Have you ever watched Extreme Couponing? It's the show where families walk out of the grocery store with $700 of food they paid $5 for because of coupons. If you haven't seen the show, I urge you to proceed with caution because 2 things can tend to happen.
1. You become OBSESSED with Extreme Couponing and think even you yourself can do it too! Even thought you can't devote your time to it like you would a full time job because YOU HAVE a full time job already, that's ok...you'll be able to figure stuff out on the weekends. Plus, YOU WILL HAVE ALL OF THIS FREE FOOD FOR PENNIES!!! Oh the savings.
2. You become extremely depressed. Look at these people, look at the stress they have to go through to get the amount they want. They run themselves ragged in order to make sure they march out of the store with free groceries to load up their 'stockpile' with.
For those of you unfamiliar with the 'stockpile', it's basically the equivalent to your zombie apocalypse stash. Don't worry everyone! I have enough razor blades, shaving cream, and toilet paper to last us into the next millennium...we may not have water to wash with or food to eat but it's ok...these items were FREE! Sounds crazy right, I mean, who would d such a crazy thing?!? Well...you're looking at one, er...well reading something from one (I guess you're looking at your screen. Just envision me as the incredibly stylish and sassy one with a taste for champagne. I'd chose that to be my header if I ever took out a personal column in the paper...just fyi. Now where were we?)
See...
I was person #1. I KNEW I would be able to pull it off. I watched the show enough and I tried some of these crafty people's tricks:
Bought the Sunday Paper for Coupons/ took coupons out of the Sunday paper from work (I would get there early if I was working on Sunday's or if my assistant was working and not me, I would tell her to fish them out of the paper for me.
Recycle Bin Dived...yep...I was a dumpster diver...all in the name of saving cash.
Printed coupons off the internet
Bought Coupons off of eBay...yep...people do that too. You might even be wondering, Wait, you're trying to SAVE money, how come you're spending money on this. My answer to you would be, GREAT QUESTION!
Over the course of my couponing, the pattern I picked up was, the same junk food was always on sale. There was never any fruit or vegetables on sale, meat, or cheese. It was always processed junk or cleaning products. There would be times when if you bought 6 boxes of cereal at once, you'd get a free gallon of milk, however, you're then stuck with 6 boxes of cereal you probably won't be able to finish before it gets stale...BUT I GOT THE MILK FOR FREE. Over the course of 2 months, I accumulated the following products:
15 bottles of Lysol Bathroom Cleaner
50 Boxes of Cereal
25 Boxes of Hamburger Helper
10 Bottles of Ken's Steakhouse Marinade and Salad Dressing
27 Boxes of Gushers
12 Boxes of Granola Bars
30 Boxes of tampons (sorry for the men reading this)
5 Cans of Shaving Cream
6 Packs of Hershey's Chocolate Bars
12 Boxes of Popcorn
I bet you're wondering how much of this I got "for free." The answer is none of it! Sure, I had coupons for these items and it made them extremely cheap on the unit price, but I had to buy in bulk. What couple needs 50 boxes of cereal...it's all lies. To be honest, I had hopped by 'saving' money couponing, I would be able to spend more money on healthy foods.
So riddle me this Batman, why is it that I can buy a 99 cent box of mac and cheese that isn't good for me (it tastes delicious though) but a Honeycrisp apple will cost you $2.50. It doesn't make any sense. While I have been doing my Advocare 24 Day Challenge I have noticed that I have been spending more on food at the store than I normally would, like $12.99 for a jar of Justin's Almond butter. Even though it's better since it's not processed and full of additives, it has increased our food budget a tad. I consider myself lucky too because I don't feel strapped when I grocery shopping and I don't have to stick to a super strict food budget, other families don't have that luxury. I will get down from my soap box now...the subject of food costs has always been something I scratch my head over. It's really not fair I am wish something would change. So how does this relate back to Extreme Couponing? I am getting there.
I was in my 3rd month of couponing and I was hearing the little voice in my head (the Hubs) saying, do we really need 32 boxes of Baking Soda?,
"Yes honey, we do...I'll get it for 2 cents a box this way...No onto the Yakisoba containers...I need 72 of those to get them for 5 cents each." I would like to point out here that I hadn't ever tried the Yakisoba out of the box before, I just happened to have a coupon for it that would make it insanely cheap. The power shopper inside of me was doing a happy dance for her potential savings. The last item on my list was Pillsbury brownie mix.
There is was...the last one in the shelf. I went to grab it and it immediately got snatched out of my hand by this woman who smelled as if she hadn't had a shower since last Tuesday (you might think I am being rude but no...I am actually being nice here). I made a comment about having my hand on it and before I could finish she snapped at me,
"IT'S MINE. I GOT IT FIRST!"
I went to grab a different Pillsbury brownie mix and then she again snapped, "THE COUPON YOU'RE HOLDING DOESN'T WORK WITH THAT ONE."
Ok. Reality Check.
I stopped to ask myself 'what' and 'why' was I doing this? This 'thing' that was supposed to save me money but, in fact, it was just the opposite. I was spending more in the long run on things I didn't need and also things that weren't any good for me. Not a vegetable or a fruit in my cart, just junk that didn't even taste good and eventually would go to waste anyway or on my ass. I turned around and left my cart with my coupons still inside of it. I could hear my smelly friend muttering to her husband, "quick, she left everything, let's see if she has anything we need." I wanted nothing to do with this couponing ever again.
Don't get me wrong- I am in no way saying that people who do this aren't successful at it and are as rude as this woman.I am sure there are many out there that donate to charities what they get for free. I don't want any crazy comments or emails from successful couponers please!
Yes, this post doesn't have much to do with my Advocare Challenge I have been doing with the exception of realizing that I would rather pay more for something healthy like that jar of that almond butter than spend the money on Top Ramen that is full of sodium and will only make me look puffy...not a good look, especially when bathing suit season is approaching and "puffy" is not one of the trends I saw on the runway. I am worth the $12.99 for the expensive, healthy treat and YOU ARE TOO. Ok, seems I got back on that soap box again, I'm really gonna get down this time.
I will post recipes from this weekend on tomorrow's edition while I watch The Bachelor...my guilty pleasure. :)
Eat your greens!
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