We all realize that there’s some real potential to save money by using grocery coupons.  A quarter here, a 2-for-1 there…  It can add up.  Serious economizers swear by smart coupon use (hitting the stores on coupon doubling days and buying pantry items in bulk when the deals are too good to pass up, etc.).  It’s like a big pile of cash is waiting for you in every Sunday’s paper if you’ll take the time to read through the ad circulars with a pair of scissors in your hands.

And that’s where the deal falls apart for most of us.  We’re either too busy or too lazy t0 make a point of chopping those grocery coupons out of the paper.  It’s one of those great “at your fingertips” ways to save some money that we just don’t use to our advantage.

That’s why coupon books sound like such a fantastic idea.  You can by a book of vouchers for the coupons you want at a fraction of the coupon face value.  For fifteen bucks, for instance, you can get a booklet of vouchers that might offer up to two hundred dollars in coupons.  And the fact that you get to choose the products for which you want the coupons makes it sound even better.

Well, that’s exactly what my wife thought a couple of years ago when a couple of fresh-faced kids came knocking on the door.  They explained the value of the book, the low price and, if I’m not mistaken, there may have even been some sort of vague promise that a worthy cause was going to get a chunk of our money, too.

We’re gonna buy food with or without the coupons an fifteen dollars isn’t a lot of money, she reasoned.  She bought a book.  Who wouldn’t want to trade fifteen bucks for two hundred?

It turned out that this little grocery coupon investment was a disaster.  The Federal Trade Comission doesn’t hesitate to call these things scams.  I don’t know if they’re all crooked, but any grocery coupon book working from this model is definitely not the best deal in the world, to put it mildly.  If Mrs. Dellison had done her homework online, she wouldn’t have made the buy.  The reviews of these babies are generally NOT positive.

Here’s why you should avoid any of these coupon voucher books.

First, you need to list about three dozen products for which you’ll accept coupons for each of the vouchers you use.  If you’re like us, you don’t really purchase three dozen name-brand grocery items on a truly consistent, month in and month out basis.

Second, the list of available products isn’t comprehensive.  So even if you do have several big-brand products on your regular shopping list, the company probably isn’t going to offer coupons for all of them.

Third, the devil is in the details of the fine print.  The company doesn’t really promise to fill your order.  It promises to try.  Trying is nice and all but it doesn’t save you money on lunch meat, if you get my drift.

Fourth, these suckers will nickel and dime you death.  There are handling or processing fees for your vouchers and the book we got even required us to pony up the return postage for when they got around to sending the coupons to us.

We did get coupons.  They “tried” to fill our order and managed about a 40% success rate in getting us the coupons we wanted.  Not so great.  It took forever to get them and unless you’re the most organized and consistent shopper in the whole world (and have psychic powers), waiting for the coupons to show up is a bit of an aggravation.  Oh, and one of the coupons we did receive was on the very brink of expiration (better buy that cereal TODAY!).

We never bothered with a second voucher.  An hour with a pair of scissors and the Sunday news makes much more sense.

Now, if you’re still not ready to do that, there might be another solution.  The Simple Dollar had a post that talked about online coupon brokers.  They gave one a rave review.  These are sites where you can purchase the exact tickets you need for far less than the coupon face value and it might be worth considering.

If those kids come knocking at your door, however, it is not worth considering their coupon voucher book.  This is one deal you should avoid.