[coupons] A thread for LordMortis and me

[Kraken]

Why coupons are harder to find than ever

I know that LM's, and my, most avid couponing days are behind us, but I still use both print and digital grocery coupons every week. As my Depression-era parents showed me, habits borne of poverty die hard, and I've been poor enough for coupons to look like real money.

I can confirm the article's premise. I used to save a handsome $5+ per trip. In my couponing heyday I could save 10% or more. Now it's only a buck or two, which is hardly worth the bother.

One thing they don't mention are store-printed manufacturer's checkout coupons. I redeem those more often than average.

[dbt1949]

I get most of my groceries now a days thru home delivery. When I look online at my bill there's always a few cents discount on just about everything. I never noticed that on my in store shopping.

[LordMortis]

I don't have a printer access anymore and I don't get fliers so I'm mostly a sale and digital savings shopper now. Maybe I need to change that again. My grocery bills, even being a sale shopper, are beginning to get a bit much. I'd say my monthly grocery bill has easily topped $300 and does not look to be slowing soon. It wasn't but two years ago, I was feeding myself on less than $5 a day.

[ImLawBoy]

I clip coupons in the Sunday newspaper every week (when they have them). I also use the register printout coupons. The grocery store I primarily shop at also mails me coupons probably once a month or so based on what I've been purchasing, and it always includes a "$20 off for our best customer!" coupon. I have a coupon organizer I take with me to the grocery store organized by category, although I usually pre-select those coupons I'm planning on using that day and have them at the front of the organizer. I need to get better about using digital coupons, though.

[LawBeefaroni]

Paper coupons are rarer because the stores want you on their apps/loyalty programs. If you're willing to give them your data you can get a lot of coupons and discounts.

Likewise with manufacturer coupons, they want you to register or whatever interaction gets them more data.

It's not enough to steer you to their store/product anymore.

[LordMortis]

Paper coupons are rarer because the stores want you on their apps/loyalty programs. If you're willing to give them your data you can get a lot of coupons and discounts.

Likewise with manufacturer coupons, they want you to register or whatever interaction gets them more data.

It's not enough to steer you to their store/product anymore.

Yeah, and they get selective in their discounting, catered to you. They post discounts to get you to buy something. And then either those discounts go away or they get reduced in the future. This was not the case for paper clipped coupons. When I get a printer, I'm likely to start downloading and printing coupons again. It was much nicer before FB and Cambridge type analytics took over and you could stack coupons with digital savings and coupons were freely available. There was a time before inflation and analytics where I could get free stuff every week, discounts on my entire cart, and do all kinds of discount stacking. I don't blame that for going away. As late as the late aughts I could get a large grocery cart of food for around $30 with pretty much every thing but produce and butcher (non processed) meat. Produce was cheap then as well. I just didn't buy much because it would go bad before I ate it and I hate to waste.

Lately, the only heavy discounting I've seen is the Kroger weekly 5x digital coupons. Usually mostly for dairy. Thing like picking up up to 5 1/2 gallons of milk for $1.27. Of course the idea that $2.54 for a gallon of milk is inexpensive is still a new reality for me that my old man genes is having a hard time adapting to. In my mind, groceries should still be about $50 a week and yet I can't walk out of a place like Costco for less than $100 and I most definitely. do not get two weeks of meal in their entirety. It seems like I should let my Costco membership lapse. $5 chicken and $1.50 dog and pop seems like the only real bargain any more. So what is my $70 a year going to? Maybe to just having stuff reliably in stock? Only they haven't had my coffee for a few months.

[em2nought]

Something that within the last year finally occurred to me is that I carry a device with me that will allow me to read the fine print(expiration date) on coupons - MY PHONE. Just view the coupon under 2X in the camera and viola.