Coupons can save you money, but only if they're for stuff you actually need, not just stuff that you're buying because it's on sale. There's also the gas costs, if you have to drive to seven different grocery stores to get all your staples, instead of one place.
There's also, of course, the considerable hassle. Clipping coupons takes time, and is a bother. Arguably, though, unless you work from home, make a very good wage at it, and love your work so much that you do it for 12 hours a day, it doesn't hurt to take a few minutes to clip coupons, or to save money in other ways, like fixing something around the house instead of buying a replacement. Yes, you might make $60/hour when you're working. Your every minute is worth a dollar, and it seems intolerable to save 25 cents on oatmeal when it took you longer than a minute to find the coupon. But, realistically, were you working when you decided to sit down and clip coupons? If you weren't clipping them, you'd probably be sitting on your ass watching ESPN, or making a joke about fat girls on RVF. Point being, time is precious, and there are unfortunately almost never enough hours in a day, BUT we can't spend every minute doing extremely lucrative things, and in the moments when we're not, it's probably worthwhile to save an extra few bucks by going through the coupons in the mailbox every week or so. Takes five minutes, if you don't get drawn into the mania of buying stuff you wouldn't ordinarily in order to save extra money, and if you can shave $5-10 off the grocery bill, what's the harm in it? That's a hundred bucks extra at the end of the year.
There's also, of course, the considerable hassle. Clipping coupons takes time, and is a bother. Arguably, though, unless you work from home, make a very good wage at it, and love your work so much that you do it for 12 hours a day, it doesn't hurt to take a few minutes to clip coupons, or to save money in other ways, like fixing something around the house instead of buying a replacement. Yes, you might make $60/hour when you're working. Your every minute is worth a dollar, and it seems intolerable to save 25 cents on oatmeal when it took you longer than a minute to find the coupon. But, realistically, were you working when you decided to sit down and clip coupons? If you weren't clipping them, you'd probably be sitting on your ass watching ESPN, or making a joke about fat girls on RVF. Point being, time is precious, and there are unfortunately almost never enough hours in a day, BUT we can't spend every minute doing extremely lucrative things, and in the moments when we're not, it's probably worthwhile to save an extra few bucks by going through the coupons in the mailbox every week or so. Takes five minutes, if you don't get drawn into the mania of buying stuff you wouldn't ordinarily in order to save extra money, and if you can shave $5-10 off the grocery bill, what's the harm in it? That's a hundred bucks extra at the end of the year.