I love coupons and great deals. Being a stay at home mom and a homeschooler, I think that I often sacrifice a little bit more than average just so I can stay home with my kids and provide them with an education.
My little one loves the TLC show "Extreme Couponing". I like it, too, but in a sense that I would rubberneck a train wreck. He wants me to fill our house up with groceries for 35 cents. This is not realistic. Here are some reasons why.
If you watch the show, you will see the shoppers buying entire pallets of Powerade and/or Vitamin Water. This is a trick they're doing to get their numbers up for the show. Most stores offer regular deals on both of those items. Pair them with a coupon and you get free product. Sometimes you can even use a coupon for "Free Stuff when you buy Vitamin Water" and get more free stuff. This is really a no brainer. So, they buy 200 bottles and use 200 coupons. What they DON'T say is the amount of work they put into acquiring those coupons. They've literally spent weeks gathering them together.
These people apparently live in areas where they don't have a grocery tax. We have that here in Alabama. My grocery bill will never be zero.
Pay attention to their baskets. Do you really want to feed your family Yakisoba noodles, barbecue sauce and candy every day?
I recently got back into couponing after a 3 year hiatus. When I learned, I was taught strong ethics by my coach and the phrase "Fly under the radar" was used often. To this day I am thankful for that. Sometimes, some of these people on TV are dipping their feet into the grey area of couponing that we will call fraud. They will justify it however they feel like they need to, but I stand by the statement "Just because you can does not mean you should." Exercise impulse control. It is good for kids to see the parent controlling themselves.
Now, here is the part where I will detail a normal shopping trip for a normal person.
Yesterday, I went to a store here that is called Food Giant. They double coupons up to $1.
Pairing up ads with sales, I bought
2 bags of cat litter for .38 each
4 jars of spaghetti sauce for .75 each
1 package of cat treats = free
3 boxes of microwave popcorn for 1.24 each
6 packages of hot dogs for .19 each
1 can of French fried onions for .68
6 dish scrubbies for .43 each
2 bottles of L&P worcestershire sauce for 1.18 each
A small package of beef ribs .50
A pound of ground turkey .50
2 small steaks for appx 1.25 each
Now, because I don't have a goal of getting my number down to zero, I am perfectly happy with what I spent. I can take some of the money saved and put it in a jar for a weekend trip to the beach which we keep promising the kids and not delivering on.
Today I am making a run to another store for drinks, milk, yogurt, and coffee. I have a specific plan and a list with coupon matchups. However, the store is often sold out because there are people who will buy ALL of a deal because they don't care if anyone else gets to save money as long as they're getting theirs. We'll see what happens, because I don't go to multiple stores, looking for the same deal. Gas is too expensive for that.
And I WON'T be spending 4 hours in line at the checkout.
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