The art of saving money while shopping is something that many of us struggle to grasp or achieve, but it is definitely a skill you should be striving to learn as a consumer. We all know how tiring it can be to read the receipt or the bill at the end of a day shopping or running errands, and this is a dejecting feeling to see that you were spending a lot more than you hoped for, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You probably remember your parents, or at least your mom, going on and on about coupons and seeing the pile of paper cut out from flyers and grocery stores. This is a common sight in kitchens across the land, and the sobering truth is that it actually is something worth doing. While there is less commitment needed to coupon like your mother because of digital coupons and flyers, you still have to be pretty diligent to get the deals you need.
Even with that being said, couponing can save you plenty of money when you do it right, but how do coupons save you money? It might seem like a silly question with a straightforward answer, but here are the different ways that coupons work in your favor.

Stacking Deals

One coupon might not be enough for you, so you want to see how to make that deal stretch even farther, and luckily, many coupons can be stacked. Naturally, you want to read the fine print on the paper or the digital coupon, but if you can successfully pile on coupons on top of one another, you will be able to get much better savings. Imagine buying a couch with a flyer ad for 15% off then combining it with a storewide coupon for an additional 10% savings. You’ve just cut off 25% of the retail price in an instant with coupons and deals. Stacking as many savings as possible is something to always look for, even if it isn’t available for every coupon, it is still widely possible.

Cash Back Rewards

Cashback is two words that every deal hound and saver wants to hear, and this deal has amazingly come over to plenty of digital coupons. Even these kohls coupons can provide some cash back, and the deals are abundant for nearly any kind of retailer, not just clothing. Anything from electronics to furniture, to groceries, can be cashback-friendly. Knowing you are getting savings on a product plus the potential to receive a percentage of the purchase or coupon deal back should put a smile on the face of anyone, not just the hardcore couponers out there.

Reducing Higher Cost Purchases

People who are avid couponers will look for a deal or saving on any kind of product, but even the most casual of deal hunters will know that coupons work well for higher-cost purchases. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to find coupons or savings on a $1000 laptop, but it does mean understanding the principle of percentage returns. A 10% coupon for a $10 purchase is a deal of $1 in savings, while it becomes $10 for a $100 purchase. The bigger the purchase, the more money is going to be cut off. This also doesn’t mean you should just look for big-ticket item coupons, but it’s something to keep in mind. It works best when you consider a $200 grocery bill, and how much your stacked coupons work together.

Loyalty Coupons

Companies love to reward loyalty because they know that repeat customers will keep coming back to spend money if they’re happy. This means coupons are going to be much more appealing if it becomes a matter of loyalty for their customers. Loyalty coupons are given to repeat customers and are often given to them to encourage that they return to spend money. You should be aware of times when the coupons are just meant to lure you in and then the loyalty rewards stop, but there are enough retailers that will be handing them out consistently to make sure you know you’re valued. Loyalty coupons are a great way to save money consistently with a brand or company you love.

Make You Consider Your Purchases

Coupons don’t just help you save money because of the dollar or percentage value listed on them, they help you save money because you become a more practical and conscientious consumer. Using Herb Approach coupons can turn even the loosest with money into a very savvy and sophisticated shopper, all because of the money you can calculate in savings. 
You stop looking at a 20% coupon as 20% of one purchase and start to imagine how it adds up to your total expenditure and budget. You start to consider how much you save in total on your groceries, not just on one product. Similarly, using coupons in tandem with things on sale makes you consider what you are buying and what you don’t need. If saving money on purchases is an art form, then coupons are the paintbrush. 

Use Them Frequently

Lastly, you begin to understand that coupons in flyers aren’t just your weekly throwaway mail or inbox spam, you start to value them as an integral part of your shopping and budgeting plans. When you begin to actively implement coupons into your spending habits, you start to use them more often, which equates to more consistent savings. As mentioned before, you consider your purchases as a gross measure of savings, not just on individual goods. Using these coupons frequently adds up over time and provides you with the foundation for making some extraordinary budget freedoms.
All those times you remember your mom sitting at the kitchen table with plenty of diced up flyers and newspapers seemed trivial when you were a kid, but now that you’re older and paying for your own goods, you start to understand the merit of saving money with a little help. While coupons show you the percentage of the dollar value they save you, there is more than meets the eye to how you can benefit from their frugality.

WRITTEN BY

Daria Brown