Coupon Crazy: Saving With Groupon And Others Doesn’t Add Up
ARE we going Groupon Coupon Crazy? Yes yes yes, we all know you can save money by using coupons when you go shopping. And yes yes yes, we all know that it’s the sort of thing that started out in the US and has only recently started to become common in the UK.
However, economists just love pointing out something about these sorts of activities. Yes, you’re saving money: but how much is it costing you to save money?
Like the bank customer cashing in a jar of pennies at lunchtime, Judith thinks nothing of handing a cashier coupons printed from the online money-saving forums that she trawls daily for cut-price deals on non-perishables to feed to her brood. But, then, she is Britain’s most accomplished penny-pincher…….The forums are a step ahead. It does mean I spend a fair bit of time every day on line – but I’m not a big television person anyway.”
The question is, how much time?
Say you were saving £12 a day through coupons. Seems quite a lot really: but when you look at it the other way around that’s two hours at minimum wage. And if you spend more than 2 hours hunting out the coupons and going and using them (and organising them of course) then actually, you’ve not saved any money at all, you’ve lost it.
Yes, I know, that’s not the way most people think about it but it is the way economists think about it.
Which is probably why most people think economists are odd.
Posted: 1st, December 2011 | In: Money Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
