Store Rewards Cards

Ok, this one isn't about a daily deal, but I'm still talking about saving money. Generally, I am not a fan of “extreme couponing.” My experience with coupons tends to be that they are primarily for products I don’t want, don’t use, would never consider buying without the coupon, and often cost more, even without the coupon, than the product I would have purchased otherwise. So, the thought of spending hours looking for coupons to double and triple and put together and end up taking my grocery bill from $100 to $3.50 doesn’t really appeal to me - because I value my time, and I’m not terribly excited by the idea of winding up with a lot of food that I don’t actually want to eat.

Coupon sites such as Coupon Mom are pretty big these days. Before heading to the store, I took 10 minutes with my shopping list to see what I could do to save a bit. Many of the coupons were for things like Celine Dion fragrances, which I simply have no interest in owning, or using, at any price. Some required me to shop at specific stores - if I can save $5 shopping at Wal-Mart, but it takes me half an hour each way to get there, and costs me $4 in gas, plus $2 in tolls to get there - I didn’t save any money. I actually lost money, plus the time I wasted. Many of them are for products I can’t possibly use, because I don’t have kids/pets/allergies/heartburn, etc. Some of the coupons require me to sign up for email lists, which I’d rather not do. I do appreciate that I can save $1 on contact lens solution, but I still have a five month supply, so I don’t see a lot of benefit to buying it now (especially since I live in a small walk-up apartment, and my parking space is not nearby. I don’t need to load up on stuff I can’t use now). If those sites are for you, more power to you. They don’t work for me. I didn’t end up printing any coupons. (Which is probably good because, seriously, when you factor in the cost of ink and paper, I really don't think I save anything.)

With that said, I am a big fan of store cards that give you discounts. I know, I know, the store could make everything cheaper - they won’t. I know that you can just use the courtesy cards that most of these stores now make available. But I don’t, because you get better deals if you have your own account. I do realize that some people are really concerned that the store will track your spending habits to implant aliens in their brains and force them to wear high waters, dye their hair pick, or otherwise follow their whereabouts at all times. I pity the person who has nothing better to do than follow me around. I admit, though, that companies do track your spending habits and keep that information for future use. Just ask the father who found out through a set of Target coupons that his teenaged daughter was pregnant. (Oops!)

I’m just not convinced that this type of data mining is all bad. A few months ago, I received a page of nine coupons from the local grocery store. Six of them were from items that I purchase every single time I go shopping (three, I didn’t use). After futilely searching for coupons that were relevant to me online, I went to the store. Using the handheld scanners that accept your card number in advance, I went around the store making my purchases. I also have coupons printed for me based on prior purchases. The end result is that I saved $17.86 on stuff that I was planning to buy, anyway. To me, that’s a much better deal than saving $5 by purchasing 11 jars of applesauce. If the trade-off is that some executive out there (or, more likely, someone at a much lower level) knows that I will always buy Garelick Half & Half instead of the Stop ‘N Shop brand when I have a coupon, well, I think I can live with that.