Where Amy Dacyczyn Went Wrong
I was really happy when I went to link up the latest installment of my Selling Used Books Online series to Tightwad Tuesday at Canadagirl's blog, Raising 4 Godly Men, to see a recent video interview with Amy Dacyczyn. It was great to see her speaking, and to see the farmhouse she talked so much about in The Complete Tightwad Gazette
. Check out the video here.Most of her advice still works in 2010, and I still find her and her books inspirational. But I did learn one thing from her book that kept me from saving the maximum on my groceries until recently: In the article "The Scoop on Coupons" on page 55-58 of The Tightwad Gazette
Volume I, Dacyczyn seems to dismiss couponing as a way to save money on groceries.She rightfully asks the reader to consider whether alternative forms of purchase, such as buying in bulk, making homemade, or buying a store brand, would save you more than using coupons. And in some cases, she is right. I have brought coupons to the store to by a name-brand items that I needed and wasn't on sale, and by comparing prices I have found that it would be cheaper to buy the store brand without the coupon.
However, I fail to see how using these strategies could save me more than purchasing a name-brand item on sale and with a manufacturer's coupon and/or a store coupon and/or a customer rewards program. For instance, no amount of bulk buying would allow me to get 13 ounces of pasta for 3 cents. Granted, today's couponer has a lot more information and available coupons than Dacyczyn did in the early '90's. Today there are printable coupons, coupons sold on eBay or clipping websites, coupons databases, and, of course, blogs that detail great deals. So it is a lot easier to get amazing deals today than it used to be.
But because of her advice, I never looked into using coupons as a way of saving money. Instead I bought in bulk, made things from scratch, and bought store brands. And certainly, I did save some money, more than if I had bought name-brand items not on sale. But since I started using coupons, I've brought my monthly groceries bill from $500-$800 per month down to $200-$400, and I know I still have a lot of room for improvement!
So I guess the moral of the story is that not everyone has all the answers that are right for you, and that you need to check out different ideas and consider different options. And yes, I still love Amy Dacyczyn and The Tightwad Gazette!
6 comments:
Have you ever bought coupons through ebay? Is this something I should look into?
When reading the Tightwad books or any books on frugal living you have to look at where the writer lives and the age of the book.
Here in the UK couponing is almost non-existant and I envy the ability of people like JANE4girls on her $800 a year and the guy on a savings newsletter who's sister challenged him to live on $1 a day - he did it so well - using coupons - he has never gone back!
From comments I understand that it also can depend on where in the USA you live because the amazing ability to coupon varies from region to region.
But, finally got there, frugal books - Tightwad Gazette especially - are, as you said, so inspirational. So often an idea that seemed impossible here in the UK had a nugget of gold in there that I could use.
For me the savings are from buying the 'basics' brands and making from scratch. Our food prices are shooting up and I'm thinking of a bulk buy.
Interesting discussion - I guess what it comes down to is - what is your goal and what resources are you willing to use to reach that goal. Is your goal to spend the least amount of money out of pocket - at any cost? (to your health, to using a good part of your time tracking deals, gathering deals, and storing and maintaining a stockpile) Is your goal to eat health building foods at the lowest price possible? Is your goal to spend the least time in the kitchen? It takes incredible honesty and discipline to be a "strtegic shopper".
I think so many people get seduced by the coupon savings, "sale" or 67% savings. Well, if the price was high to begin with - who cares if it's 67% off. You have to buy by lowest price per unit, not percentages.
One thing that Amy got 100% right is the price book. Like tracking every cent you spend, maintaining a price book (or sheet) is annoying, but it is time well spent to decide if deals are worthwhile. - just my two-cents
I'm not sure I'd say that she "got it wrong" (although it's a catchy title!) - she was writing at a particular time and place, and coupons did not work out for her. Even today, it's only, AFAIK, for Americans who can use coupons to get such low prices. Like the UK, coupons are relatively rare here and are definitely only for overpriced name brand items. Even if I were to find coupons, I can't combine them or use them on sale items. So I save $0.10 on Campbell's chicken broth, bringing it down to $2.40 for 900 ml? I can buy the store brand for $1.99 regular price, or wait until it goes on sale for $1 and buy several cases.
I buy in bulk, know my prices, cook from scratch, stay flexible with our meals, etc. But never coupons.
The only time I have found couponing helpful is at our warehouse club (BJ's, in our case), and they send us the coupons. I scan the coupons I see in the paper and I never see much value in the whole process. Except for coupons that are stuck directly on packages (of something I was buying anyhow), I haven't used manufacturer's coupons in years. I follow a similar process to Canadian Doomer (sounds ominous) in saving.
I am blessed (cursed) with an elephant's memory, so I can remember five years ago where I got a good deal on window cleaner. Amy is one of my heroes.
What a great video - I can't believe Amy Dacyczyn is a grandmother!!! I owe her a lot - I read her books as a young newlywed and they completely changed the way we decided to live. We have now been married almost 20 years, are 1 year away from paying off our house, have no debt other than the house, have large amounts in savings and retirement funds, pay off credit cards every month - and if my husband were to loose his job, we have plenty of cushion. We chose to live way below our means at the same time many of our friends were borrowing themselves into crazy amounts of debt - and it breaks my heart to see most of them struggling now. So I say, thank you, frugal zealot!!!
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