Friday, June 17, 2011

Couponing 101: Is Couponing Bad for the Economy?


Many think with using so many coupons, that it has to be hurting someone right? Your getting all this free stuff, it cant be good on every end can it? Well the good news is, it is. At least in our opinion it is. 

YOU!
Your saving money for your family by being the fugal shopper you are. When buying with a coupon matched with on sale items, your saving more then cents on the dollar, you can save so much more than that now when couponing is done right! And who doesn't like free stuff?

Newspapers
Where do you get your coupons? NEWSPAPERS! Newspaper companies have seen a decrease in sales during recent years as more information becomes available online. Who subscribes/buys newspapers on a daily basis? Couponers! (Yeah, other people do, but I am positive since TLC's Extreme Couponing debute, newspaper sales have gone up!) That is bringing in more money and keeping our newspaper companies in business! 

Stores
Where do you shop at? Grocery stores and drug stores are making money off your coupons. If you look at a coupon, it says 'Manufacture will reimurse store for face value of coupon + .8 cent handling fee'. When you get items for free or nearly so, its because a coupon matches up with a sale/doubler/store coupon. Stores are not losing as much money as they are taking in by accepting your coupons. Many of us couponers have our favorite stores we think we get the best deals at right? Well guess what? When that Safeway/Albertsons/Kroger store you go to advertises doubles/sales/store coupons and you go there on a regular basis because of this, their advertising worked! You have become a regular shopper. So lets recap. Stores get reimbursed, and with their marketing ploys, you've become a regular shopper. Its a win-win situation. 

Manufactures
Whos items are you buying? For every coupon the manufacture puts out, they are prepared to take that loss within reason. If they werent, they would not be offering the coupon! Producing coupons is a marketing tool, and it works! Your buying their product arent you?

Economy
Couponing is good for the economy because of above reasons. You are buying more product (whether or not you really spend more yourself) so more money is being traded to pay for those products. On average before couponing you would only buy $300 worth of product a month. Now that your couponing, you can buy $800 worth of product a month and your still only paying $300 (or maybe even less). The rest of the cost does get paid for in full to someone, which equals to more spending! As an example our family spends around $300 a month on groceries and now we spend less then fifty with about another ten in health products.

Government
We all know the government is in debt, and yet we still hand out billions of dollars in food stamps for low income families. Not that its a bad thing, its a great thing our country continues to help people who need help! A family of 2 or 3 can sustain themselves on $200-$300 out of pocket cost for food AND health and beauty products in a month when using coupons. Without coupons? It would cost so much more! My family of 3, before using coupons, was spending up to $400 on food and health and beauty products. After coupons, my average monthly spending is about $200. So say I was getting $200 in food stamps? Well with my using coupons, I no longer need food stamps, saving the government money! And with stocking up I spend less then $60 a month on everything.

Couponing is a win-win situation! Its good for consumers, newspaper companies, stores, manufactures, the economy AND the government! So next time someone tries to tell them you are doing something bad, when you are infact using coupons the 'legal' way, send them here to educate themselves!