Entertainment Coupon Book

[DaveInPgh]

The threads I found on this topic were really old so I decided to create a new one. Just curious if any of you buy them and if you find them to be a good deal for YOU? Not stating the question in general terms because it really depends if the coupons match up well with YOUR interests.

We recently bought one for a fundraiser so I am not in the least bit griping about what we paid. When my DW was flipping through and clipping coupons she was verbally sharing all of the good coupons with me. However, the majority of the coupons she told me about I receive in the mail with the coupon inserts. Difficult for me to get excited about Entertainment book coupons that I get on a regular basis.

[disneysteve]

We haven't bought one for years. We're past that constant fundraiser stage of our lives fortunately.

I think it is very easy to get your money's worth from them. The problem we always had was simply forgetting to use the coupons. I think the best deals which weren't otherwise readily available were for fine dining restaurants. Those types of places don't typically put out coupons, although today, we have Groupon and Living Social to get those things. Years ago, the Entertainment book was really the only way to get a discount at those spots.

The other good deal around here was a page of coupons from the supermarket for something like $5 off your $50 purchase. There would usually be 6 or 8 of those coupons. That alone would cover the cost of the book.

[creditcardfree]

We would buy them when our daughter's were in school for their fundraiser, and probably used a few of them to make the cost worth it. I wouldn't buy one now though...to cumbersome to deal with when there are other alternatives. Besides, I feel like they encourage spending you might not normally do.

[phantom]

My in-law liked to buy an Enjoy book for us every year. We used them enough that the amount we "saved" would have more than paid for the book. But, we often used the coupons as an excuse to go places we otherwise would not have gone, so it's hard to say we were saving money. It was just a nice way for the in-laws to offset the cost of us entertaining ourselves. But, once we had a our daughter, they realized we weren't going out to eat enough to justify the cost of the book and stopped buying it for us.

Like Dave, I see a lot of the coupons that I saw in the Enjoy Book in flyers that come to our house, and like DisneySteve, I see a lot of similar deals on places like Groupon. It seems like places that are willing to offer a discount for the sake of advertising spam similar discounts all over the place. The only advantages I see to the big books is that the coupons last for a year, so there's less rush to go use them and you always have them on hand.

What I really like are the smaller coupon books and little discount cards filled with more local deals that kids do as fund-raisers. It usually takes fewer uses to get your investment back on those, and I can usually spot one or two deals I'll definitely use. The only problem I have with those is that they're pretty unreliable. One year a kid from the football team sold us a card that had $5 off at one of our favorite restaurants that we could use over and over. When it expired and no one showed up at our door to sell us a new one, we were disappointed.

[MonkeyMama]

A relative was buying these for us for a while (a few years in a row) but we rarely used and we eventually asked her to stop buying them.

We don't go out very much, so we just didn't get much use out of them. There's probably a lot of things we do on a regular basis to save far more money on those type expenses. (For example, I just got $250 in free gift cards from a credit card bonus).

[FLA]

we bought them for years, towards the end we would wait a little while til the price of the book dropped to half. But even then we noticed they had fewer and fewer restaurants in the towns around us. many were for restaurants an hour away or more. I used to recoup the cost of the book with a car detailing coupon (I worked out of my ar all day so this was a treat). Once they stopped even having that, we stopped buying it.

sometimes I get tempted in July when all books are $5

[rennigade]

Sometimes you can find the same coupons in those books online for free. When we did a glacier tour in alaska we found coupons online for $50 off per person. Same coupons were found in the entertainment book. Make sure to search around before buying it.

[disneysteve]

Keep in mind that these are sold as fundraisers, so the point isn't totally to save money but to support the organization.

That said, sometimes it's better to just write a check to the charity and skip the middleman. Ask them how much profit they make on each book and give them that amount (or more if you choose) and be done with it. We've done that numerous times when our daughter was involved in groups doing fundraisers selling candy, nuts, wrapping paper, etc.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Considering buying one as well for the fundraiser.

[bennkar]

Thankfully I was never asked to buy those things. That said, one year (2 decades ago?) I didn't have health insurance I was waiting to pay for a prescription for my wife in a Kmart, and they had Kmart versions of them (had lots of Kmart coupons but also lots of entertainment coupons as well) at the registers. I flipped through and found lots of coupons for prescriptions at their pharmacy. Well I bought two books (for $10 total), and they saved us maybe $500 in pharmacy costs over that year .

[moneybags]

They used to have a discount on American Airlines - somewhere between $10 & $50 a ticket. Check out the travel section.

[msomnipotent]

I used to buy Entertainment books directly from the company every year. I wasn't aware of any fundraisers. Sometimes I would buy more than one depending on the coupons. But then there was less restaurant coupons and a lot of restrictions on the other coupons like Petsmart. Their Pet Hotel coupons made the book worth it for us just with that one coupon, and then they had to go "improving" things. I haven't bought one in so long that I forgot about them.

[DaveInPgh]

The book we just bought for a fundraiser is not an actual "Entertainment" book but I titled the thread as such because it was the most popular book and I really meant for the thread to be all inclusive.

The one we have is called KidStuff and it appears it is a fundraiser book specific to schools. I decided to bring it back inside the car so I could flip through it. Hopefully something really worthwhile jumps out at me.

[bjl584]

I bought one years ago. I used maybe 2 coupons out of it and might have saved a total of $5. It just wasn't worth the $20 for the book. It might be more than that now. I'm not sure.

The concept of that book is outdated in my opinion. The internet allows someone to search for coupons and discounts for anything and everything.

[DaveInPgh]

I bought one years ago. I used maybe 2 coupons out of it and might have saved a total of $5. It just wasn't worth the $20 for the book. It might be more than that now. I'm not sure.

The concept of that book is outdated in my opinion. The internet allows someone to search for coupons and discounts for anything and everything.

I think this particular book is $25 now. Not 100% sure on that since my DW is the one that purchased it. However, it was a fundraiser for our child and 50% goes toward activities. So we are essentially only out $12.50 for the book.