A whitepaper written by a University of Texas economist and the staff of coupon site RetailMeNot.com came to a shocking conclusion: consumers can save a lot of money by using RetailMeNot and other online coupon and savings resources. How much? The site’s own statistics show that shoppers save around $17 per purchase by using deal websites, and parents with children at home saved almost twice that amount. [More]
coupons
TiVo E-Mails Me Coupon Code, Reserves Right To Remove Discounts After Order
By 7.31.14
When TiVo was offering a great price on their Roamio DVRs, reader Victor thought that his mother-in-law could use one. He thought about it, put one in his virtual cart, and then took some time to decide. Like many retailers will do, TiVo sent him an e-mail with a $50 off coupon to entice him back. How could he resist? He placed the order, and that’s where things started to go wrong. [More]
Yes, You Can Use Grocery Coupons While Avoiding Junk Food
By 5.1.14
Clipping coupons can be a fun hobby and effective money-saving strategy, but a recent study shows that the coupons that come stuffed in your local paper are often for unhealthy or pre-made foods and brand-name products. Does this mean that coupons are completely useless if you don’t want to eat junk? No, not necessarily. [More]
eBay Issues New Coupons After Non-Coupon Ran Out Of Money
By 4.3.14
A recent promotion where eBay sent $10 coupons via e-mail to selected users was very successful. It was so successful that the money allocated to the promotion apparently ran out, and users who tried to apply the coupon only got an error message telling them that the coupon had “no remaining funding.” As promised, eBay has issued a new coupon that reportedly works. [More]
eBay Issues $10 Non-Coupon, Not An April Fool’s Day Joke
By 4.1.14
Recently, a lot of eBay users received a great coupon in their e-mail: $10 off if you complete a sale on the site. It expires on April 6, this coming Sunday. What a great idea: it will encourage customers to make eBay purchases! Well, it would have been if it worked, at least. Instead, customers were told that the coupon had “no remaining funding.” Oh. [More]
Can’t Find A Coupon Code For Online Stores? Just Ask
By 3.6.14
When you’re shopping online, you probably perform a cursory search online to find out whether the e-retailer you’re about to buy from has any coupons available online. Sites for sharing coupon codes like RetailMeNot are great to check quickly. What should you do if your search comes up empty? Don’t despair. Like brick-and-mortar retailers, online stores might have your back when you don’t bring your own coupons. [More]
8 Retailers That Have Your Back When You Forget Your Coupon
By 2.5.14
Retailer coupons can be your ticket to great deals, but what happens when you forget to clip or bring along your coupon? If you know when to ask, sometimes the store will have your back. If not, these stores often have coupon-stuffed flyers at the entrances, or smartphone apps you can use to dial up your own. [More]
Study: Most Supermarket Coupons Pile On The Savings For Junk Food, Sugary Drinks
By 1.30.14
There you are, making sure every single store coupon you can possibly use is going to cut down on that grocery bill. But while the prices are slimming down with the discounts offered by supermarkets, the foods with the most discounts could be expanding your waistline. [More]
Best Buy Sends Out Coupon That Excludes Most Things You Want At Best Buy
By 1.28.14
In Kent’s city, Lincoln, Nebraska, Best Buy recently moved to a new building. To celebrate and let customers know about the move, they sent out this great coupon offering a gift card for 10% the value of your purchase. the problem: there isn’t a whole lot in the store that the offer applies to. [More]
What Should I Do If No One Accepts My Chobani Recall Coupons?
By 12.12.13
Remember the Chobani yogurt recall this past fall, when fungal contamination led to sour-tasting, occasionally-exploding yogurts distributed nationwide? Chobani made it up to their customers by sending coupons so they could replace their contaminated products. The problem with that is that some grocers won’t accept these coupons. [More]
How Stupid Does Bed Bath & Beyond Think We Are?
By 11.26.13
“How dumb does Bed Bath & Beyond think we are?” writes reader Kristina. Well…maybe they’re just working from assumptions about the average American consumer’s math skills. This coupon offers $25 off a $125 purchase, which is great if and only if you want to spend exactly $125 at the store. [More]
This Tissue Coupon Can’t Possibly Be Verizon Math
By 11.4.13
Verizon math, as you may recall, is what happens when copywriters or customer service drones aren’t quite clear on how decimal points or cents signs work. Using Verizon math, $.01 and .01¢ are the same number. Is this item from the Redplum coupon book an example of a silly typo, or of Verizon math? [More]
Walmart Doesn’t Seem To Fully Understand Its New BOGO Policy In Florida
By 10.22.13
Recently, Walmart decided to wage war against Publix and other supermarkets in Florida by deciding to honor buy-one-get-one free deals from competing stores in the state, even if the Walmart base price for the product is already cheaper. Problem is, not everyone at the nation’s largest retailer is aware of this latest development. [More]
Do Prescription Drug Coupons Lead To Higher Insurance Rates For Everyone?
By 9.3.13
If you’ve been to a website for a brand-name prescription drug in the past few years, you’re probably familiar with coupons offering huge discounts or copayment assistance to patients. For the drug maker, it’s a way to hopefully steer customers away from lower-cost alternatives, and it may seem like a good deal to the consumer. But a new report says that in the long run, these coupons could ding the bank accounts of both those who use the coupons and the rest of us who are just trying to keep up with our insurance premiums. [More]
Don’t Forget To Bring Your Clipless Coupons To Costco
By 8.22.13
Frank is confused. Sort of. He finds the “clipless” coupons that Costco brags about on the cover of their latest coupon book appealing, but wonders how this whole “clipless” thing works. While you don’t have to cut the coupons out, you do have to bring the entire book with you to Costco if you want to use the coupon. Or pick up a new copy at the door. So why require coupons at all? [More]
Coupon Forgers Busted In Florida
By 8.5.13
We like to post stories about honest shoppers accused of wrongdoing and tag them “Couponing is not a crime.” But there really are cases where couponing is a crime. Namely, when you take online coupons and alter the discount amounts, then pay off a grocery store manager to manually type in those Fakey McFake coupon amounts. [More]
Lawsuit Accuses Walmart Of Overcharging Taxes On Coupon Purchases
By 7.25.13
A Pennsylvania man’s purchase of two cans of shaving cream at Walmart has ballooned into a lawsuits against the nation’s largest retailer, which stands accused of not taking coupons into account when calculating sales tax. [More]
Domino’s Has A Very Limited Notion Of What “All Your Favorite Toppings” Means
By 5.30.13
Given that Domino’s has around two dozen toppings to choose from, and that some folks love to layer their pizza with multiple toppings, a franchisee could lose big by offering a pizza with “all your favorite toppings” for as little as $9. That is, until you see that Domino’s thinks you wouldn’t possibly want more than three toppings. [More]
