Remember the days before Groupon where we had to buy everything full price? Or just not buy anything at all because we didn’t have any money or friends? Yeah those were the days. Now it feels like there’s a deal for everything. I’ve used Groupons for discounts on food, manicures, surfing, hotel rooms, and many other random things that I wouldn’t purchase on my own unless they were a really good dealio.
But sometimes Groupon is tricky. Let’s say you get all excited and buy a super cool discounted movie ticket (or something equally as dumb), print it out, put it somewhere for safe keeping, and then wait for the next time you want to see a movie. You end up dragging your spouse to Monsters University and you forget the Groupon that could have saved you some money. You tell yourself that you’ll bring it next time. But you forget again and again until the deal expires and you actually end up wasting your money. Sucker! Groupon gotcha!
One time my husband bought us a Groupon for a restaurant in town called Sauce. What a stupid name. Anyway, every weekend we kept telling ourselves “Okay we have to use the Sauce Groupon” until one day we walked past Sauce and it was closed. Like, it went out of business. Luckily Groupon refunded our money, but still. I really wanted to use that coupon.
Perhaps the worst Groupon experience I’ve had as of late involved the purchasing of hair tools. It was an amazing deal–spend $15 and get $115 worth of product. SUCH A GOOD DEAL, RIGHT? Wrong. I bought the Groupon and went to the website to buy a new curling iron, only to find out that nothing was cheaper than $200. Groupon got me big time. Or at least that hair tool company did. I could have just left my mistake alone and realized that I wasted $15 dollars, but I just went for it and bought a crazy curling iron for like $89 bucks. FML.
So children, I ask you to do your research. Learn from my Groupon mistakes. And don’t let your husband buy a tandem kayaking Groupon without your consent. If you don’t hear from me in the next month, I probably died by drowning in a flipped over kayak and an orca whale bit my torso off.
Lily In Canada 
This is how trying to save money ends up costing a fortune. Haha! Please don’t go kayaking with the Orcas or I might have to kill you myself. 😀
True. It’s sad because people have such good intentions. The thing is, when Groupon is good, it’s good. I’ve gotten some good gel manicures for only $20! But it can definitely backfire.
Lol I’m sure the kayaking will be interesting…the deal also came with free burgers…lol
We bought a groupon once!
Every time we remembered to check the place (not that often), they had no open sessions for what we bought.
then it expired.
Meh.
Kayaking with Orcas sounds like a grand adventure! Where do I sign?
Eh yeah I hate when that happens. One of the downsides to Groupon. You probably have so many deals since you live in a big city. I could see where that could get overwhelming. Here in my little corner of Canada, we don’t have that many options. Hmmm.
Hah yeah you would probably enjoy this! You might have to venture over to the pacific northwest to see some orcas, so come on over!
I always forget about my Groupons. Not to mention the embarrassing act of telling someone, “Hi, I have a Groupon…”
Lol I know right? I always feel so bad saying that I have a Groupon. I think I’ve had someone roll their eyes at me once. Fun!
I’m such a sucker with groupons, and like Katie I always forget about them too. I’ve had one for a certain.. shall we say… esthetic service for months now and keep forgetting to use it. This is how they make their money! It’s like offering people a refund if they don’t like a product.. how many ppl are actually going to muster up the time and energy to take it back? exaaactly
Haha I like how you said exaaactly to your own point! Hah but yes, exaaactly! It’s way too much energy to exchange things or get refunds. So lame. Hah I’ve also gotten certain esthetic services with groupons as well…!
I’ve never used a Groupon. I feel like an anomaly. I once loved orcas, even after they splashed us at Sea World. However, after seeing Rust and Bone, I’ll avoid them for the rest of my life.
I never saw Rust and Bone but I heard it was really good. Hmm. I feel bad for the orcas in Sea World 😦
It takes way less energy to not use Groupon.
Anne took me to see it. Orca ate her legs. I would too if I had to do all those tricks for a couple of herring.
Have you noticed how annoying the fine print is as well? It’s like you can only use this voucher on the last Sunday of the month between 1.05pm and 1.06pm – the excitement at getting a good deal still gets me though!
Lol yes! I hate that and I never check until it’s too late. Arggg. But yeah, I keep coming back because a good deal is a good deal!
HA! I used to feel awkward using a Groupon, but now I just wave it proudly – “Hey there! Yeah, I’m on a budget and I AM USING A GROUPON – DISCOUNT, PLEASE.”
Lol yeah same! Sometimes I feel like I’m disappointing the people who run the businesses because they won’t be making any money off of my visit haha. Oh well!
I completely agree with you! Man, we had so many unused coupons lying around that it became a total chore to keep up with the expiration dates and when the H we could use them. Good deals (or the hope of getting them) is SOOO addictive!
It really is addictive and becomes overwhelming when you have a couple to keep track of! It’s always such a bummer when you don’t use one up! A good deal turns into a waste of money!
Hahahaha yes! Plus now I have the fear that I’ll have paid full price for something when I could have gotten it for 85%, if only I’d trawled the internet for hours finding that obscure voucher deal online.
Hahah I know. It’s so dumb. But it always feels like a miracle when you find exactly what you’re looking for online. It’s like, YESSSSS. 😀
Dating and Groupon. Go hand in hand. That’s not cheap right? It’s economical.
Actually I have never bought anything from Groupon. A lot of the stuff is, as you mentioned, things that I wouldn’t usually buy. Just because I can save $20 dollars on something that I wasn’t going to buy before, doesn’t mean I will buy it now.
Still, I browse Groupon every so often.
Right! I usually invest in restaurant deals so yeah–dates a plenty.
Yeah I’ve always felt that way with saving money in general. I never understood why people would buy things just because it’s a good deal.
You never know when you’ll come across something good though…