I Love a Good Coupon

Ryan walked in from the garage yesterday with four loosely bundled newspapers up to his chin, plopped them on the counter and started flipping through them.

“Left-overs?”  I said.  He had just gotten back from delivering papers from his once-weekly paper route.

“Yeah, and these have great coupons in them!”

I love it when kids act like good consumers.  It’s a learned skill; kids don’t usually automatically scour the paper for coupons.  But when they are responsible for buying their own stuff…well that helps teach the lesson pretty quickly.

He had totally scored on coupons this week.  A favorite hangout for Ryan and his friends is Sky Zone, an indoor dodgeball facility.  Dodgeball!  Who knew?

Ryan bought himself a year pass a few months ago but it only covers some of the cost.  He figured in six visits he would have “made” his money back.  It cost him $29.95 and he gets two free hours and free shoe rentals for a year.

He’s used his two free visits and has been working his way through the shoe rentals ($2).  But he now has to pay the $9/hour rate.  The coupons in the paper were for $2 off an hour jump session.

So now, instead of having to pay $11 for each session, with the membership and coupon, he only pays $7.  Not bad.

But the best part, he gave two of the coupons to Nathan.  Saving money is important.  But sharing with your brother is even better.