Groceries...is couponing all that it is cracked up to be?

Recently I watched that show on TLC called Extreme Couponing.  The show is written about women and men in the United States that clip coupons to save hundreds of dollars on everyday items from the local grocery stores.  Some of the people give it away and some stock it in their homes for their family to come by and "shop" at their house.  It seems amazing how they can take a $700 + checkout bill down to $0 by using coupons, store sales and membership discount cards.

My question is, can you do this in Canada?  We have coupons, sales and loyalty points programs here, but do we have the store competition to make it work.  Also, we always have had WAY more restrictions than the States, not to mention that our store policies are different.
 
Store policies are really the big one.  If you have a store membership discount card, a lot of the time the store will not allow you to use a store coupon as well (one or the other they say).  Also retailers in Canada have policies around the maximum product limit that a coupon is good for (example max 6 for purchase with the coupon), and it is a per person limit (so bring your spouse to get around this one).

U.S. stores tend to offer better deals with coupons in many ways.  Some will double a coupon's value (up to $4.00), where as in Canada at this time, there is not one retailer that will do this.  Too bad!

Another way that the Americans have to save $$ is coupon stacking.  In a nutshell it is when you take a store coupon and stack it with a manufacturer's coupon.  An example of this is taking a store special coupon of $.50 cents off and adding a manufacturer's coupon of $1.00 off and adding them together to create a total discount of $1.50/item.  This would be great if the retailers would allow it in Canada, but as far as I am aware, at this time only London Drugs offers the "stacking" privilege (and only in certain provinces too).

In Canada it is far more challenging to coupon shop easily as you really have to read the coupons and know the store policies before you go.

So what this all boils down to is the original question...is it worth it to clip and save?

The answer I think lies in two questions:

1. What your time is worth?
2. Is the product something you would use?

If you already shop at the stores that offer the deal you are taking advantage of, and it is not too time consuming to find the coupons and clip them out, then naturally it is an excellent way of saving $$.  However, if you could make more money working at your job vs. the time it takes to clip and organize the coupons...not to mention the time and gas it takes to drive out of your way to a store that is not frequented by you...then maybe you need to re-assess the feasibility of clipping.

I always urge people to be time conscious and only clip coupons for products that you use.  Sign up for direct discounts with the manufacturers you support or join coupon sites to get the weekly emails to get the best deals that are not store specific.

I think the question really has individual answers based on your specific situation and only you can determine if it is a good deal.

Some great Canadian coupon sites are as follows:

• Websaver.ca 
• Go Coupons
• Grocery Alerts

Really, saving money is ALWAYS what I preach, but if it involves buying things you don't use to store them for someone else...or it takes away from your work schedule that pays you $$, it may not be the best thing to consume yourself with.


Smart shoppers are time conscious and only buy what they really need.

As my Grandparents used to say "Waste Not, Want not".

Liz