Several of the people I work with have young children in K-12 school right now. One of the ways the schools around here are trying to raise money is by selling coupon books. Im assuming the schools talk to local merchants to get the coupons and then any profits that come in from the sale of the coupons go directly to the school. Apparently the student have to sell a certain number of books to qualify for some type of prize. Around here, the books cost $10 each. I wasnt sure if I should get a coupon book or not, so I looked through one of them and these things really make a lot of sense – heres why:

First off, youre helping the schools – which is always good. Im assuming prices of these books are similar around the country, so its not a huge amount to donate and its a once a year type thing. But its not just good for the school, its good for you as well.

In the book I purchased, there are nearly 1000 different coupons (its really a book) – quite a few are buy one get one free type deals, usually on meals or services – so if you have someone you regularly eat out with, it would be an excellent way to cut down on costs for things like dining out. Of course, if youre single, you can always get that second whopper meal thats free and then just have it for lunch the next day if you really wanted to. But the real gems in this book are the Home Depot and hhgregg coupons both offer 10% off the entire purchase (with a cap of $1000/$2000 total purchase respectively). So if you send $1000 @ Home Depot, you just saved $100 for your inital investment of $10not bad eh? Plus, most of the coupons, including these great ones, dont expire for around a year – so its not like you have to run out and spend right this moment to recoup your $10.

Since Im planning on doing a kitchen upgrade, I know Ill be able to get my $10 back (and probably be able to max out the Home Depot coupon)so Im expecting this to work out great. Even if I used a handful of the little coupons for things like a free drink or side dish, Id rack up $10 in savings in a few weeks. Plus there are some interesting coupons like a free 2-week martial arts training class (its not a whole class, just 2 free intro sessions to try it out) – things that might get you a little free entertainment which is always nice.

So if you see these coupon books in your area, dont pass them up without looking through one. I dont doubt that sometimes they might not be worth it, but it pays to at least give them a look to see how beneficial they might be. And do remember that you should really use them on things youd already be getting – so dont start dining out more just because you have coupons or dont go find $1000 of stuff at Home Depot just because you can save the cashif you dont need it, it doesnt matter how much you save (unless it was free) – you just lost money. But if the coupons match up with your routine (or you can make a few modifications), then you could actually save some serious cash. If I were to max out all of the coupons in the book I have, it would save somewhere around $15-20K – although theres probably no chance of any single person or couple doing that, but a larger family probably could get close to it.