Alas nothing is free-everything comes with a cost. Even swapping points for a reward (something of value) you still expended energy an time in earning those points. My father used to say, quite frequently, that time is our most precious commodity. Using coupon resulted in spending time opening the newspaper/mail, reviewing the offerings and clipping the coupons. Something as simple as a walk costs money: you can not, legally, do it naked so the clothes on your back come at a cost as does the time spent walking (could be used to make more money). I had heard, somewhere, that it would cost Bill Gates (Microsoft software founder) thousands of dollars to stop and pick up a one hundred dollar bill due to what he makes per second.