No one tried to go broke by saving money, but that is just what often happens. Moms trying to save a few bucks on their weekly grocery bill start using coupons and find that they are spending more money each week than they did before. Single gals use Groupon or other social savings apps for their nights out on the town and scramble at the end of the month to pay their bills. Families search for deals and sales when they shop for clothes and spend twice what they anticipated.
How does this happen? How can you go broke when you are doing all of the right things to save money?
Sometimes the perception of saving money or even the word sale actually gets us to spend more. We see a deal that looks too good to be true, so we jump on it, not realizing that we probably would not have spent the money in the first place, if we were following a budget instead of a sale.
Grocery coupons are often issued on highly processed and expensive items. While the cents off helps, especially when you combine it with a sale, you have to be careful not to fall into couponing pitfalls. For example, whole carrots are usually cheaper than baby carrots, generic cereal is cheaper than brand name, and that fancy star-shaped pasta with powered sauce is more expensive than plain pasta to which you have added your own sauce, even when you factor in the coupons.
The best way to approach money saving ideas such as sales, coupons and online deals is to first make a list of what it is you need or are looking for and then find some savings on that item. The bottom line then would be price on a particular item, service or experience, not the opportunity to save on whatever happens to come up.