Finally I used up my coupons until the end of March
In March I had still three kinds of coupons.
The one is kind of money, I bought a set of coupons by 10000yen, and I could do 12000 yen shopping at registered shops. In the registered shops there is a farmer market I often use. So this set was very worthy.
Another one is not a coupon, kind of discount ticket. It was a set of discount tickets which was given away to newspaper subscribers. I used it "partly". One of discount ticket was be able to use at a nice café in a hotel. Yuki and I had a nice café time there at about 500 yen instead of paying 1000 yen.
And the last one was --- discount coffee ticket.
Yuki and I attended a workshop to introduce how to blew good coffee, and I got a discount ticket of the café. So I went there alone the end of March, and I had a good time there with chatting with the owner.
Do you buy coupons? Do you collect discount tickets? Do you use them effectively?
7 comments:
I rarely use coupons but watch the weekly sales in our several grocery stores and try to take advantage of them. One store, in particular, has many items each week that are "get 2 for the price of 1" so that is when I stock up on items I use frequently. Even if you only buy one of those items it is still half-price. The stores does this instead of coupons, which can be very time-consuming for the cashiers.
One thing that is popular in larger cities are coupon "books" primarily used in restaurants or perhaps at some golf courses, if there are several. You sometimes get 2 for 1 entrees or a percentage discount (or free dessert). Smaller, out of the way or new restaurants are the ones who participate to become well known. They hope first time customers, using a coupon, will return. The coupon books are often sold by organizations or clubs as a fund-raising event. For each coupon book they sell, they get a modest fee and the organizers of the coupon books do not have to use salesmen. Sometimes I buy a book to help a group raise funds and then I give the book, as a gift, to another couple who like to eat out at new restaurants....so I accomplish two things! Jan
Thanks for your comments, Jan.
Here in "Utsunomiya" once coupon books used in restaurants made a big hit. They were issued probably four or five times, though now it isn't issued.
The reason is probably people lost interest in them. We bought them twice. The restaurant in the book became mainly ramen shops, so we lost interest in them. I thought it was the reason why the new one isn't issued.
Sometimes I use coupons but the problem is that usually they are for things I normally do not buy or need! The stores however, as Jan said, have discount days when you can get 2 things in price of one or when they want to get rid of some item, so they mark prices really low. Yesterday, I got 2 packs of blueberries for $0.99 each- normally a pack would be around $3.00. For those discounts, it is good to have a store card- something like a regular customer's card. Then you save a little on particular items. Without a card, the same item costs more. In some stores, not only you get a discount with your card but you also earn points. Those points allow you to buy gas $0.10 or $0.20 cheaper at designated gas stations.
Thanks for your comments, Marta. You throw me another a good question.
How many regular customer's cards do you have? If you have some cards, do you use all of them effectively?
Actually my wallet user to be full of such cards, now there are just " five" cards. Two ones are for supermarkets nearby. Ome is for a coffee beans shop nearby. One is for a restaurant nearby, the last one is my favorite cafe.
I have four such cards. These are the stores in my neighborhood that I know I use. And I have one card for a grocery market in a different state, where I go quite often. It is tempting to get more cards but I try to stick to the rule that I need to come to such stores frequently and the membership card is free. In some stores you need to pay for membership and it may be $50. If I do not buy in such store often, then my shopping savings do not even "return" the membership fee. So you actually could be losing money!
I know some people however, who do not count their money and do not care. They have about 8-10 free membership cards and pay for 3-5 memberships at other stores!
Oh, and I try to have only cards that I mentioned before, the ones that earn you points for gas. I do drive a lot, have long commutes, so I need to fill the tank every week and a half. So I used such points yesterday for example, and instead of $2.20 for a gallon of gas, I paid only $ 1.99 for a gallon. Since my car uses about 18 gallons, it makes a huge difference in what I could pay!
So I am just trying to be practical with my membership card choices. :)
Thanks for your comments again Marta.
You seem to use such cards very effectively.
I used to have a card which was needed to pay annual fee to keep, but now I didn't.
And I also used to have too , so we call, many point cards to deal with.
Now I just have point cards of nearby store.
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