Coupons.. grab them

"How stingy you have to be? Do you know which people use coupons? Poor people. People who have no money to buy things," said Triya my friend, a businessman's daughter, coming from 2nd generation wealthy family.
"I do not care what you or other people think about it. This is my hard earned money. Whatever I can do to spend less I am going to do that. In my home the money does not go on trees," I responded while handing over the discount coupons while shopping.

I have met several people in my life always thought that using discount coupons is tacky. Using discount coupon makes you look poor or cheap. People will judge you if you use discount coupons. I disagree with this view. According to me if we have means to save money we should use them. Discount coupons are one of such means.

Now, how the discount coupon works we all know. Discount coupons are very powerful tool to save money however I have seen that they are rarely used. Mostly people avoid using discount coupons because of their preconceived notion, fear of judgement, or simply assuming that the process for the use of discount coupons will be complicated.

As a frequent user of discount coupons let me tell you something from my own experience. The judgement - the cashier and the customers in the queue with you would definitely judge you on the use of discount coupons. But the question is do you really care about their judgement? Should a stranger have any importance in your life to judge your choices? I believe even you would answer both these questions with no. In that case why should you be scared or be embarrassed about using the discount coupons? Go ahead, use them, and save some money.

The second question is about whether the use of discount coupons need to go through any complicated process. The procedure to redeem the discount coupons would be provided along with them. Sometimes the discount coupons cannot be used on weekends or the days on which the store has additional discounts or sales. But this condition would be written along with the discount coupon. When you receive any type of discount coupon the first activity that you should do is reading the terms and conditions. Plan your shopping only when you have understood the terms and condition and you are in full intention to use the discount coupon. Yes, checkout may take slightly longer with discount coupons. But if it saves money, I will wholeheartedly accept that.

A few things I would also say from my own experience of using discount coupons. While paying for items I was a judged by the strangers, it took me slightly longer to checkout, the use of discount coupons annoyed the cashier because they had to do some extra steps during the checkout. However it was all worth because I was able to save money with the discount coupons.

I believe that the use of discount coupons has been unnecessarily defamed and demonise by people so that they look useless or cheap. However in my opinion they are valuable and they help reduce expenses on every day purchases.

So here is my final thought: don't worry about the judgement (Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna). If the store offers or accepts discount coupons the use them. Without fear or shame use the discount coupons proudly. Whatever you buy you are buying from your own money hence you have the right to save it the way you want it.