I am super proud of my husband, who - after some initial resistance about his having to participate in my crazy scheme - has really jumped into the game of living off coupons feet first. He actually is responsible for locating the newest resource: CouponClipper.com
This website is fantastic. You type in what you're looking for (i.e. "restaurants," "gifts," "services") and your zip code, and it pops up a list of available coupons near you. The hubby says it's related to the "Coupon Clipper" magazines which I had not heard of, but which some of you may receive by mail. You do have to join the website to have access to the coupons, but it only asks for an email address and your name and zip code, plus you can uncheck the box to recieve updates and promotions so you are less likely to end up with a cluttered email inbox!
Using this website, my husband found and printed us several coupons so that we could eat out this weekend. Thank goodness; I was sick to death of eating random, weird, mostly vegetable free stuff that was in my kitchen! The first coupon we found was for a hot dog place we had been wanting to try out for at least a year now, but it is pretty far from our house and it's not somewhere we would drive by or be reminded of often. But with the coupon as incentive, we packed up the baby and headed over. It was so much fun! I couldn't believe we were able to try a new restaurant AND have it cost less than if we had just gone on our own.
There is a little bit of an honor system, though, as you are supposed to only print and use each coupon one time. I like to play by the rules, because I don't want to be the yo-yo who messes up the game for everyone when places start refusing coupons because someone else is committing fraud. But sometimes, even when you play by the rules, there can be a little bit of a snag...
See, last night, I didn't have anything defrosted from the freezer to cook for dinner, and I was not in the mood to eat another carbo-laden meal. We had a coupon for a local upscale steak house that we had printed from the Coupon Clipper website, and I was excited to go because they have really great salads. I also knew I could get a veggie side, thus fulfilling my need for greens! We headed on over for a semi-early dinner and we enjoyed it immensely. The steaks we got were perfectly cooked, the salad was it's usual awesome self, and my grilled asparagus really hit the spot. As it came time to pay our bill, however, I noticed that we had made a huge, huge mistake: We did not read the fine print on the coupon. You see, there are two locations of this eating establishment in town, and we had printed out a coupon for the other location further away from us.
I was crushed. I just knew that meant I was about to totally fail my experiment on only Day 5! When our server came by to ask if we would like our check, my husband explained our gaffe to her. She was so kind; She said that location also participated and would ask her manager if they could accept our coupon anyway. Luckily for us, he agreed and we were able to use our coupon and save my nerves! I think it didn't hurt us that we had a really cute baby with us, so the server was more inclined to help us. :-) So note to selves: If you decide to play fast and loose and not read the fine print, do make sure to always have a cute baby on hand if you need to beg for mercy!
I was really glad that everything worked out and the experiment stayed intact, but I will definitely be more careful the next time I get ready to head out and use a coupon!
Today is going to be a two-post day; stay tuned later tonight as I accept two of your challenges and introduce two of my own. If you can't think of a fun challenge, ask your friends and family if they have any ideas! I can be YOUR free entertainment!
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lessons. Show all posts
July 13, 2009
July 12, 2009
Day 5: Impulse Control
One lesson that I've already learned in the short few days of the experiment is that I have a tendency to impulse buy WAY more than I ever noticed. The first time I had to check myself was when shopping last week. I was very, very, thirsty while we were out and I thought to myself, "I'll just grab a drink at the checkout!" And I never really thought about how much I may have been doing that over the years - grabbing a drink at the check out because I would be out longer and was thirsty; but I bet if I could add it up, I'd be surprised at how often those little refrigerated cases have lured me into their refreshing depths for a severely overpriced quenching for my thirst.
At least I'm not alone. Point of Purchase merchandising has been around for over a hundred years - maybe longer. And there is a complete and total industry devoted to it. The funny thing to me is that it started out being the small things like gum and candy and remains those items - along with magazines - even today. I tend to think that I am fairly immune to these check-out lane buys (aside from the drinks, of course). I used to be really bad about buying magazines in the check out lane, though; I'd get started reading some article or find a recipe while waiting for the person in front of me who was buying a month's worth of groceries for a family of 28 and then I would have to take the magazine with me or die of sheer curiosity about the article's resolution or the tastiness of that recipe (BTW: I never did end up cooking any damn thing I found in a magazine!) However, after turning 16 or so, I was pretty immune to all the candy bars, batteries, tiny boxes of tissue, and cheapie toys that now clutter up my check out lanes.
For me, the urge to impulse buy comes from deep within the store aisles. I'm not sure if that makes me odd or not, but it certainly makes me profitable from the store's standpoint. It never fails that if I take the time to make a beautiful list for any store I'm going in, that I fail to remember one or more items that I had intended to put on the list, which then generates a panic within me that forces me to make rash decisions about anything else I might want or need in the coming days that for some reason, can't wait until I'm sure the purchase needs to be made or not. This "perceived convenience" happened when I knew I'd be driving by a Target on the way home from the little one's six month check-up the other day. I thought, "Oh, I'll just pop in and get her a new bottle of infant acetometaphin so I can keep running errands and she can have some relief from her shots, even though there is already a nearly full bottle at our house!" But of course, I realized that I a)did not have a coupon for that item, so I really couldn't stop in there and b)really shouldn't be stopping to pay more money for what I already have, and that was a pretty interesting lesson that I'd never given much thought to. You know, I'd like to attribute this flaw to my having a child under one and the trouble it is to get out of the house with her, but I've been this way for my whole adult life, and so I just can't lay the blame on her for my problems.
Another thing that always gets me is a new or novel products. When I was in BiLo stealing their Blue Bell ice cream for $2.50 a 1/2 gallon, I happend to see that they had these teeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiiny cartons of Starbucks brand ice cream on sale. And even though they cost nearly what my 1/2 gallons of Blue Bell were going to cost me, I had this overwhelming desire to get one and "try it." I had all but opened the freezer case when I realized that I could NOT have that precious little carton of ice cream, and man - the heartbreak was real. I was sincerely disappointed that, despite having a FULL GALLON of delicious ice cream in my cart, I could not spend way too much for this little carton containing at most 5 bites of ice cream. This must be why women who resist impulse buys can lose nearly 5 pounds in a year compared with those who don't stick strictly to their shopping lists. No tiny ice-creams for them!
I know it's been said before that the best thing is to make a list and stick to it. But it's more than that. There is a thoughtfulness that needs to be applied to your shopping, because it's far too easy to justify a dollar spent here and there. And I now hope that I can learn from having to be accountable to the project a new way of thinking about shopping so that I can resist these impulses in the future.
Hm. That's a mighty big lesson for Day Five. I just hope I didn't peak early and end up with nothing else interesting to report for the rest of the project!
At least I'm not alone. Point of Purchase merchandising has been around for over a hundred years - maybe longer. And there is a complete and total industry devoted to it. The funny thing to me is that it started out being the small things like gum and candy and remains those items - along with magazines - even today. I tend to think that I am fairly immune to these check-out lane buys (aside from the drinks, of course). I used to be really bad about buying magazines in the check out lane, though; I'd get started reading some article or find a recipe while waiting for the person in front of me who was buying a month's worth of groceries for a family of 28 and then I would have to take the magazine with me or die of sheer curiosity about the article's resolution or the tastiness of that recipe (BTW: I never did end up cooking any damn thing I found in a magazine!) However, after turning 16 or so, I was pretty immune to all the candy bars, batteries, tiny boxes of tissue, and cheapie toys that now clutter up my check out lanes.
For me, the urge to impulse buy comes from deep within the store aisles. I'm not sure if that makes me odd or not, but it certainly makes me profitable from the store's standpoint. It never fails that if I take the time to make a beautiful list for any store I'm going in, that I fail to remember one or more items that I had intended to put on the list, which then generates a panic within me that forces me to make rash decisions about anything else I might want or need in the coming days that for some reason, can't wait until I'm sure the purchase needs to be made or not. This "perceived convenience" happened when I knew I'd be driving by a Target on the way home from the little one's six month check-up the other day. I thought, "Oh, I'll just pop in and get her a new bottle of infant acetometaphin so I can keep running errands and she can have some relief from her shots, even though there is already a nearly full bottle at our house!" But of course, I realized that I a)did not have a coupon for that item, so I really couldn't stop in there and b)really shouldn't be stopping to pay more money for what I already have, and that was a pretty interesting lesson that I'd never given much thought to. You know, I'd like to attribute this flaw to my having a child under one and the trouble it is to get out of the house with her, but I've been this way for my whole adult life, and so I just can't lay the blame on her for my problems.
Another thing that always gets me is a new or novel products. When I was in BiLo stealing their Blue Bell ice cream for $2.50 a 1/2 gallon, I happend to see that they had these teeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiiny cartons of Starbucks brand ice cream on sale. And even though they cost nearly what my 1/2 gallons of Blue Bell were going to cost me, I had this overwhelming desire to get one and "try it." I had all but opened the freezer case when I realized that I could NOT have that precious little carton of ice cream, and man - the heartbreak was real. I was sincerely disappointed that, despite having a FULL GALLON of delicious ice cream in my cart, I could not spend way too much for this little carton containing at most 5 bites of ice cream. This must be why women who resist impulse buys can lose nearly 5 pounds in a year compared with those who don't stick strictly to their shopping lists. No tiny ice-creams for them!
I know it's been said before that the best thing is to make a list and stick to it. But it's more than that. There is a thoughtfulness that needs to be applied to your shopping, because it's far too easy to justify a dollar spent here and there. And I now hope that I can learn from having to be accountable to the project a new way of thinking about shopping so that I can resist these impulses in the future.
Hm. That's a mighty big lesson for Day Five. I just hope I didn't peak early and end up with nothing else interesting to report for the rest of the project!
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