Coupons are very valuable commodities. They are almost as good as cash, because they can save cash at the supermarket. And the more coupon savvy we become, the more we can save.

Most coupons have expiration dates, from the time you cut them out, they have an average life of about 2 ½ months. Does that mean we should use every coupon we have? The answer is no. We use coupons to:

• Save money
• To maximize savings when used in conjunction with store sales
• To try new products when high valued-coupons are issued
• Trade with friends to get other coupons

If a coupon is do to expire, and we don’t really need the item, or if it hasn’t been on sale then the coupon loses its value. It’s important to discriminate between need, savings and losing the coupon to expiration. In almost every case, I’d let the coupon expire.