Why Refusing Coupons is Costing You More Than You Think

People love to complain how expensive everything is, and for good reason. Cost of living is higher than ever thanks to inflation. Yet when discussing coupons people tend to look down on coupons almost with disgust. They are annoying and you always don't have them when you need them. They are awkward and they do  make you feel poor.  Plus there is fine print and expiry dates which are annoying to remember. They are a pain. 

Disgust of Coupons

Nate Bargatze does a bit about coupons and how his wife forces him to use coupons and it makes him feel so awful he would rather pay more for the item then use a coupon. It's an understandable sentiment. People will literally complain about the cost of living and how poor they are, while refusing to use coupons. It's like complaining about having back pain while sleeping on a bed of rocks. You could have cheaper prices by up to 40% with a little bit of effort. Luckily we live in the digital age which removes around 95% of the pain, effort and awkwardness that come along with physical coupons. 

Smart Phones

With the smartphone revolution everyone has a blazing fast computer on them at all times. Every store you visit has an app which is really annoying, but it has its benefits. They badly want you to use their app and stay connected with their brand, so many have dedicated coupon or discount pages on their apps. Thus eliminating so many pains:

• Collecting and storing coupons
• Awkward interaction with a staff member when you hand them a coupon (coupon is applied digitally)
• Forgetting coupons at home or in your car (every digital coupon is within your hands 24/7)
• Fine print and expiry dates (the coupons disappear when they expire and if you aren't allowed to do something the app will stop you) 

Fine Print

My favorite thing about digital apps is sometimes they forget to program the fine print into the apps, like not combining two discounts together. UberEATS would send me coupons for 90% which is insanely good on its own, but then I would combine it with buy one get one, then I would do pick up versus delivery to save on delivery and service fees. By the end of it, I would get $30 worth of food for around $10 (because the food is so heavily marked up). Over time they eventually programmed that you cannot pick up with a coupon or combine it with other discounts. Luckily with digital apps you don't have to worry about the fine print because if it doesn't load then it won't work. No awkward, "Oh that is only available on Mondays, after 4pm, with a purchase of a drink, and if your name is John". Digital coupons are great because you can normally load it and purchase it all through your phone with zero human contact. 

Free Offerings

Apps even have completely free offerings that load directly into your app with no hoops to jump through. If a business app is relaunching or just starting they will often have a completely free offering just to get users to download their app. Wendy had a Dave's single for free with no purchase necessary. Crumbl gives out a free cookie on your birthday and Starbucks gives out a free drink. I did a whole blog post on this already, you can check it out here.

Saving on Eating out  

Eating out can easily cost over $10 per person, but with digital coupons you can cut your costs almost in half. It depends on the restaurant and type of meal, but if you are not using a digital coupon everywhere you eat you are leaving money on the table, not to mention loyalty points. Classic fast food like Wendy's and McDonalds will normally have a decent coupon like $3 or $4 big mac or $1 large fry's. If buying the large fries, just combine it with a JBC (Junior Bacon Cheeseburger) and boom you got a meal for under $5. Big mac is filling enough on its own or you can get side fries for around $6. 

Paying $6 vs $10 may not seem like a lot of savings, but over the course of a year it adds up. You can essentially look at it in terms of eating out. Would you rather use coupons and eat out twice as much or not use coupons and get half the food. With coupons you can literally buy more with your money. That's how money works (its amazing how many people don't know this). 

With higher class fast food like Edo, OPA! and Chipotle the coupons won't be as good, but free (or discounted food) is still always welcome. Many companies will have 1 good coupon and the rest will be shockingly bad, but if you have a friend or spouse you can simply just order the good coupon twice using two phones. 

Loyalty Points    

If you are going to collect loyalty points which you 100% should, it's best to try and do all your ordering on one phone if you have a partner. Loyalty points are supposed to build loyalty to a single brand and they do this by making your points expire after a few months building a sense of urgency. Splitting the points between two users just means you are twice as likely to see them expire before you use them. You could spend $20 just to save $4 so it's really wise to understand what loyalty points are and what they are trying to accomplish. If you don't want pizza don't spend $20 just to use up your points before they expire. It's okay to lose points, they were free in the first place, even though they are technically baked into the price. Meaning if you are not capitalizing on loyalty points you are essentially just paying high prices for fun. Always collect them, but try not to think about them or get sucked into their ecosystem. If you want sushi but you have pizza points expiring, order the sushi, don't keep ordering pizza over and over again. If you really love just one restaurant and type of food, well you are going to have a great time with the loyalty points.    

Life is more expensive than ever before, refusing to use coupons is like fighting with one hand tied behind your back. It's a tool in our arsenal to fight higher prices and inflation. With digital coupons available on smartphones, it is more convenient than ever to save money. There is no sense in recoiling to coupons like you are allergic. People won't look down upon you. They will just think that you have a budget and don't have unlimited money. It would be great to never think about the cost of purchases, but we live in a capitalist society so everyone wants your money so it's important to capitalize on cheaper prices and deals. 

If you found this helpful and would like help budgeting or investing please email me at taylormckeecoaching@gmail.com