Coupons and Healthy Living

Many people know already about the benefits of using coupons. Manufacturers buy ads in local newspapers and include cut-out discounts (coupons) to encourage you to try or continuing buying their products. The concept is simple enough, and the savings you reap can be significant. Hard core coupon users boast oftentimes about using coupons and discounts to get items for free. Others brag about their low grocery bills. One woman I read about bought groceries for a week for only four dollars.

Impressed by the results that others have had, I looked into couponing myself. On my very first shopping trip with coupons I saved thirty-five dollars. That's a pretty good ROI for just knowing how to use a pair of scissors and shopping purposefully.

As weeks passed, I also learned the down side to using coupons: Many of the items are prepackaged goods. Items like these are typically chock full of sodium, fat, and fillers. If you typically buy foods that contain those ingredients (as most people do these days), you will be able to reap high savings at the grocery store nearly every week. Coupons for chips, cookies, fruit cups drenched in sugary syrup, and no-nutrient white bread come in abundance in the weekly coupon circular. Anyone trying to have a healthy diet and save money at the same time will likely find it difficult.

But not impossible.

Beginning this week, and for the next 4 weeks, I am going to test the ability to use coupons while sustaining a healthy diet. Given that healthy does not mean sugar-free, fat-free, or taste-free, I should be able to do this and still have delicious meals.

Some people will argue that unless I eat raw or have meals amounting to the inverted pyramid and such that I will not really be eating healthy. That will be true to some degree. However, I am not going to change my eating habits to fit the confines of this test. I am not being paid to do this, so I'm only doing as much as feels comfortable for me. And this will likely include some junkfood, but not as much as if I were to buy all my groceries with coupons.

The other rule to this test is that I will not be traipsing around the city from one store to the next in search of the lowest deal. There are three markets near my home, and if I cannot get what I need from there or if I do not feel like walking to the next store just to buy an item cheaper, I won't. This test, for as much as it is about saving money, is also about being realistic and not modifying my behavior to start something I will never maintain.

If you already use coupons, have you been successful at having regular, healthy meals while trying to save money?


SEE ALSO:

Week 1 -- Living Healty with Coupons

Week 2 -- Living Healthy with Coupons

Week 3 -- Living Healthy with Coupons

Week 4 -- Living Healthy with Coupons