I keep reading on MSN and other places people saving huge amounts with coupons. Which I can't seem to do. They never pay for shampoo, deoderant, soap, etc.
I'll use a coupon when it's something I buy, but honestly with two people I've written dates on stuff I buy like shampoo, soap, etc and we just don't use a lot. I bought 1 container of laundry detergent 2 years ago and it's still not gone. I bought 1 huge bottle costco electrosol tablets (85) $6 and it lasts 85 weeks, once a week dishwasher runs. I have a bottle of dish liquid soap when we moved 2 years ago and still have the same bottle it's $4.99 at costco. Stuff like that I guess I could save $5 but I mean for 2 years worth of not shopping. Toilet paper, paper towels last us a year or more the giant pack from Costco and it's $15 so I could save $15. But then if I shopped 1 hour every week with coupons, it would cost us far in how much we could be earning than $15. DH could be studying or we could be having fun together. So should we bother looking for coupons and then going to stores for it?
But the problem is I don't think I am the type of person to buy 270 boxes of pasta or 40 cans of beans. How do you store that much stuff? I buy and use till the end. We live with limited space for housing. How do you calculate the extra space needed to store buying a ton of non-perishables? Is that how people got into debt just buying stuff?
I mean part why we didn't get into debt before was 550 sq ft of living for two people made buying stuff hard. And we never overbought or overloaded the fridge/pantry. I mean 270 boxes of free pasta sounds great but where would we put it? Or 40 cans of beans? Or 10 tubes of toothpaste? It would cost us more to have to live in a bigger home than living simply and buying what fits in the smallest space possible. We saved more by living in a 1 bd than moving up into a 2 bd to fit more stuff. And we already lived with stuff like books under the bed, clothes in a dresser, etc. We stored everything we could including built in shelves in the closet and in our outdoor patio closet above the washer and dryer.
So where do you draw the line? Is it really money saving or are you buying and having to store more stuff? And do you buy things you wouldn't normally buy because of a coupon?
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2 comments:
Can I ask how you can go a year with only buying 1 big package of paper towels? We buy the big pack of Bounty at Sam's at least three to four times a year. And we're DINKS too. I admit I don't use them judiciously - germophobe that I am!
Thanks - Megan
Well we don't use them like they go out of style. I also try to use clothe napkins and toss them into the wash.
I don't know but a front loader washing machine has been a godsend. Also being a DINK we use less toothpaste with oral-b toothbrush. Not a huge gob but just a little. Also we use a little shampoo with DH #2 haircut and I wear my hair shoulder length.
I've decided that being a DINK we just use so much less than a family.
I also buy paper towels when there is a coupon but not more than 2x a year. So sometimes I have extra.
Best thing about costco is the meat. Better quality than the grocery store prime versus select cut and I use it in different meals for the week for two people. I often freeze some.
For instance this weekend buy one get one free chicken I bought for 35 cent/lb and froze three, kept 1 for this week. Good for the next three weeks we'll roast 1 chicken and then make chicken salad. Pretty much 3-4 meals for 2 people.
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