Couponers- what do you do with the money you have saved?

[Virgderon]

On another board, someone said this:

"Everyone knows the wisdom of "pay yourself first." The most powerful way to increase savings is to get your savings taken out of your paycheck automatically. Don't move heaven and earth to save $10 on groceries because the chances are that the $10 will never make it into your savings account. Instead, notch up your savings deduction by $10 a month, and, magically, you'll barely notice the slightly smaller take-home pay and you'll painlessly adjust your spending to match. "

I have an online savings account, and this got me to thinking. Do I really have enough discipline to come home from the store, look at the receipt, and do a transfer of the amount that I have saved from couponing/sale shopping into my savings account?

And- if I am not truly putting the money that I have "saved" into a savings account, am I wasting the money saved on something else?

So, I decided to put $25.00 every other week into the online savings account, but I have been "saving" a lot more than that by couponing. I'm starting with a small amount and seeing if I can do more later.

Is there anyone here that actually takes the money that they saved by couponing and banks it? Just curious.

 

[aea71]

Oddly enough, I've been doing this very thing starting at the beginning of this year and it's worked! At the end of each month, I add up our coupon savings, Extra Care buck savings from CVS and any rebates and transfer the amount to our ING account. We're then using the savings for anything fun that we want to do without the guilt of spending our "regular" money. It took a little bit of discipline to get started but now it's just part of my monthly bill paying routine.

 

[TiggerStac]

when I get home I transfer the $$ into my disney account. If it isn't right away, it's by the next day. I put my coupon $$ in there, as well as any $$ from ECB at cvs. I've "saved" over $800 since 5/21!

 

[abmitch01]

I don't do this but should, good ideas

 

[amylynne01]

I don't do anything with it. The only way our budget continues to work and we continue to save for Disney is if I stick to my monthly budget. I have saved just over $5000 this year, so if I had that extra money, we'd be going to Disney much sooner than January lol.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I have worked my budget around coupon savings. For example, I budget $600 for groceries this month for my family of 7. In order to keep that budget I have to use coupons so if I was going to bank it I would have to budget $650, I guess as long as I'm putting $50 away (or in my case toward my debt snowball) it's a wash.

 

[mrsklamc]

No... Much of my coupon savings is stuff I get for free or for a few cents that I am happy to work into our menu but would not have bought otherwise so I can't truly say I 'saved' that amount.

 

[tinkabella627]

We take the amount we saved by COUPONS only (not because we got a discount for using a store card) and put it aside. It is in our fund for (currently) a fence. We were doing really well and saved $200 in a month but the past month we haven't really shopped because things have been chaotic with me going back to work (teaching). We are going this weekend though and will put what we save in that account.

I did some math though and if you were to put $25 a week into a savings account the day your child is born (I don't have kids yet) after 18 years they would have somewhere near $23k for college. I was shocked! If you put $25 a week away it is $1300 in a year! I want to start doing that once we get a couple bills taken care of which will be in about 2 months. We certainly won't notice $25 a week being gone from our checking and it will be nice in a couple years to see our savings grow without us really doing too much for it.

 

[Virgderon]

tinkabella, it's true that saving $25 a week is not too painful. I have an old fashioned Christmas club that I put $25 a week into, and maybe twice I have missed that $25. It's wonderful to get a check for $1250 right around November 1st.

I have not tracked the difference between the coupon amount and the amount saved by buying an item on sale, or BOGO. I'll have to take a look at that. I'm guessing I save more on sales than I do actually using coupons.

 

[annsteere]

I used to put the coupon savings into a "sugar bowl" in the kitchen. When it had built up, we wrote a check to help feed hungry people.

It was also available for people in our own circle who needed a bit of help. BIL was in an accident and broke his neck. Times were tough for him for a while. He would have felt funny taking money from us. But the money in the sugar bowl was no longer "ours." He dipped in there when he needed to.

Unfortunately, now using coupons is just one of the ways we meet our own needs. It stretches the grocery dollars so can buy more groceries, or gas, or taxes.

 

[wdwfan16]

I keep track of our monthly budget. We charge all of our purchases and at the end of the month pay them all off. If I had budgeted $500 for food and with coupons only spent $450 then the $50 just stays in my savings account. So I guess we are passively saving it.

 

[Ava]

I have worked my budget around coupon savings. For example, I budget $600 for groceries this month for my family of 7. In order to keep that budget I have to use coupons so if I was going to bank it I would have to budget $650, I guess as long as I'm putting $50 away (or in my case toward my debt snowball) it's a wash.

Same here. Coupons & sales help me stick to my grocery budget for the month. If I end up spending less than I budgeted the money just stays in our account & goes towards... some other bill, lol.

I'm trying to pay for our Disney trip next May with "found" money - payments from doing focus groups, selling on eBay, rebates, rewards sites, change jar, bottle returns, etc. I'm hoping we won't have to spend any of our regular income on the trip, or very little.

 

[sahmoftwo]

I have a friend who told me that she puts her coupon savings in a college acct for her kids....I agree with the PP who said that coupons are part of her food budget. We are like this...my food budget is based on the fact that I will be saving money with coupons so we can buy more food.

 

[ChristopherMarry]

The money which I save by using coupons I spend that money with my family when we plan for outing....

 

[caaraa]

BIL was in an accident and broke his neck. Times were tough for him for a while.

 

[magiclj]

I started 20 years ago banking the money I saved from couponing. We didn't have a lot of extra cash at that time and had two little ones. This became our vacation fund. I think the earliest years I average about $350-500 a year. As the years went on, I got better at couponing and it went to about $800-1000 a year. It paid for 3 to 4 trips to Disney and 1 1/2 cruises. (can't figure out how to update my bottom profile to update the # of trips )

Once my kids went to college this became kinda of a hobby for me. My hiusband no longer lets me put all my coupon money in the savings account since last years total was $13,000.00 (yes - I am anal and have a spread sheet) I am not one of those extreme people on TV. You can park in my garage and walk thru my house. I now keep my nieces and nephews supplied with HBA products and 6-8 other college students, my sister and her family. I do still put what I save on groceries in my savings account. I think our next trip will be to Hawaii with my adult children.

I found it to be a great way to save for something we would not have been able to afford or justify otherwise.

 

[LynnTH]

I started 20 years ago banking the money I saved from couponing. We didn't have a lot of extra cash at that time and had two little ones. This became our vacation fund. I think the earliest years I average about $350-500 a year. As the years went on, I got better at couponing and it went to about $800-1000 a year. It paid for 3 to 4 trips to Disney and 1 1/2 cruises. (can't figure out how to update my bottom profile to update the # of trips )

Once my kids went to college this became kinda of a hobby for me. My hiusband no longer lets me put all my coupon money in the savings account since last years total was $13,000.00 (yes - I am anal and have a spread sheet) I am not one of those extreme people on TV. You can park in my garage and walk thru my house. I now keep my nieces and nephews supplied with HBA products and 6-8 other college students, my sister and her family. I do still put what I save on groceries in my savings account. I think our next trip will be to Hawaii with my adult children.

I found it to be a great way to save for something we would not have been able to afford or justify otherwise.

I use couponing for vacations also. I too am not an extreme couponer but I follow a few of the couponing sites. When I see a good deal coming up (like free items with coupons or those deals you can make money on) I will then buy additional coupons on E-Bay or Coupon Sites. Nothing too extreme - usually around 20 coupons or so. I then have a Garage Sale in our yearly city wide sale in May. (People come from hours away for this city wide sale and stay overnight in hotels and come with trucks and trailers - very fun). So, I started selling my items from couponing and the stuff sold like crazy. I would sell items at about 1/2 of what the retail price is. My last sale I made about $2500. Went straight into my vacation fund. I usually get my deals at Walgreens, CVS and Target. I don't clear the shelves as I have numerous stores in my area and take the time to go store to store. It's become more of a fun hobby for me and is an extra way to make money for vacations. I also can't remember the last time I paid for Shampoo/Conditioner, Shower Gel, Razors, Contact Solution etc. and love giving items to my parents and friends. I also donate to our church food shelf also.

 

[karice2]

I come home and transfer my coupon savings to my ING account.