This article over on Yahoo Finance has caused quite the stir in the coupon blogging community! While the article is titled “8 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Coupons”, I found a better title would be: “8 Reason’s Why You Shouldn’t Use Coupons…Or Get a Job.”
Mrs. Fontinelle gives eight reasons not to use coupons, though I found them to more closely resemble excuses. Here are the excuses, and how you can apply them to your job search!
1. “You have to buy a newspaper.”
– When you get a job, you have to pay for new clothes, a toll tag, child care, and a cell phone.
Working comes at a cost, yet you know that the income far out-weighs the expense! It is quite the same with couponing. You can recoup the cost of that $3 newspaper with as little as one coupon. I won’t even go into all the other coupon sources that you can get coupons from for free!
2. “Clipping coupons takes time.”
– Working takes time. According to Mrs. Fontinelle, there are better things you can do instead. Like make a week’s worth of meals, mop, or watch television!
First, I am slightly insulted by Mrs. Fontinelle’s insinuation that couponers cannot manage to clip coupons and clean their floors and feed their families. I manage to do both and I actually spend more time couponing than the average coupon clipper due to my occupation. Second, I don’t know why Mrs. Fontinelle bothered to show up to work and write this article since she claims her time would be better spent watching television…
3. “Getting a newspaper invites lots of additional advertising into your home.”
– Going to work each day invites a bombardment of advertising like billboards, radio advertisements, and passing restaurants and shopping centers each day during your commute.
I am going to try not to take Mrs. Fontinelle’s comment to mean “we’re incapable of restraining ourselves from purchasing everything that is advertised to us.” And did she not just suggest watching television in her previous argument? I guess commercials and product placement aren’t considered advertising in her opinion.
4. “Many of the coupons will be for things you neither need nor want.”
– Going to work will mean you might have to do things you don’t want to do.
Lucky for couponers, we can just toss the coupons we won’t be using in the trash! And from a “financial perspective”, buying more than you need actually does make sense when you purchase the items at a rock bottom price. I can buy enough shampoo now at 10¢ per bottle to last me the entire year, or buy just one bottle now at 10¢ and pay the full price of $4 for the rest of the year. I think, from a “financial perspective”, that stockpiling makes more sense.
5. “Coupons can tempt you to spend your grocery dollars on things you shouldn’t.”
– Earning money at your job can tempt you to buy things you shouldn’t, like expensive clothes and cars.
This is where self-discipline comes in. If you shouldn’t buy ice cream, don’t buy it. Yes, there are more coupons for junk food than healthy food, but that doesn’t mean you are incapable of staying away from the ice cream aisle because of the advertising influence of that coupon.
6. “The same coupons tend to be offered over and over again.”
– The same tasks at your job tend to be offered over and over again.
Having a steady supply of coupons for items you regularly purchase is actually a good thing! Hopefully people are needing toothpaste, shampoo, and soap over and over again!
7. “You might become a slave to coupons.”
– You might become a slave to your job.
I think this one is my favorite. She claims you will become incapable of purchasing items without a coupon (is that a bad thing?). She can’t seem to make up her mind which side she is on….first coupons will make you buy that ice cream….now coupons won’t let you buy that ice cream?
8. “Shopping takes longer.”
– Working takes longer.
I save an average of $100 per week and spend an average of 1 hour per week clipping coupons, making my shopping list, and spending extra time in the store. I think I’ll shop longer in exchange for that $100. If you make minimum wage, that is saving you over one day of work per week! Work one day…work one hour….work one day…work one hour…I can’t choose!
Well, has Mrs. Fontinelle convinced you to quit your job yet?
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I LOVE this. My sisters bf is all you know the cashier's HATE you when you go shopping and I say I've yet to have an issue (well there was that one time in walgreens....but that was before I knew the order to give them the coupons) and I say I don't care I saved $90 at publix last week!
Yahoo! Finance had an article like this not too long ago (wow I just realized this article is a year old) about a college student who was doing it and people were all she's going to get fat because she only has junk and processed foods on her shelves)
Love your responses. I am totally going to quit my job now!
Wow, I was starting to think how ignorant this Fontinelle person was but now I understand. She writes, and that's just her job, even if it means talking out of both sides of her mouth. Thanks for the info Rae :) because I was just going to start slammin' her about her article!
I love it, and the smart couponing ladies are actually helping the economy, we are able to buy more. We give more to help others who can't afford to buy...those poor folks that don't know how to use coupons...per chance?
She actually does coupon. She's just a freelance writer so she writes from both sides of the fence. I found this blog that she writes. I only read a couple of posts but she has some on there about her experience using couponmom http://twopenniesearned.blogspot.com/
love this post! I read this article last week and was telling my hubby how clueless she was.
Seems as if this woman does not truly understand the value of a dollar! If she did she certainly would not believe that couponing is a waste of time.
I specialize in working at home - which means I work AT HOME! I make money being right here where I can access my Couponing as well as efficiently complete freelance work. I work for a top internet article company whom everyone has heard of (possibly) and make good money doing it! I think what the original article boils down to is sheer jealous or ignorance - one of the two - and the fact that its author has neither the patience nor the know-how (and quite possibly no time since it's all spent watching TV) to save money as efficiently as the rest of us. Aside from that there is still the possibility that there is an underlying message here about the threat of Couponing downing the economy even more - but, hey! Some of us are savvy and some are not! I say more power to those of us that take the time out to do this and for those others that have no desire to use coupons - have fun spending outrageous amounts of money while our coupons save use hundreds of dollars a year. Love the rebuttal! :)
HAHAHAHA!!!! This was awesome. Mrs. Fontinelle is clearly a moron. Also? I clip while I watch TV. I know. Multitasking. I'm like a superhero.
@Mandy, Your comment made me laugh out loud!!!
LMAO! Well done! Bravo! Couponing is like everything else... if you don't want the rewards, you don't have to do it.