No blog for a while, I guess I needed to formulate this in my head before putting it in print.  I know there are many sites out there with articles and blog posts on ethical couponing, so it is not new and will probably never change.  Free is no longer good enough, people need to go further; make their own coupons, misuse regular ones in order to make extra money etc.

It is increasingly hard to coupon, even my favourite cashiers are saying that their managers are coming down on them because of the recent misuse of coupons.  I know much of this is to do with the increase in new couponers due to economic circumstances and the TLC show Extreme Couponing, but it feels like there is a new trend of free is no longer good enough.

Like many, I try to be ethical in my couponing, I don’t clear shelves, I read each coupon to ensure that I am using it correctly, but more than that, I try not to buy items I don’t need/want just because they are free.  Recently, Shoppers Drug Mart offered Advil Night Time at $3.99 plus 1000 bonus points and there was a coupon for $4 off any size.  10SDM counts points at regular value when they market them so 8000 points = $10 (compared to the 95k points = $170 or $200 on bonus weekend that we use to assign a value to points, because why waste value).  Even at the lowest redemption level, the points more than covered the tax on the item and you made extra in points value.   Did I take advantage of this? Yes, of course I did, we have about 15 advil caplets left in the bottle at home so we needed some soon anyway.  However, all over the internet, I see brags of people who bought 40+ packs of advil (and complained there were no more on the shelves when they went back for more!) and complaints from others who would have liked to grab a few packs to up their points total to get enough to redeem.  Not even that, but a sudden influx of people selling Advil Night Time on Kijiji / Ebay etc for $2+ a pack plus shipping from all the extras they bought.

If that was not enough to make my blood boil, there is now a need to misuse coupons as well as a coupon policy to make money on couponing.  Nivea offered a $2 off coupon, it specifies it is not valid on certain sizes, but they neglected to include a sample *not even trial, 15ml lotion* size on the coupon.  It can be found for about $1.  So people are printing out Walmart’s US coupon policy which allows change from coupons, and buying large amounts of it so they can get change back towards other purchases.   Most coupons state “We will reimburse you … provided you accept this coupon from your customer on purchase of the item(s) specified.  Any other application constitutes fraud.”  Since they are misusing the policy to begin with, it is fraud, but the manufacturers are giving you $3 off their item and if their item should be $2.47, they are giving you their item free, not $2.47 off their item and $0.53 towards your other purchases when the store policy specifically restricts it.

I wish people could use common sense when couponing, it would make life so much easier.  We already deal with rude cashiers who hate coupons and annoyed people behind us while our coupons are processed, why give these people fuel for their arguments?

• Buy what you need, and only what can be used before it will expire.  Buying 100 tubes of toothpaste when you live alone just because it is free is not a deal – you are adding to the waste we leave behind on the planet and wasting money on taxes for items you wont use.
• Don’t buy into the trend that free is no longer good enough or that you have to save $200 a week because others are.  I would rather save $20 on items I actually need than have a brag about 100 items I don’t need.
• Do use common sense when making purchases with coupons, misusing them for your own gain just means that more and more restrictions will be placed on them or the manufacturer will not offer them at all.