At what cost?

We don’t watch a great deal of television as a family. The television shows we do watch are generally either news shows, sports events or conversation starters. Such was the case the other night when we stumbled upon a show about extreme “couponing.” It started some great conversations at my house. 

Essentially the show documented 4 specific people and how they used coupons. It followed them through collection, to the redemption at the store and home with their “haul”. 

(Sorry for so many quotation marks. They had all kinds of new terms that they were using in this arena that made it seem like it was some sort of sport or scientific endeavour specific to their activity )

It was an American program and the stores they portrayed were in the United States as well. These couponing folks would “stack” coupons so that their items were free. It didn’t seems particularly likely that the same could be applied in Canadian stores. Most things I’ve seen say “1 coupon per purchase” or something to that effect.  Never-the-less it was one of those train-wreck-type shows where you want to look away (change the channel) but for curiosity sake you can’t. The people the show featured would cut down their grocery bill from $230 to $6, using coupons. It was fascinating, but yet unrealistic. 

The best thing that came out of watching that show was the conversations initiated by my sons since. Our youngest, who is five-years-old, said that “it was crazy how many toothbrushes and deodorant the guy got for free and that the guy should really be donating it to a homeless shelter.”  The fact that he would think about donating makes me happy and I therefore know we are modelling good behaviours for him. 

Our oldest, who is eight, brought up the subject in the car just tonight. He was still mildly disturbed by the “way the people were ripping off the stores” and thought it was a waste to have 80 boxes of cereal. His thoughts were that you would be bored of one type, it would expire and the company who produced the cereal would be losing their money for no reason. 

Moreover, he was stuck on one point. His words were “I hope that guy doesn’t have kids. He would be teaching them to be greedy and wasters.” Further he noted that it would be “so embarrassing” to shop with that guy. He gave me an off-handed compliment in his next sentence. “I know you would never embarrass me like that, Mom. You find good deals and stuff, but you’re not embarrassing.” 

And he’s right. I do love a good deal. But it has to be a good deal for everyone. I buy products we can use, at prices I feel are good value, while bringing that business and more to the stores I respect and value. If people take advantage of stores, and abuse special offers and do everything they can to cheat the system, we all lose. 

A discount at the cost of your personal values or the respect of your family,  is no bargain.