Last weekend I was sitting at the kitchen table with my dad while he thumbed through the coupon section in the Sunday paper.  He grumbled, “There’s nothing in here that I’d wanna buy.”  Let’s see what he meant.

This week I found coupons designed to entice consumers to buy the following edible products: Fiber One chewy bars, Betty Crocker cake mix and ready-to-spread frosting, Bisquick pancake mix, V-8 splash, a new breakfast cereal (more on that here), salad dressing (more on salad dressings), Pam cooking spray, Texas Toast croutons, YoCrunch Fruit Parfait (more on yogurt), Snapple iced tea, Temptations by Jello, Crystal Light (more on beverages here), Ore-Ida hash browns, Dole Fruit Crisp, and a variety of candies, including Hershey’s kisses, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cadbury eggs, and chewing gum.  

If you’re a coupon clipper, you want to be really careful not to clip coupons for anything you wouldn’t have considered eating before you saw the coupon.  

Just because Jello has figured out a new way to package the same old flavors doesn’t mean you have to try it.  Even if it’s a bargain (this week).  Just because two (!) different companies have now begun to market their usual thing with oats to sprinkle on top doesn’t mean you have to try it.  First of all, it’s not a particularly nutritious product to begin with, loaded as it is with excessive amounts of sugar.  Secondly, it’s a very expensive way to buy oats.  And you probably have some in your kitchen anyway.  You wanna sprinkle oats on your yogurt or your fresh fruit?  Go right ahead.  You don’t need a coupon.  

I am happy to report that I did find a few items that my great-grandparents (or somebody’s, at any rate) would have recognized as food.  Compared with the large number of creatively designed, manufactured products, there weren’t that many.  But there were a few.  They included turkey bacon (Butterball); cheese (Babybel and Alpine Lace); butter, half-and-half, and eggs (all from Land o’ Lakes); and tomato juice.  There was also a coupon for California mandarins. 

Remember that processed products are made from very inexpensive ingredients, and they are sold for a good deal more than they cost to make.  The profit margin is high, so manufacturers stand to benefit even more if they can convince you to buy processed food-like products.

I also found coupons for razors, skin and hair products, glass cleaner, paper towels, plastic containers, plastic bags, and cat food.  I have a cat, and I pack lunches.  I use some of these items, and they cost less when I use coupons.  

So coupons aren’t always a bad deal.  But they aren’t always a good deal either.  In many cases, they are designed to get you to buy something you would not otherwise have considered.  That’s where you need to be careful.  Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware.

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