Something Many things for nothing -- Part Three

(If you haven't read them yet, you can catch up here on Part One and Part Two!)


Now begs the question:

"Why on earth would you buy something you won't use? That seems like a complete waste of money to me."

It really does--on the surface. It did to me, too, until I began to change the way I think about how I shop. But here is what I have learned: in many cases, by matching store sales with coupons and 'bucks back' programs, I am saving more money by buying more items. The glucose meter was a money maker for me, so it made sense to take advantage of that deal.

Once.

I am a strong component of Ethical Couponing, so I would not try to do this particular deal more than that. Most other deals I would consider doing only two or at most three times. Doing deals over and over (and subsequently clearing out the store shelves of certain products) means you are keeping other people from getting in on the savings, and I think that is unfair and unfortunate for others! In one area of the country, a person bought over 800 bottles of detergent with copied** coupons-- this is abuse, no question about it!!

(**Not to mention illegal! Coupons state right on the front--VOID if copied.)

But, occasionally buying things I may not/do not need to earn 'bucks' to buy stuff I do use only makes good sense--and it has given me the ability to do something I have rarely done for others:

Donate.

The items in the above picture are all items I took to church last Sunday morning and donated to our Missionary Apartment and Missions closet. I have gotten each item above for completely free--and some of them have been money makers!

• The Bayer? On sale for $1. I had a $1 off Bayer coupon. FREE.
• Always? Carefree? Same as above. FREE.
  
• Colgate? On sale for $3 with a $3 bucks back. I paid with bucks I had already earned, then got the exact same amount back. FREE.
• The Dial body wash and the Reach floss? Same as above. Bucks back equal to what I paid for them. FREE.

And we already know about that Bayer Meter. A $5 money maker. More than FREE. (And, incidentally, that meter never even made it to the Missions closet. A lady standing near me at church overheard that I was donating it. She said that she uses those meters and was in need of a new one....and I promptly handed it over! She was thrilled. Now that was fun.)

As silly as it may sound, this couponing thing is a gift from God to our family. After only a few weeks, my shelves are no longer 'barely stocked' with generic products--they are filled to the brim with the good stuff. It has cost me very little. And, I am able to share, donate, and help others.

All around, it is simply awesome.

My intention with these last couple of posts has been to inform others (who may not otherwise be aware) of this great new thing that I have found. I know the coupon thing is not for everyone (it wasn't for me, for a long time....) so you probably won't see too much more of it here on my blog. {Unless you want to--and in that case, please make sure to let me know that, and I'd love to share a picture of my weekly CVS runs! :)}

I don't want to bore those who don't care to hear about this kind of thing; rather, to share with you about this great new money-saving venture I have embarked on, and a bit of how I am doing it. I hope I've accomplished what I set out to do, but in closing, I want to ask:

Is there anything else you would like to know about this idea of couponing? I'll open it up in the comments section for questions, and, if need be, I'll do one more short post answering them.

Hope you enjoyed this short series....until next time: happy money-saving!