My foray into couponing

Last year at this time I got into couponing. It started with a seminar by the Grocery Guru and just snowballed from there. For a while I would take the coupons from our paper then go buy two more at the Holiday down the street and spend a couple of hours stapling, cutting and filing new coupons, purging the expired ones, and scouring all the couponing websites for the best deals at all the grocery stores. It was fun. And I got some really good deals. But it really did take a lot of time. And I was always thinking "oh I have to get to this store and I have to make sure I have these coupons and I have to update my coupons to make sure I have the most current ones etc etc etc." And it took so much time to make the list and get my coupons in order and shop for the best best deals that I didn't make my weekly menus and shop for those. And then there was the times that the thing I went for was sold out because everybody else had the same coupons and the same great deals as I did so I would be kind of antsy needing to find another great deal because I didn't get the one great deal and ARGGH. I would end up with some great cheap food but no meals. And no gumption to create meals because I had spent so much energy on obtaining the food. So the grocery couponing kind of settled out of my favor. But don't worry because I haven't given up on coupons altogether! I found that I could get FABULOUS deals on shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup, toothpaste, floss, medicines, etc at my local Walgreens. Seriously, I have so much of this type of stuff for virtually free that now I don't even get it unless it is free. I have tons. At least two years' worth and that's not exaggerating. And diapers! Not free, but a lot cheaper than Costco, which is where I was buying beforehand because it was the cheapest I could find. And the good thing about shopping the Walgreens deals were that there were just a few items a week and I could prepare beforehand. So now I don't cut all my coupons when I get them. Which is nice because instead of buying more papers I just asked the neighbors if they would pull their coupons for me. And then I just file them away and when I check my hip2save.com weekly Walgreens list, I just get out the file of the date of the coupon and see if I have it. And I rarely print coupons unless it's for multiple dollars... like on a dvd or diapers. Yeah, it takes a little time but nothing like the overwhelmingness I felt before. And my Walgreens is close (which is why I chose Walgreens over RiteAid or other stores with similar ads)... we frequently walk in good weather and the cashiers all know me and my kids and ask about them when I go without them and ask about me if Brent for some reason stops in without me. It's kind of embarrassing but I'm okay with it. And thankfully I've done it for long enough that I don't have to sit and think and figure for a long time to "get" the deal. And even more thankfully I've done it for long enough to see that the same deals really do keep coming up so if I miss it I don't feel as sad. What I've really gained, though, is just knowing that there are DEALS. If you do this and this you can get this. And I'm much more aware of things like that. For example, I noticed that at Burger King you could get a Whopper combo meal for 2.99 on Wednesdays. Cool. Then I got some BK coupons in the mail and one of them was buy a Whopper combo meal and get another Whopper free. So I went on Wednesday to get my combo meal plus free Whopper for dinner when I notice that on the same sheet of coupons I can get a kids meal for 99 cents with the purchase of a combo. So I added that on top of it. And then got an order of crown nuggets for the kid who wasn't getting the nuggets in the kids meal. SO I ended up with two Whoppers, a drink, fries, two orders of crown nuggets, kid fries, a kid drink, and a kid prize for $5. I was excited. And most of what it took was just being AWARE of the deals and the coupons. I do love seeing people with binders of coupons because I knew exactly what they're doing and how much fun they're having doing it. But I'm glad I've toned it down and am more moderate in what I do than before. Because I still save a lot of money. And I feel a lot calmer in my heart. And there's no coupon for that :)