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Sparkle (1)
Before this experiment in extreme couponing, I'd always used some coupons but had never really taken advantage of mail-in-rebate offers. I guess I've sent in less than 10 grocery rebates over the last 30 years. I never seemed to have the UPC or the bottle cap or the label - or if I had those, I don't have the receipt. Or, in the days before I embraced stockpiling, I had just purchased the item and wouldn't be purchasing it again before the rebate offer expired. I was so anti-rebate that I never even glanced at the hang tag rebates or rebate forms on packaging. All that has changed now that I'm living in the extreme couponing world. In fact, it might have been a mail-in-rebate that pushed me into this whole thing.
Right around the middle of January, I was clipping a few coupons and I noticed a mail-in-rebate for supplements that TW had just purchased. (Buy $25 worth of product, receive $5 back.) I clipped that rebate along with the coupon next to it. If TW was going to start buying these particular supplements, it would be dumb to NOT take advantage of this rebate. And so we did. (I sent in the rebate form a couple of weeks ago and am anxiously awaiting my check ... keep your fingers crossed, I am still unsure as to how often companies actually SEND those rebate checks.)
Right about the same time that I saw that rebate, I saw another one for Purdue Shortcuts. This is not a product we buy very often, though I have occasionally tossed one into the cart to help make quick dinners quicker. It's expensive and my commissary doesn't always have this product. But I cut it out anyway because it would be worth it to grab a package at a local grocery store since the mail-in-rebate would make it free. Meat for free! Big win, right? (I sent that rebate form a couple of weeks ago, too. I will get a check, won't I?)
And there lies the problem. I bought $25 worth of products we were already planning on buying. If that rebate doesn't come, it's not really a huge loss -- just a disappointment. But that chicken -- I bought that solely because of the rebate. If that rebate doesn't come, I've wasted money. Sure we used the chicken, but it was a lot more expensive than if we had just bought the food we normally buy. That unknown factor -- will the money come, or won't it? That's what keeps me from being a big rebater.
I read Susan Samtur's book, Supershop Like the Coupon Queen, because I wanted to be convinced that rebating was the way to go. From seeing her on TV years ago, I remembered that she saves every single bit of packaging from products she buys so that she can take advantage of rebates. Even after reading her book, I just can't get into that. It doesn't make sense to me. Rebate forms always say that your products need to be purchased between some specific dates. How can having the UPCs and cash register receipts for products you bought three months ago help you with that rebate? It can't! If you're a stockpiling couponer and the rebate is that good, then odds are high that you'll have time to purchase the products, with coupons, at your buy price, before the rebate expires. That seems like it would make more sense than hanging your hopes on yesterday's purchases.
There are some rebate programs that ask you to save UPCs or points -- Coke Rewards, Pampers Points, Fast Fixins' are just a few. Those make sense to me. If you buy those products regularly, you have an ongoing opportunity to save money. But how often do those types of programs come along? If you've saved a year's worth of yogurt cups, is a yogurt company going to suddenly let you send those in for money, coupons, or products? I am skeptical.
One mail-in-rebate opportunity that I am interested in is the one for Caregivers Marketplace. TW's mom lives with us, and we do buy some of those products every year. When we have purchased five (or more), we can send in one form plus the UPCs and receipts and get back a fairly nice rebate. This program works for us because we can purchase these all year, as needed, and send them all
