Sales Vs. Sales With Coupons: Is It Always Worth Using Coupons?

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Do you use coupons every time you shop? Do you sometimes feel incredibly overwhelmed at times with all that goes into saving with coupons? If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m all about giving yourself some grace even when couponing, and have had to be content with saving as much as I can (easily) during an incredibly busy-stressful-I-don’t-know-how-to-keep-up-every-day season in my life. (I’ll explain lots more once our move is finally all done, but just know it’s been a bigger adjustment than I anticipated!)

Because I normally do use quite a few coupons, it’s rare for me to shop without any extra savings. This week though I made my normal Publix trip and didn’t have most of the coupons that I needed, so to make life easier I decided only to use my $5/$50 Star Market coupon (a local competitor here in North Alabama.) I really (really!) don’t enjoy shopping without coupons, but there was just no way to get the coupons I needed, so I decided to shop anyway. There were a few good sales on items we needed, so I still wanted to stock up!

Just for fun, I thought I’d compare what my cost would have been using only sales vs. using sales AND coupons. Here’s a breakdown:

Don’t judge my Cadbury Egg purchases. They only come out once a year. I have to stockpile. 😉

Bought 1 SuperPretzel BOGO $3.19
Bought 1 Aunt Jemima Waffles BOGO $2.25
Bought 1 Spring Mix Salad Blend $4.99 (I bought this brand last week and loved it for salads – since I eat them most days for lunch it’s worth $5 to me!)
Bought 4 packages of Cadbury Cream Eggs 50% off $1.65 each
Bought 3 Peter Pan Peanut Butter BOGO $3.09
Bought 1 Mueller Pasta BOGO $1.69
Bought 4 pounds Royal Gala Apples $1.49/lb. $5.27 total
Bought 2 Del Monte Fruit $2
Bought 1 Oscar Mayer Turkey BOGO $5.29
Bought 2 Sunshine Cheezits BOGO $3.39
Bought 6 Quaker Dips BOGO $2.34
Bought Large Fruit Salad BOGO $10.57 (my kids were so excited – they love that stuff!)
Bought 3 Musselmann Apple Sauce BOGO $2.29
Bought 2 Nabisco Snack Packs BOGO $6.49
Used $5/$50 coupon
Paid $52.33 out of pocket, saved $44.91

If I’d used coupons, here are the additional savings I would have had:

(1) $0.50/1 Superpretzel Soft Pretzel – 4-13-14 RP – (exp. 05/25/14)
(3) $0.50/1 Peter Pan Peanut Butter, exp. 6/30/14 (Conagra and P&G Help End Child Hunger Booklet – has anyone seen this?)
(1) $0.75/1 Mueller’s Pot Sized Pasta or $0.75/1 Mueller’s Pot Sized Pasta – 4-6-14 SS – (exp. 06/05/14) (I couldn’t get mine to print?)
(3) $1.00/1 Quaker Big and Chewy Bars (1) box or (2) Bars – 3-23-14 RP – (exp. 05/03/14)
(1) $0.75/1 Keebler Cookies or Crackers, 6.6 oz or Larger; Redeem for 500 Points – KelloggsFamilyRewards.com – $1.50/1 Keebler Cookie or Cracker, 6.6 oz or Larger; Redeem For 1000 Points – KelloggsFamilyRewards.com – $1.50/1 Keebler Cookies or Crackers, 6.6 oz or Larger; Redeem for 1000 Points – KelloggsFamilyRewards.com– $1.00/2 Keebler Crackers, 8 oz or Larger – 4-13-14 RP – (exp. 06/08/14)

My additional savings would have totaled $9.25, and for me (at least during this season of my life!), I didn’t have time to hunt those extra coupons down. While I love getting a deal, I know that there are just limits on how much time I have to manage everything, and for me, I was content to get the really good deals this week without worrying over coupons. There are definitely times in our lives when due to our finances we need to work diligently to get all the savings we can, but there are times when we also need to be realistic with just how much effort we can put into saving.

And really, saving 47% for absolutely no energy ahead of time is not too bad, right? 😉 If you’re at a place in your life where realistically you can’t always extreme coupon, I encourage you to really (really!) shop the sales ad, use all the printable coupons you can, and then, Let. It. Go.

Got it? There you go, that’s your grace for the day. ;)

Okay, so what do you think? Is it worth shopping only with a jillion coupons, or have you found ways to save just by shopping the sale ad? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment to chime in!

Please know: if you NEED to use coupons to stretch your family’s budget and more easily make ends meet, then I encourage you to ~~suck it up~~ get over it and start clipping. (Eek!) We’ve ALL been there in some way at one point or another. (Promise.)

If you’ve been in a rut, and just don’t want to do it any longer (but need to use coupons for your family. . . ) there’s no way to make it work except to jump in and do it. If you’re discouraged by the lack of rock bottom prices due to increased coupon usage, remember that while your savings may not be what they once were, there are still some pretty amazing deals to be had . . . so keep it up and I promise, you really can save big!