Couponing Strategies - “Separate And Save For Sales”

Special coupons go up front! If you already read Couponing Successes posted earlier today you will be familiar with the examples used in this post. If you haven’t read it yet, make sure to check it out.

The reason most of the coupons I used this weekend were about to expire (literally, they expired that day) was because I was holding on to them waiting for the best deal. I had been holding onto to some of them for several months at that point. I find that it isn’t always the best plan to immediately use those freshly clipped coupons unless the items happen to already be on sale (e.g. Walgreens frequently runs sales corresponding with the newest coupons).

When I’m clipping coupons I set aside the very best coupons I definitely want to use and keep them separate from the rest by paper-clipping them at the front of my coupon file. The rest of the coupons that I might use get sorted into the pockets based on product type (breakfast, cleaning, etc). Don’t put the “gotta use” coupons in with the maybes. Nothing is worse than throwing away really useful coupons because you forgot about them before they expired. This happened to me with a good “get one free” coupon and I’ll never let that happen again.

Every week, when I go through my file to do the shopping list, I look at those coupons first and see if I can pair them with a sale. If not AND they don’t expire that week they go back into the paperclip in hopes that the following week there will be a sale. I also jot down these items on the bottom of my shopping list to remind me to check on those specific products for unadvertised sales when I’m at the store.

None of the expiring coupons I used this last weekend matched a sale opportunity before that day so they were still left in that paper-clipped bunch.

For the special coupons that were about to expire I had to decide if it was worth using them or not. Most were NOT worth using because they were either:

for items that could wait (non-urgent needs or things I had plenty of)
coupons that are issued frequently or on a cycle (cleaning supplies)
coupons that were just not a good enough deal without pairing it with a sale

Some of these rejected coupons I left for other shoppers next to the products in case they wanted them. It was a busy day so hopefully someone saved some money with them.

I had compelling reasons for each of the coupons that made the final cut. In the case of the BBQ sauce it wasn’t on sale but they had bonus size bottles which still made it a good deal to use the coupons.

I have never seen the Bertolli meals go on sale but by waiting until the last moment to use these coupons I at least got a chance to find a deal. In the end, I simply had to use them or give them away. I opted to use them because it was something we found very useful but would only buy with a hefty coupon to lower the price.

The soda (Sprite) I had a coupon for was actually on sale but at $3.39 a 12-pack it wasn’t a very good sale. I was about to abandon the coupon when we spotted that most of the generic soda was eerily missing. We then spied an in-store coupon that gave us a free 12-pack of store brand soda for every 12-pack Coke product we got. At that point that coupon came in handy and helped us stock up on soda at a phenomenal overall price of $1.27 a 12-pack. Saving that coupon paid off big time.

I do not use this “separate and save for a sale” strategy on every coupon I have. I only give the high value coupons for items I already use this special treatment. The exception to this rule is when I find a “get one free” coupon. Even if I don’t need it I still redeem it (I only pay tax if applicable) and give the product away to friends to try. If you notice you are starting to use coupons to buy items you normally wouldn’t buy you might need to reevaluate your coupon usage.

The point behind manufacturers issuing coupons is for advertising and gaining first time and repeat customers. Sometimes irresistible coupons might encourage us to buy impulse items or products we don’t really need. You must avoid this temptation because this only increases your bill rather than lowering it. The primary goal should not be increasing coupon savings but should be focused on lowering overall grocery bills.

In other words, don’t spend additional dollars to save a few cents.

Couponing Successes

That’s a lot of coupons! This weekend I got my biggest coupon savings total ever - a whopping $40.05 or almost 30% on the bill. I’ve had much higher percentages before but only on targeted trips where I only bought specific sale items and didn’t buy fresh food for the week. Although I was thrilled, I was a little embarrassed because the checkers were so impressed they called over other employees (including a manager) to look at the total.

As anyone will tell you, if you are eating primarily fresh foods this kind of savings is unlikely to happen. We did buy a lot of fresh food but this week we also stocked up on some staples and convenience foods with coupons that were about to expire. This week was not representative of a normal shopping week for us - we typically save around 20% in coupons.

I thought I’d share some of the great deals we were able to find:

BBQ Sauce - Yes, BBQ sauce is usually cheap but we got it really cheap. Eric eats the stuff by the gallon so we can’t afford to be too picky and get the gourmet stuff anymore. We had 3 $1 off coupons for Bulls Eye BBQ sauce that we got from the paper. The 18oz bottles cost $1.46 each so we figured $.46 a bottle was still a good deal. But wait! Are those bottles hidden behind the others labeled 55% more? Yes! So we scored 3 28oz bottles for $.46 each. Nice!

Soda - I was running low on soda so we were hoping to find a deal this week. I had a coupon for Sprite 12-packs for “buy 3 get the 4th free” but often the price is still too high to justify buying it over the store brand. Sprite was on sale but only for $3.39 a 12-pack. That’s not much of a deal, really. We were surprised to see the store brand shelves wiped out of everything but the regular cola. Turns out that they were having a promotion that if you buy a Coke or Sprite 12-pack you would get a free 12-pack of the store brand to try. Wow! Suddenly, my “buy 3 get a 4th free” coupon was looking pretty good! We were able to get 4 12-packs of Diet Sprite AND 4 12-packs of off-brand cola for only $10.17. That is about $1.27 a 12-pack!

Bertolli Skillet Meals - These are expensive (and surprisingly tasty) frozen bag meals for 2 that cook up in a skillet in 10 minutes. They are pricey at $6.58 a bag. We found $2 off coupons online and used those to buy 4 different styles. At $4.58 that works out to be $2.29 a portion. On those nights where we don’t have time or the inclination to cook these make wonderful and relatively cheap meals. It sure beats ordering out!

Febreeze Noticeables - I recognize this purchase is not essential so I won’t buy refills until I see a sale. The problem is that they rarely go on sale and at $4.49 regular price it is just too expensive. I saw a rare deal at 2 for $7 and paired it with my $1 off 2 coupon. Not earth shattering savings but the point is that I waited to buy these until they were at the lowest price point of $3 each. Saving almost $3 is better than saving nothing!

Dijon Mustard - I had been hanging on to these Grey Poupon coupons for months now waiting for a possible sale to no avail. These coupons were from the bottles themselves not from the paper. After doing some price checking my $1 off coupons dropped the price below all the off-brands by over $.50. It was a no-brainer to use these coupons even without a sale. A sale just would have made it sweeter.

Believe it or not, there is actually a method to all of this. Check back later today for the next post on this couponing strategy!

Smooth AND Solvent: Make The Moisturizer Switch

So many choices! Now that we know some ways companies try to artificially inflate the value of their products, how do we decide if we can happily switch to a cheaper brand?

Everybody sees the value of things differently. Some people might even tie their confidence in their looks to a using a specific product. That kind of brand loyalty is hard to overcome. As a rule of thumb, don’t buy any luxury item without comparing the actual benefits to what you could get from the cheaper competition. Let’s look at ways to find a good replacement for that pricey moisturizer.

Look at the ingredients

Make sure you are getting what you think you are from your pricey moisturizer and are not falling prey to “fairy dusting”. The products are listed in descending order based on the amount used in the product’s formulation. If the active ingredients you are looking for appear at the end of the ingredient list it is unlikely to have much of it. Also, more ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is any better for your skin than a simple formulation. Complexity doesn’t always equal superiority.

Cosmetic grade ingredients by their nature are considered “high quality” - even the ingredients used in cheaper products. Determine the main ingredients in your favorite product and try to find a cheaper alternative with the same core formulation.

Figure out what you actually like about that high-end product

Apart from the specific brand, determine the actual qualities you like so you can look for those same features in cheaper products. Do you like its texture, the feel on your skin, the way it absorbs, or maybe the fragrance? Get down to what about that product really impresses you and figure out the specific benefits you like.

For me, I realized what I liked so much about the La Mer crème was the feel of it on my skin. Really, nothing else was more important to me than that. It was thick and didn’t absorb quickly which was great for my dry skin. By determining what I actually liked about the product I was able to then look for an inexpensive moisturizer that had similar properties.

Now I use Olay Total Effects. It doesn’t have the exact same feel as the La Mer crème, but it is thicker than many moisturizers. It is a decent substitute at a fraction of the cost. If you honestly evaluate why you love a certain product and you can not find those qualities anywhere else then maybe the luxury product is actually *worth* it to you. Just be sure you aren’t being swayed by brand loyalty or marketing in that decision.

Don’t get swept up in the hype

Try to stay away from the sales counters and avoid the latest hot trend. Trendy items are notoriously expensive. Many of the new ingredients are just variations on a theme (e.g. the same kind of antioxidant just from a different source). Are the exotic ingredients the only way to get that benefit or are there cheaper alternatives that will get the same results?

Look it up

Research your favorite product to determine if there could be an alternative out there that could get you similar results for less money. Why spend more if you don’t have to, right? Check out Paula’s site for some of her product reviews. She even points out “drugstore doubles” to some of the higher end products.

If you are looking for a cheaper anti-wrinkle product consider alpha hydroxy acids as opposed to prescription strength products like Retin-A. The eHow Fashion. Style, & Personal Care Editor says to:

Sample other weaker, nonprescription vitamin A relatives like alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) and beta hydroxy acids (BHAs). You need at least 8 percent AHA for any visible results, though, which is just as likely to be present in a cheap drugstore product as in an expensive brand.

Be Realistic

Keep in mind that if you use a moisturizer everyday (any moisturizer really) you can improve the appearance of your skin. A good moisturizer for your skin type, sun protection, and exfoliation are the essentials for putting your best face forward. Extras are nice but likely won’t have the same impact that those core skincare practices will. Are the luxury moisturizers’ higher prices really worth it when it comes to actual results? Or do you start to see diminishing returns on your investment? At least give the cheaper stuff a try.

In all honesty, if I had unlimited funds I’d probably start using the La Mer crème again. Not because of the hype or because it was a “miracle worker”, but simply because I liked the way it felt on my skin and I haven’t found a product that does the same thing yet.

However, I don’t have unlimited funds so I must weigh the benefits against the cost of the product. If I look at it through unbiased eyes, the benefits weren’t justifying the price tag. I only appreciated it for being a good facial moisturizer. That isn’t really anything unique. Maybe if it actually performed miracles I’d feel differently. I think I’ll stick with the cheaper brands, at least until I figure out how to get the unlimited funds.

My skin still looks pretty good except now, so does my bank account.

Are Luxury Moisturizers Worth The Price?

Miracle in a jar? Cosmetics and beauty products were a hobby of mine. An extremely expensive hobby that helped get me into debt. I have tried many of the expensive face moisturizers out there. As recently as just last year I was using up the last of my Crème de la Mer moisturizer ($125 for 1oz). That was the most I had ever spent on a single jar of moisturizer.

I really enjoyed the “high-end” moisturizers you get at department stores or from Sephora (my old addiction). They were soothing and comforting and somehow special. I never knew why exactly but I felt they were better than their less expensive counterparts. They just *were*. After all, my skin looked great! It must have been because of those luxury products, right?

When evaluating my spending habits I started looking at what I was getting for my money in these moisturizers. Was it really the expensive and exotic ingredients in these high priced products giving me that nice skin or was it the fact that I was simply using a quality moisturizer at all? Was it worth the extra cost?

Paula Begoun, famous cosmetics reviewer, gives her take on the La Mer Crème I love so much:

The reality is that this very basic, and I mean really basic, cream doesn’t contain anything particularly extraordinary or unique, unless you want to believe that seaweed extract (sort of like seaweed tea) can somehow be worth this much money, or that it can in some way heal burns and scars. According to Susan Brawley, professor of plant biology at the University of Maine, “seaweed extract isn’t a rare, exotic, or expensive ingredient. Seaweed extract is readily available and used in everything from cosmetics to food products and medical applications.”

Creme de la Mer contains mostly seaweed extract, mineral oil, petrolatum (similar to Vaseline), glycerin, waxlike thickening agents, plant oils, plant seeds, minerals, vitamins, more thickeners, and preservatives. How expensive can it be to stick some seaweed and vitamins in a cosmetic? According to the cosmetics chemists I’ve interviewed, it costs pennies, not hundreds of dollars.

So maybe the ingredients weren’t all that exotic after all. Based on this evaluation I have to assume that the price tag of $125 isn’t due to the cost of the ingredients. If it doesn’t cost significantly more to make than its competing products then why was I paying a significantly higher price?

Let’s look at a few ways the industry helps to create the perception of added worth.

Brand Distinction

Did you know that many of the brands you are familiar with are owned by the same major companies? Brand recognition adds value, especially for new products. Through developing distinctive brands these companies can target key consumer groups and price the products appropriately. Products for a luxury line like La Mer will be priced at luxury levels (who knows what the actual manufacturing cost is). Within a single company you might find that a product from an inexpensive brand is virtually the same as a product from an expensive brand. Coincidence? Try comparing some of the L’Oreal Paris and Lancôme products.

Here are two parent companies with their brands below:

Estee Lauder: Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Bumble and bumble, Clinique, Estée Lauder, Jo Malone, Lab Series, La Mer, MAC Cosmetics, Origins, Prescriptives

L’Oreal: Kérastase, L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline, Biotherm, The Body Shop, Cacharel, Kiehl’s, Lancôme, Shu Uemura, Dermablend, La Roche-Posay, SkinCeuticals

Fairy Dusting

“Fairy Dusting” refers to the practice of adding minimal amounts of special or desirable ingredients to a product to make it more attractive to buyers. This can include ingredients associated with the hottest trends (like green tea) or age-old treatments (like olive oil). This method is often misleading and is used to get the product from the store counter to the bathroom counter as quickly as possible.

Dusting can be done in several ways, like:

Adding enough of an effective ingredient, like retinol, to get it listed on the label but not enough to make it beneficial. Sure, it has retinol, but the levels of it are so low that you won’t see the noticeable results you expect from that ingredient. This practice can help keep costs low while allowing them to charge more for the moisturizer.
Adding a little of an ingredient that hasn’t been shown to be effective but makes the product more attractive. Examples of this might be skincare with rose oil, lavender, or even yogurt. These ingredients are added to spark interest. “My mother always said rose oil was good for my skin and I love the fragrance so this must be good.” Just by adding these ingredients they can raise the perceived value of their product even if there is no science to back the use of those additions.

Packaging

My La Mer jar is heavy enough to be a weapon. It looks and feels expensive. The elaborate boxes it came in were nice enough to keep and reuse! I suspect that the packaging might have cost more than the crème. Many of the expensive moisturizers come in beautiful containers and bottles. Companies use packaging to create added worth. Who is going to pay $125 an ounce for a moisturizer in a cheap plastic container? Put it in a heavy glass jar that re-enforces the idea that the crème is worth that much. In this way, packaging is often used as a tool to help achieve the desired price point.

So, is it worth it? Well, that’s up to you. If you like the way it makes your skin feel and are happy with your skin’s appearance then it might be worth it to you. Be aware that just because you’re paying more doesn’t mean you’re getting more and that you can likely get the same results for a much smaller price tag.

I still love the expensive moisturizers (even though I no longer buy them) but I understand they aren’t miracle workers or even substantially better products for improving my skin than what you can find at the supermarket. I love them for their texture, fragrance, and finish and those qualities enhance my experience, not my appearance.

Be sure to check back tomorrow when we will talk about ways to find an alternative moisturizer that works for both our skin and our checkbooks.

Image Source: sunshinecity

The Surprise Rebate!

Rebates can be a fickle mistress. Sometimes it seems like a gamble on whether or not you will actually get that rebate you so painstakingly prepared. You might get it in the mail or you could get rejected for something small or for seemingly no reason at all.

A while back I saw a $10 rebate in the paper for buying 10 of the sort of products I use. Most of the time I ignore smaller rebates but this one was substantial and it beckoned to me. I had a handful of coupons I could use for the products included in this rebate and with the current sales I could get a very good deal. With this rebate I had to buy all 10 items in one shopping trip so I knew I couldn’t afford to mess it up. There would be no second try.

After buying the items, cutting off the UPCs, and getting all the paperwork in order I did my final check before sealing the envelope. I noticed something. Staring me in the face was one UPC for an item of the wrong size. I was mortified and felt sick. Suddenly my great deal vanished before my eyes. I knew all this work was for nothing. I was really surprised at how upset I was over it.

My husband convinced me to go ahead and send it in anyways. I already had it ready to go in a stamped envelope and he thought it was worth a shot. If it got rejected I guess I would know why. I feel like I followed the rules. My store only offered this one product in one size so I got it not even thinking it might not be included in the rebate. But I know rebate centers look for things like that to deny requests. After all, companies don’t want to actually redeem these rebates. They use them as lures hoping most people forget about them or mess up and it works.

Yesterday I got a big surprise - that rebate check I didn’t think I’d ever see.

I’m thankful that they overlooked that one issue and issued the check anyway. I sure feel better about redeeming rebates through them now. I wish all companies were so forgiving with rebates.

It kinda makes up for all the other rebates that never came through. Well, not really.

Image Source: ninjapoodles

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