A lot of people ask the question, “Is couponing really worth the time? Doesn’t it take lots of time?”

I will admit that you don’t have to spend as much time as I do. It’s just become a bit of a hobby for me. I think I spend a few hours a week clipping and planning. The rest of the time that I spend, I am reading different coupon blogs. But, I’ve learned a few things. Most of the blogs are also reading other blogs. So if you’re following a good blog, you’ll get all the good deal alerts in one place. You don’t have to read several blogs to stay on top of it all. For New England, I recommend Maven of Savin’ or Frugal Living and Having Fun (I have links to both on my side-bar under the Coupon section).

Anyway, I do think that you can do it without spending too much time. And, if you have favorite TV shows, you can do like me and clip while you watch!

I just read a very interesting article on the financial benefits of coupon clipping. The author did a breakdown of the average coupon savings compared to the time spent. If you treat coupon clipping as if it were a job with a paycheck, how does $86.40 an hour sound? And that is tax free “income!”

When I think about it, last week I saved almost $150 on groceries. I probably spent about 3 hours clipping, sorting, and putting together my list. I also spent an extra 2 hours shopping. So if you calculate 5 hours for $150, that’s $30/hr. Still sounds good to me! However, in week 6 I saved about $225. That’s $45/hr!

Still, with couponing, my menu planning, list making, and coupon clipping is replacing my old method of menu planning and list making. What I mean is, if I spend 5 hours a week on coupon planning and shopping, it’s not 5 extra hours that I would normally have. What I used to do is go shopping once every two weeks. I’d spend and hour to two hours making a menu, then making a grocery list, and then about an hour in the grocery store (sometimes longer, depending on how busy it was there). So, 3 hours every 2 weeks or 1.5 hours a week. So really, I’m adding only 3.5 hours per week to my old routine…It’s really not so bad!