Buying Coupons

Linda asked a good question:

I have a couponing question--Buying coupons from couponing services or EBay and the like. Is that really necessary? Do you do it? What are the benefits or disadvantages?

Personally, I have never bought coupons from any coupon services. Some of you probably consider me to be a "serious couponer", and maybe I am compared to others, but I'm not serious enough to buy multiples of coupons. I only get one copy of the Sunday paper, and MOST of my coupons are printed online because those are usually higher value ($1 or more). So my simple answer to your question of is it really necessary is NO, it is not necessary. You can save plenty of money on items for your family simply by clipping the coupons available to you, following sales patterns, and stockpiling when items are on sale so you don't have to pay full price later.

I know some people buy coupons online so that when an item goes on sale they are able to REALLY stock up and buy 10 or 20 of that item. Personally, I don't have the storage space to store that much. I don't have the forethought to buy them enough ahead such that they would arrive in time for a sale, either. And to be honest, I have a hard enough time keeping up with cutting and filing the coupons I do have access to.

One reason I can think of that I would consider buying coupons is because our region frequently misses out on some of the good Sunday coupons for some reason. It seems like 9 times out of 10, when I see a deal on a blog and go back to my coupon insert to find the coupon, it isn't there. This is frustrating, but usually it's not a deal I can't live without. As we said when I was a preschool teacher, "you get what you get and you don't have a fit." :-)

I'm not trying to knock coupon services, and I'm sure a lot of people save money using them. I'm just not familiar with them. If any of you have ever bought coupons online, can you please leave a comment to better answer Linda's question and educate the rest of us?