Confessions of a Former Coupon Snob

I guess for me it started when I was in high school.  My very first job was at a Food Lion supermarket.  I can remember how agitated I would get when these women, with stacks of unorganized paper clippings, would come into my line and attempt to sort through them as I tried to move them along swiftly.  Registers back then weren’t like the nice ones we see now days.  I would have to check the journal tape continuously to ensure that none of their coupons were missed or otherwise face a tongue lashing. The pressure was only multiplied with their usual three plus, screaming kids in the cart and my growing line.  Needless to say, that job didn’t last very long.  At any rate, I think that is where my preconceived notions began.

The thought of using coupons never occurred to me when I was in college.  Of course, I would use the occasional a Express or The Limited discount or promo but, that was different. Fast forward a few years and my first daughter was born.  I tried to pay attention to who had the best deals on Pampers, etc. but just going to Sam’s Club or BJ’s and buying in bulk felt like the best option.  I was a career woman and I did not see myself investing the time or energy into couponing.  I also secretly believed that they were for people who couldn’t afford to pay regular price.  I think it was working in retail management that helped me form that idea.  I became frustrated with people trying to haggle, reproduce coupons and so much more.  Honestly, my mood would change when someone presented a coupon.  I was a coupon snob.

Fast forward to 2007. Our second daughter was born.  My husband and I made the well meaning, albeit unplanned decision to become a one income family. Almost simultaneously gas prices were rising and the recession was crowning.  How were we going to maintain our lifestyle and all the luxuries we enjoyed with one income?  We had savings so it did not seem to be an immediate concern.  Then, our 2nd daughter suddenly took ill when she was 8 months old.  She was hospitalized for nearly a month (we were over two hours from home).  My husband did not work the entire time she was in the hospital so we were living off of our savings.  Then came the hospital bills!  Thank God for good health insurance.

At the beginning of every year we all make resolutions and 2008 wasn’t any different.  However, my resolution was.  I was committed to half-price living.  I decided I would enjoy all of the things that I used to for half-price.  We needed to rebuild our savings and figure out how this new lifestyle was really going to work out.  It started with diapers.  I enjoyed finding those $5.00 off Huggies coupons.  Then the baby wipes and other ancillary product coupons began to attract my attention.  Before I knew it I had progressed on to coupons for baby food and so much more.  I began to track how much I saved and I began to challenge myself to save more on the next shopping trip.  Eventually, I was saving over $40 a visit with in-store promotions and coupons combined.

However, I wasn’t completely cured of my stereotypical opinions of coupon users.  I just felt like I was an exception to the rule.  I refused to fumble through an envelope of coupons in the checkout line as my daughters wiggled in frustration with the whole ordeal.  My solution, I created myself a little nifty little binder to organize my coupons.  I began searching the internet and I found women that saved so much they took European vacations–on one income!  Boy, was I motivated and I was certainly cured!  I now consider myself a pro.

The rewards have been great.  We have saved a lot although we are far from frugal,. We have continued to tithe.  As a matter of fact, we actually increased our giving.  I get kind of excited about the Sunday paper in anticipation of the savings folded inside its pages.  The beginning of the month ushers in the new online printable coupons and I just can’t wait.  The moral of the story: never judge a book by its cover.  I wasted a great deal of money and time doing so.  But hey, when you know better do better.

Share your thoughts!

Do the Math:Debit Card Users Beware

As consumers everywhere tighten their belts due to the looming economic recession and the credit crunch banks have found another way to prey on already strapped, unsuspecting consumers.  Banks all over the country are imposing higher checking fees and almost criminal overdraft fees on account holders.

According to a report released in USA Today, banks are using tactics such as transaction sorting or high-to-low clearing in order to cause consumers to overdraft their accounts resulting in numerous overdraft fees.

Here’s how it works: If you have several small transactions ($8.59, $4.76, $2.39, $21.62, etc.) and then a larger transaction ($97.22), in that order, your bank chooses to pay the larger transaction first resulting in overdraft fees on each of the smaller transactions that would have cleared had the bank not sorted your transactions.  With overdraft fees as high as $33.00 at some institutions, this can cause some consumers to spiral deeper into financial ruin.  In our scenario above it would cost the account holder $132 in overdraft fees! That’s right, your bank can manipulate the order checks and/or debits in order to maximize on overdraft fees.

Large banks are more likely to process items in high-to-low order, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. found in a February survey, and about half of overdrafts occur at ATMs or via debit card transactions, which tend to be for smaller amounts.

Reportedly, the banks with the highest fees seem to be the ones that benefited the most from the recent government bailouts.  In June, Bank of America raised its monthly fee on certain checking accounts and impose a fee on accounts that remain overdrawn. SunTrust , meanwhile, is starting to charge customers a higher fee when they overdraw multiple times. Wachovia, now a part of Wells Fargo, has made it more expensive for some customers to transfer funds to cover overdrafts. And Citigroup (C) has raised foreign-transaction fees on debit cards.

Of course, banks say that consumers should balance their accounts and overdraft fees are in place to discourageme account holders from overextending their accounts.  Banks claim that their research shows consumers want them to clear those larger items for them because they are usually mortgages or rents.  However, most consumer advocates believe that banks want consumers to overdraft and make it easy to do so by approving the transactions for which consumers do not have the money in their accounts to cover.

In recent years, banks have also begun automatically covering consumers’ overdrafts — even if they didn’t sign up for a service — and then charging them a fee for doing so. This automatic coverage, which banks sometimes refer to as “courtesy overdraft,” has come under fire from lawmakers, regulators, advocates and even attorneys.

News outlets reported that in March of this year Bank of America (BAC) agreed to pay $35 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to overdraft fees. The lawsuit alleged that BofA authorized transactions that led to overdraft fees and posted transactions in an order that increased such fees. BofA, in settling the lawsuit, denied the claims and said that its policies fully comply with federal law. The bank declined further comment on the lawsuit.

Some institutions have even been accused of holding deposits until after all transactions for the day have cleared, even though the deposit was made prior to any transactions.  This causes a major problem for consumers that rely on online banking and checking their account balances by phone, which is encouraged by their banks.  The balance(s) reflected are not always accurate or easy for consumers to understand.

Let us not become discouraged but rather be more informed consumers and stewards.  Remember Philippians 4:19!

Avoid Overdraft Fees with these Tips

• Balance checking accounts the old fashioned way  (This is a tough one for most of us)
• Use overdraft protection linked to a savings account to avoid fees (this must be specifically requested)
• Find out if the balances reflected online are accurate, real-time, balances including pending items
• Opt-out of courtesy overdraft by asking your bank to set the debit overdraw amount to zero (this will cause items you can’t cover to be rejected)
• Switch to a community bank or credit union