At the end of April I watched a coupon I was sitting on expire. It was a pretty good one too — just not good enough. I had a $3 off coupon for a body wash that retails for $9.99. I also have a coupon for $1.50 that I was going to stack at London Drugs, I was just waiting for one of two things to happen. I was waiting for:

1. the item to go on sale.
2. another coupon to pop up somewhere that I could use to stack some more.

Neither happened and on April 30, I let that coupon expire. This made me think about good deals and bad deals.

This would have been a good deal for me if I normally use this body wash and was going to buy it any way. I mean $4.50 off is pretty decent for a product I always buy. The trouble was, this isn’t a normal ‘buy’ for me. So that left me weighing out if I really wanted to spend $5.50 on body wash when there are other body washes out there that go for less than that. My answer was “No.”

Now, if it was an item I had heard a lot about from friends/family, then that might have swayed me to try it, but I haven’t heard anything positive or negative about this product.

So this brings me to collecting coupons and making them work for you. You should always be asking yourself if you are spending money just to get the deal. Now if your coupon(s) make the item free or very close to it, then I usually go for it… just make sure it is something you will use and that you can use it before it expires. If you still need to pay for the item after your coupon, ask yourself if:

• you need it, or are you just wanting to get a deal.
• there is another product out there that is still cheaper than this one even after the coupons.
• the purchase can wait until you possibly find more coupons to stack to get an even better discount or the item goes on sale and you can use your coupon at a better time.

If you don’t need the item right away and the deal just doesn’t seem as ‘good as it can be’, then check your expiry date on the coupon. If you still have lots of time, then put your coupon away and wait. Chances are someone will put it on sale soon and you can get a better deal. Or better yet, you will find another coupon for the same product somewhere else (with a different UPC) and you can stack them. Then you STILL have the option to wait until a sale happens. That is how I get a lot of my items for free when I shop*.

*Coupon stacking is not permitted in all stores. London Drugs is the only store I know of that allows this practice. Most other stores WILL stack a store coupon with ONE (1) manufacturer coupon only.