I usually don’t try using coupons since many of the codes shown on websites don’t work, but I feel bad for not trying hard or smart enough. I’ve heard good things about Retailmenot, I haven’t tried it yet but I wondering if there are privacy trade-offs.
People who have accounted for their own spent time often feel the coupons are wasteful. That’s before accounting for the costs of purchases made that could have been skipped, or where the discount led to buying a worse product, and needing to rebuy a better one later.
I’m not familiar with that service, but it’s a safe bet that it has privacy costs. People don’t set up and organize discount programs out of kind heartedness. At best they plan to sell us something we don’t need. At worst they’re selling everything they can learn about us to anyone with a nickel.