My Couponing Chronicle

So, I'm watching The Bachelorette right now, and I'm totally hooked. I don't know why this show always gets me, but it does. Pretty much every season. Even though it's ridiculous and unrealistic and staged, and none of the relationships turn into marriage except for approximately 2. Maybe this one will join them. There's just something about reality shows that involve dating, lots of eager people vying for one person's love, and lots of times making fools of themselves much to my enjoyment.

Anyways, I thought I would make myself useful while I'm basking in the Bachelorette world. I just wanted to give an update on how I'm doing with CoUpOnInG. Much to Jake's chagrin, I'm still pluggin away at it! He actually let me order a Sunday newspaper so that I could get the coupons, cuz without those you pretty much can't do much as far as deals go. (All die hard couponers subscribe to 3 or more Sunday papers, but 1 is good for now). So that has been nice, and right now I'm clipping them and I keep all my coupons in an accordian pocket holder, which is bustin at the seams and kind of hard to find things in! For the die hard couponers, there are two methods: The clipping binder method, or the non-clipping file drawer method. I haven't figured out which one I want to commit to. The binder is nice, even though a little dorky, cuz you can carry them wherever you go and have on hand when you see a good sale. It just takes a lot of time to clip and organize. The file drawer method saves time...you just date the coupon insert that comes in the mail, file it away and then when you hear or read about a good deal, you go back to that coupon and clip it. We'll see...I haven't decided yet, if I'm going to do either or just stick to my pocketbook.

The couponing blogs I regularly follow are: freebies2deals.com, utahdealdiva.com, krazycouponlady.com, hip2save.com, and dealwisemommy.com. Fun, huh? It's like a whoooole new world in these blogs. It's crazy how many people follow them and go and get the deals and do the exact transactions that are suggested. Now I know why products are always out of stock so fast, cuz the word gets out even faster that something is free with a coupon and sale. Some of those blogs are more for giveaways and letting you know about free samples, which I always love. The other day when I got the mail, our little mailbox was crammed full of boxes of free samples. It was all this stuff... It brightened my day. :) (Most of them are from walmart.com, by the way) And I just got another box full of some of the same stuff through Sam's Club. It's nice to have some lil stuff to put away for travelling or 72 hour kits.

So, I've gotten a lot of free things through couponing...deodorant, toothbrushes, tons of food, body wash, baby wipes, shampoo, medicine, cleaning products, etc. It's so fun to get free things! But in all my couponing zeal and excitement, I've felt the need to go and get lots of deals and hit lots of sales. In doing so, I've gone OVER budget every week since I started a couple months ago. How does THAT happen?? It perplexes me. But now I'm levelling out and getting over the beginner's naivity, and realizing that I do not need to go get every single deal and get products that I wouldn't normally use.

The negative side of my couponing experience thus far is: that I've spent a little more money in order to accomodate the deals, and we've got a LOT more snacky junk foods in the house than we ever have before! Cookies, chips, crackers, candy galore. Even though lots of them were free, I'm still kind of regretting having them in my food storage because they get EATEN! And I'm normally so good at buying healthy foods. So what I've realized is, before couponing I would have never bought a pack of Bar-S hot dogs because they're the lowest end, cheapest hot dogs out there. But now I've got 3 packs in the freezer because they were pretty much free. But when did money suddenly rule over quality in my life? So that's something I need to balance. And I need to start actually spending LESS than our budget, because I really have been saving tons of money at the store as is apparent by our surplus, but Jake hasn't been convinced yet. :)

The positive side: The freezer is full, the cupboards are bursting, the toiletry shelf is packed and my food storage in the basement is overflowing! So that's a good feeling. I like having this as a hobby that I can use to our advantage. I know that I can get better at it, and if anything I know now that I don't have to pay full price for anything! And grocery shopping is actually fun now- I get excited to check out and see how much I save. Last week at Smith's, I spent $30 and saved over $50! A little secret about shopping at Smith's is the e-coupons! There are websites now that provide coupons that you can load to your fresh values card. I mostly just use Smiths.com, and load all the digital coupons to my card, AND use manufacturer coupons as well! They let you use both on the same product! So I got some Prevacid (for my occasional heartburn) that was priced at $9.99, had a $6 e-coupon and a $6 paper coupon, and so it actually MADE me 2 bucks! I also got 2 Old Spice deodorants for free in the same trip, from using a digital and paper coupon.The cashiers don't even notice the digital coupons that appear on the screen, so they don't even question it! It's great, you should try it. It'll make your day.

Ok I'm done with my rambling update. In conclusion, if anyone has experience and wants to help me out, holla! And if others of you think couponing is ridiculous, I want your coupons! :)