN use it, by all means, go for it!)

2. When You’re Buying More Items Than You Can Reasonably Use

Buying your groceries in bulk can be a fantastic way to save money on groceries, but buying in bulk can also cause you to spend more. It doesn’t matter if you’re buying a huge container of ketchup or 25 smaller bottles of mustard, when you’re buying more than the average bottle size or number of an item, it’s bulk.

If when you buy in bulk, you purchase more than you can reasonably use before the item spoils, you’re wasting money. This money can show in your grocery budget, your gasoline costs (since you’re transporting more products), and possibly even in your household expenses.

When you buy more than you need of an item, you have to have a place to store them. This might mean that you’re being forced to live in a bigger home, have to buy a storage shed or even both. Those expenses can be quite hefty and will make their way through your family budget as a whole.

To prevent that from happening, be sure that you’re only purchasing the things you need in reasonable amounts that can be used by your family before they expire. Keeping the number of items to a reasonable amount will help prevent storage issues that could be extremely costly.

3. When You’re Printing Coupons That You Don’t Actually Use

Ask just about any couponer and they’ll tell you that they print coupons but when you’re printing coupons for items you won’t use or are not using those coupons before they expire, you’re wasting money and causing your expenses to go up. Not only will you cause your ink expenses to rise, but you’ll wear your printer out quicker and you’ll use more electric than you should be.

On top of that, if you’re printing coupons close to their expiration date, you’ll very likely use more gasoline on that last minute (and often unplanned) trip to the grocery store to use them before they reach their expiration date.

Instead, make sure that you’re only printing coupons that you absolutely know you will be able to use before they expire.

Couponing at its core is a great way to save, but when you use those coupons, make sure that you’re keeping a keen eye on things. If you don’t, you risk spending more than you intend to without even realizing it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one ~ leave a comment to share!