I go on a Target run at least 2-3 times a month. I buy staples such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies (mostly Method Products). In the background of all my Target runs, I'm vaguely aware of the extreme couponing craze.
The extreme couponers have great tips to share, but they mostly apply to stores I don't frequent such as Walgreens, Walmart, and conventional grocery stores and for items I don't normally buy (like mascara and Ritz crackers). I do know how to shop the sales and use coupons at Whole Foods, it's not terribly complicated there, and doesn't require a five inch binder filled with coupons but I realize it's a much more expensive place to shop. My grocery bill at Whole Foods/Trader Joes/Target has never been five dollars, like the ladies in the coupon videos. Well, unless you count the times I bought just one item.
Since I do shop regularly at Target, I watched with interest as the extreme couponers pushed their carts through Target for their You Tube viewers. They knew their stuff. They knew average prices, they knew how to stack coupons - there were just so many ways to bring down that grand total close to zero. And if something wasn't on sale, they didn't buy it.
Twice now, I've printed out a handful of Target coupons and even used them. Look for the unadvertised five dollar gift card with purchase deals, the experts said, about Target. So one day, I saw one! It was for toothpaste and we needed toothpaste. I think it said, buy three twin packs of Crest Pro-Health at the sale price, and receive a five dollar gift card.
I glanced at the tantalizing savings sign. "I'll do it!" I beamed, grabbing the boxes from the shelf.
When I got home, I broke open a box of my new toothpaste and put the rest into the my tiny hall closet. I had my first little stockpile of sale items, yay me!
As I was enjoying the high of my first thrify savings, I noticed that I was constantly having to wipe up the gooey mess that oozed from the hard to close cap of my new toothpaste. It was all over the drawer and the bathroom counter. The toothpaste was soft like a slushy. When I later opened a second tube, the same thing happened, an ooey-gooey minty mess.
I need to Google this, I said. So I did and lo and behold, the online reviews for the entire line of Crest Pro-Health products were horrible. Customers had the same complaint as I about the toothpaste, namely, that it was terribly gooey. Some even noticed a dark discoloration on their teeth. Some of the reviews were downright scary.
Prior to all that, this is how much thought I'd ever given Crest toothpaste (when I'm not buying Tom's or Rembrandt or Colgate): A Crest is a Crest is a Crest. Well shame on me then because a Crest is a Crest except when it's Crest Pro-Health. Then it's just a mess.
Some of the review comments said they'd just tossed their unused tubes of Crest Pro-Health. So I did the same and tossed out all four remaining tubes, gift card be damned.
Clearly, my first foray into discount shopping was a failure. I knew that to follow these expert couponers would be to veer outside my usual shopping realm. I thought I'd make a small effort to trim my spending at one store only, at Target. That's what I still intend to do, but I realize I can't always let the promise of savings steer me to products I don't normally use without doing a bit of research first, especially when buying in bulk.
Even if I could get a lifetime supply of Crest Pro-Health for free, I wouldn't have it. Free isn't free when you're spending time cleaning up a toothpate mess, or when you're staring in the mirror at at your darkened teeth (mine look a bit darker).
I think I'll try to remember to clip Target coupons, but I'll never be an extreme coupon kind of shopper. I just don't have it in me. I don't like having to do the work upfront (all that clipping and organizing, etc) and I don't generally shop at the kind of stores which offer coupons.
But Savvy.com - oh. my. God. Easy peasy savings for lazy me. Why should I spend my time clipping coupons when I can let this handy shopping app do the work for me? It's not about grocery store savings or drugstore savings, but it watches the purchases I make at my favorite stores like REI, JCrew and Williams-Sonoma and gives me savings by way of a gift card! It's a purchase protection plan. Now this I like, and if I can save money somewhere, while having fun then hey, I'm happy.
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