Entertainment Book Savings Update

As of my last update, my Entertainment Book had saved me $52.61. Here are the savings I've racked up since then using it:

• Free Wendy's Frosty - saved $0.99
• Buy one get one free dinner (nice date night with my wife) - saved $11.99
• Two free carousel rides at our local museum - saved $2
• Grocery savings at our local store - saved $5

That brings my total savings to $72.59 after two months of use. Not bad at all.

Three of the offers above were "no brainer" offers (I detailed these in How to Save Money Using an Entertainment Book). The Frosty was totally free, the carousel rides were free (and we were at the museum anyway -- we're members), and the $5 off on groceries was easy free money (all we had to do was buy $50 worth of groceries and we're usually well over that.) The other coupon allowed me and my wife to go to a favorite restaurant that we hadn't been to for a year or so -- and to do so quite cheaply!!!

I'll keep you posted now and then on how the savings keep going. But for now, I'm well ahead of what I would have paid for the book (if they hadn't sent me a free one, that is.) :-)

Comments

[Todd]

I think it would be an interesting study to track additional information:

In addition to what you track already (Purchase, Savings Amount)... also track Total Purchase Cost (e.g. how much total did you and your wife spend on the date night after coupon), and whether you would have completed the purchase without the coupon (yes/no).

[SM]

IMHO it should only count as "savings" if you paid less on something you were gonna buy anyway. Free items that you normally wouldn't have spent money on shouldn't really count as savings.

[Keith]

I love my entertainment book - in my area, they have a partnership with Safeway, which is where I shop for groceries. I get $20 in cash off the top coupons, so right away the book has only cost me $5 or so. I've probably saved $75 using mine already this year.

[Colin]

The "buy one get one free" dinners are my favorite... makes it pretty inexpensive to go out to pretty decent restaurants

[Jack]

I like entertaintment book!
Thank you for information, great info!

[George]

I agree with Todd and SM - you have to count things like the carousel rides or frosty differently than the grocery savings becuase it is doubtful that you would have really paid for them without the coupon. If so, then fine. Although a nice bonus, it is not a savings because you wouldn't have spent the money anyway. These are certainly free benefits, just not savings.

[David]

Reminds me of a Gallagher joke. He talks about his wife going shopping. He describes her buying way too much stuff, all of which happened to be on sale. In her defense she tells him, "Yeah, but look at all the money we saved!"

There is a difference between saving on necessary expenses and "saving" on new expenses that have been discounted via a "coupon".

That's the whole allure of coupons. They were invented exactly to make you spend money and feel good about it; because you've received a discount off the normal price. Coupons are psychological, and they work especially well when they cause you to spend money on something that is *not* part of your normal and necessary routine.

Everyone loves a deal, thus a coupon could make you spend $50 if it "saves" you $200. Todd, SM, and George are saying that the expense of the $50 needs to carefully analyzed -- was it part of your normal and necessary routine? Did you really save $200 or is it simply that your wallet is unnecessarily poorer by 50 bucks because you couldn't pass up the deal?

See the difference?