As the economy seems to keep throwing devastating punches to my finances, I’m left wondering what am I going to do. I am barely scraping by month to month, and I am in constant fear of losing my apartment, car and life as I know it. During spring, however, I picked up a job at a retail store and learned a few things on how to hold onto my much-needed cash. The answer was something I knew about all along, but was too ashamed to admit- COUPONS!
Growing up I used to dread when my father or mother would pull out the coupon saver wallet and meticulously go through every section to make sure they gave all the proper coupons for the items they were purchasing. I would look around at the people standing behind us as they rolled their eyes and made little huffing noises. I hated when my parents brought out the coupons.
Through my early twenties, though, I never worried about money. I had a great job and was bringing in more than enough money on a regular basis. I never thought about saving money nor did I worry about it. When I made the choice to go back to school, though, I gave up my full time job and decided to sacrifice my comfortable life for an education. Instead of being rewarding, it has put me in a state of perpetual worry.
So, for a person who isn’t the most financially savvy, and who is teetering on bankruptcy all the time, I needed a solution, and fast. The area I work in is mostly in an upper class neighborhood and the people who shop there have money to burn. A person might think people like that probably throw money around like it was nothing. On the contrary, they are sticklers with their cash. This is when I really learned about the power of coupons. I would say almost every customer that comes to my check out counter brings coupons.
I will never forget the day a woman bought about fifty dollars worth of items and only paid about thirty. She bought things that were on sale and coupled them with store coupons and manufacturer coupons, and some stores, like my store, have in house money. In house money is a coupon that prints out at that store and can only be used at that store. For example, if I shop at store x and buy twenty dollars worth of items, a coupon of say, five dollars off my next purchase, may print up. So next time I go to store x and I shop and say my items equal ten dollars I can us my store x bucks and only end up paying five dollars for a ten dollar purchase. The best thing about store bucks is that you can save them and use them together. So if I have two coupons of store bucks one is ten dollars and one is two dollars I can still use them on my next purchase!
I know it’s weird to get excited about all of this, but when you use your coupons and your store bucks, look at the bottom of your receipt, it has an area that tells you how much you saved on that purchase. At first, because you’re maybe new to this it might not seem like a lot. The first time I utilized my coupons and bucks I did it wrong and only saved two dollars and something cents, I know, not much. However, the next time I did it I was much more savvy and saved almost 15 dollars on a 30 dollar purchase. I am hoping to shoot for saving 20 dollars one of these days. Saving money is not only fun, but is rewarding especially for the struggling college student. And as far as those grumbling people in line, rolling their eyes as you get out your coupon saver book, who cares, they are not the ones paying your bills, so clip away.