Don’t get me wrong, I am all about my coupons and how much they save me when I shop. Coupons influence me in my purchasing decision sometimes more than the product itself. How could coupons be so powerful? Occasionally I have a coupon that when combined with a sale will allow me to purchase an item at an unreasonably low price or free. This is great for my family, especially if it’s something that we use. However, what if this product is something that no one in your family likes? Several months ago I purchased some name brand applesauce that I was able to get for free with a coupon and a sale. We aren’t huge applesauce eaters, but this was free and I thought I would give it a try. My son is actually the one who eats the most applesauce, so he would be the one to try it out. I purchased six packages of the single serve containers, 4 in each package, thinking this would be a great addition to my stockpile of things that were free or near free.

However, after several failed attempts at having my son eat the applesauce, I finally conceded to the fact that the applesauce was a bad decision. I wasn’t out any money, except for tax, since I was able to purchase it free, but I now had something in my pantry that no one would eat. Luckily since I hadn’t paid a great deal for the applesauce, I didn’t feel as bad when I gave it to someone else in my family. It made me think about my decision to purchase the applesauce in the first place. Why had I been so willing to try the applesauce? It was free. Does free always making something better? Most of the time, but this was a definite learning experience for me.

I realize that some of the decisions that I make to purchase a product are guided by whether or not  I have a coupon. I purchase over fifty percent of our grocery items at Aldi where coupons aren’t even necessary, so it isn’t as if I am dependent on coupons. We also purchase items in bulk where coupons would not be able to compete with the bulk item price. While coupons do influence my purchases, I will definitely think more about the products that I purchase. If I’m able to purchase something for free or next to nothing and it isn’t something that we’ve never eaten before, I’ll be certain to try out the product first instead of purchasing enough to last for six months. Coupons are a good thing, but only when they are for something you truly want or need.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 11:54 am and is filed under Coupons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.