Coupon Ethics

I came across a great post today at Moms Need to Know talking about decoding coupons. I know that there are people out there who are trying to decode coupons, because earlier today, I came across a post that promised to share a coupon decoding spreadsheet - to help you beat the system.

Coupons are a great savings tool provided by manufacturers to entice you to purchase specific products. Taking advantage of glitches is not a great way to encourage manufacturers to continue to offer these coupons that save us all money.

Mindi is doing somewhat of a series on Coupon Ethics and has some other coupon ethics posts that were also good reads:

• Why Stores Don't Trust Us - In this post, she explores some of the activities that cause a bad name for all couponers. Remember the altered Target coupon last fall that was supposed to be for $5 off $25 of toys, but someone altered and circulated it for $5 off any purchase. It's for reasons like this that one of my local grocery stores for a long time wouldn't accept IP.

• The Black, White and Grey of Coupons - she offers some interesting thought provoking scenarios. I personally struggle with seeing listing on some of the boards offering pads of coupons - the manufacturer made those available to the store so that everyone could use them. Taking one or two more than you purchase might be questionable, but lifting the whole pad is just plain wrong.