In Praise of Coupons

I must admit... I love coupons. I'm the type of guy who will buy dog food because I have a coupon (I don't own a dog). My wife, an Economics Professor, always reminds me that I'll save MORE money by NOT BUYING anything to begin with.

But there's something about that cold hard paper promising savings if all I do is show it to a cashier. A small price to pay. In fact, I get a kick out of impressing cashiers with the deals I can get!

Recently, I signed up for a text messaging coupon service from Borders. Every week a text message is sent to my phone (an iPhone of course) and all I have to do is show it to the cashier. There's no charge, but of course, the phone company charges for incoming messages. With my iPhone plan, I get 200 SMS text messages each month, which is plenty. The only messages I get are from my hipper, younger employees and then it's maybe 20 a month.

But with AT&T's new iPhone plan, all text messages will cost extra. I've used the Borders coupon once or twice, but now I'd pay anywhere from $1 to $5 each month to enable this service. If I didn't buy something every month, I could end up losing money on the deal.

But this post isn't about AT&T... It's about the value of hardcopy coupons. Instead of charging the end user, it's the provider who pays for it. I get a lot of traditional coupons in the mail and invariably they go right in my wallet or car. Those hardcopy coupons are treated like currency, and valued higher perhaps because they're someone else's currency. It's like spending other people's money. Just don't tell my wife!