Why I Clip Coupons
"I don't do coupons."
I hear this statement from time to time from various people, usually middle-class consumers.
I suppose if you're really rich you don't need to bother with coupons... although nobody's stopping you. And if you don't have a lot of money, couponing might be something you need to do.
Which indirectly implies yet another point, something Thorstein Veblen might say: if you clip coupons you risk sending a signal to others that you need to. Which, perhaps, explains why people might tell everyone around them they don't.
Well, I do clip coupons. And I do so for several reasons. At the most basic level, couponing (and occasionally flipping through store circulars) helps me remember the prices of things. As a result, it helps me keep context for value whenever I'm out in the consumer marketplace. What should a given product cost, what does it normally cost, and is the price I see right now a good value or not? Is it a great value, as in should I buy a year's supply of it at this price?
There are some early retirement/investment blogs out there that mock couponing. The point usually made here is that we're better off concentrating on the income side of the ledger (see for example Wall Street Playboys), or to focus on bigger or recurring savings wins (see for example Ramit's I Will Teach You To Be Rich).
These perspectives aren't wrong, exactly. But I look at the act of couponing differently, and this brings me to the most important reason why I do it. I consider couponing a practice of the skill of recognizing value, and I use this same practice in the larger-scale world of personal investing.
In fact, to borrow a term from the martial arts world, I consider couponing a type of kata, a daily practice or discipline, and practicing it helps me stay in shape for larger investment opportunities that could impact my personal wealth on a far greater scale. I look at stocks in much the same way that I look at items in the grocery store: What should this stock cost, what does it normally cost, and is the price I see right now a good value or not? Is it a great value? The two disciplines of shopping and investing are strikingly similar in this way.
In other words, couponing doesn't just save you money. It indirectly makes you rich.
You can save a few bucks here and there with coupons, and that's great. But in the longer run, you can make tens or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars with your investments as your investment capital grows. If you knew the former helped you with the latter, wouldn't you coupon too?
I hear this statement from time to time from various people, usually middle-class consumers.
I suppose if you're really rich you don't need to bother with coupons... although nobody's stopping you. And if you don't have a lot of money, couponing might be something you need to do.
Which indirectly implies yet another point, something Thorstein Veblen might say: if you clip coupons you risk sending a signal to others that you need to. Which, perhaps, explains why people might tell everyone around them they don't.
Well, I do clip coupons. And I do so for several reasons. At the most basic level, couponing (and occasionally flipping through store circulars) helps me remember the prices of things. As a result, it helps me keep context for value whenever I'm out in the consumer marketplace. What should a given product cost, what does it normally cost, and is the price I see right now a good value or not? Is it a great value, as in should I buy a year's supply of it at this price?
There are some early retirement/investment blogs out there that mock couponing. The point usually made here is that we're better off concentrating on the income side of the ledger (see for example Wall Street Playboys), or to focus on bigger or recurring savings wins (see for example Ramit's I Will Teach You To Be Rich).
These perspectives aren't wrong, exactly. But I look at the act of couponing differently, and this brings me to the most important reason why I do it. I consider couponing a practice of the skill of recognizing value, and I use this same practice in the larger-scale world of personal investing.
In fact, to borrow a term from the martial arts world, I consider couponing a type of kata, a daily practice or discipline, and practicing it helps me stay in shape for larger investment opportunities that could impact my personal wealth on a far greater scale. I look at stocks in much the same way that I look at items in the grocery store: What should this stock cost, what does it normally cost, and is the price I see right now a good value or not? Is it a great value? The two disciplines of shopping and investing are strikingly similar in this way.
In other words, couponing doesn't just save you money. It indirectly makes you rich.
You can save a few bucks here and there with coupons, and that's great. But in the longer run, you can make tens or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars with your investments as your investment capital grows. If you knew the former helped you with the latter, wouldn't you coupon too?
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