more of a sad rant

[luvthefree]

had to take in the elastic on my coupon wallet because it is so empty. is it just me or are coupons becoming scarcer? syndi

[scouponer]

My coupon file is looking really sad as well. I have been thinking the same thing about the lack of coupons out right now.

[seylz_gurl]

same, have to start almost from scratch. using the digital coupons more and more too but love the flexibility and longer time range of the paper coupons.

[coupongirl99]

Yeah I think that's exactly it - the digital coupons are starting to take over. I used to have a coupon binder now its just a pouch in my purse.

[walkonby]

I feel badly for all those on sc who bought those huge coupon purses with many many dividers! I was tempted when i first joined here, now i am glad I rethought it. At this stage in life we need less, many coupons are just useless to us. The ones they mail out have maybe 1 month expiry, if that, so again it is not your imagination @luvthefree , the digital downloads are impacting paper coupons.

[coupon girl]

-yes I am glad I didn't buy a coupon folder either -only 2 of us and less coupons -ahh what can you do-lately I have only been using one or 2 coupons in a shop used to be at least 10

[Arvilish]

My coupon binder is skinny too but I bought that for $1 from Dollarama so its tearing up :p

[PurpleBunny89]

I used to have three coupon binders + a massive stack of inserts (used to get 65+ of each copy) but now I only have one binder and no stack of inserts anymore as I stopped getting them.

I've been taking couponing down a notch because we are mostly eating produce, meat and then some odd dairy products. Even still some cheese, juice (chilled OJ, shelf AJ), butter, sour cream coupons would be nice but can't find much on the trading forums and when I do there generally isn't enough to make it worth the postage.

Its hard to believe I used to at one point be an extreme couponer using $500 in coupons in one Walmart trip. Those were the days of free and overage. It seems as though the coupons got more restrictive, lesser value and then now they are being phased into "coupon" apps and printables.

[SassyAshley]

I have pretty much given up on coupons. I find for the products my household buys there just are not the couple there used to be, like Purplebunny said Butter, Sour Cream, Cheese these are coupons we would use but can I find them not very often and when you do now it seems the expiry dates are getting shorter and shorter. I remember at one time I did not pay for sour cream for 2 months, now you get a $0.50 off coupon, gone are the days of free or close to free.

With that being said I do not spend a lot of time trying to find $0.50 coupons, the time it would take me to find them ruins the savings as even finding them has become harder and harder. At one point I was in RCSS I think it was just after Christmas and there was not one coupon on their coupon board. The board was full of what looked like coupons but when you took a closer look you saw they were all recipes and no coupons.

[PurpleBunny89]

I have pretty much given up on coupons. I find for the products my household buys there just are not the couple there used to be, like Purplebunny said Butter, Sour Cream, Cheese these are coupons we would use but can I find them not very often and when you do now it seems the expiry dates are getting shorter and shorter. I remember at one time I did not pay for sour cream for 2 months, now you get a $0.50 off coupon, gone are the days of free or close to free.

With that being said I do not spend a lot of time trying to find $0.50 coupons, the time it would take me to find them ruins the savings as even finding them has become harder and harder. At one point I was in RCSS I think it was just after Christmas and there was not one coupon on their coupon board. The board was full of what looked like coupons but when you took a closer look you saw they were all recipes and no coupons.

Where I live you have a few options for coupons:

Metro - Can never find any! But when there is one or two they are bolted down and/or completely gone.
Sobeys - Same as Metro. Not worth even looking as in the city I am in it takes me 15 minutes just to drive here one way.
SDM - Its not even worth your time unless you use expensive and/or disposable razors, expensive health and beauty items.

So for those $0.50 tearpads/coupons I can use I rely on others to do the grunt work of finding them for me and in return I'll lose out on a few stamps. Its much less stress and when you factor in time and gas I probably still come out ahead of the person with the coupons I am seeking.

[Ciel]

Aside from coupons that may appear in one's major or weekly paper, inserts are not reliable in the community paper. I always am left wondering what coupon I have missed when I see a red coupon shelf attachment for Smart Source or other coupon brand but the pad/holder is not there in Fortino's. I usually rely on the store's coupon zone boards for the new coupons.

Time to pull out the January coupons.

[torontogal12]

There's no coupon boards at my Loblaws. There's fewer tearpads at Metro. Never anything at Longo's. Our building has never received inserts. I'm ok with the printables and rebate apps. Less paper in your house, less trees killed, equal access for everyone. My statement will change if places stop accepting printables though

[PurpleBunny89]

There's no coupon boards at my Loblaws. There's fewer tearpads at Metro. Never anything at Longo's. Our building has never received inserts. I'm ok with the printables and rebate apps. Less paper in your house, less trees killed, equal access for everyone. My statement will change if places stop accepting printables though

Yeah we have two Zehrs and a Loblaws here and neither have coupon zone board. Our building also doesn't get inserts so it just proves my point further that there are no coupons walking through my door unless the mail lady is the one delivering them.

[PurpleBunny89]

I did my monthly totals and I only used $17 in coupons this month plus $20 in airmiles that I had no idea I had. That was a nice surprise.

[avoncallingu]

I find that most of the coupon matches that are posted each week are printable ones. I thought my skinny coupon album was due to my spending less time on coupons lately, but I can see I will have to be more calculated in my coupon use.
Price matching and money back programs seem to be needed to bump up the savings worthwhile.

It all takes a lot of time, though.