There are a lot of great coupon deals out there. But buying something you do not need and then claiming the $5 off from that coupon does not constitute an actual savings of $5.

I can recall going to visit my Aunt one time, she was a huge coupon freak. She asks my brother and I, 'Do you boys like Orange Crush?' We nodded expecting to get a glass to drink. Instead she takes my father to the basement and they come up with over a dozen bottles of fizzy orange goodness. She got them for a quarter each with a coupon but no one in her family drank the stuff.

My brother and I decided we had to go down and see what else she had in that basement that we could pillage from her. She a pair of very nice cabinets built in the wall and two shelves that ran a good eight feet long on either side of the cabinets and these were all stocked like a supermarket with goods she bought with her coupons.

She had dozens of boxes of this or that, scores or packets of dog treats and, her prized possession, about thirty travel sized tubes of Colgate toothpaste. You see she is the reason why coupons now say not to exceed value of the product on them. She bought trial sized Colgate that was on sale for 49 cents with a 25 cent coupon on double coupon day meaning the store gave her a penny for each tube of toothpaste that they had in stock that day. She got a lot of great deals, but some things that she bought and did not use, or need took away from her actual savings.


Look for a coupon for eveything you buy, but do not buy everything that you have a coupon for!