For a family of seven, saving has always been really important to me, but clipping coupons was never really high on my list of ways to save. Personally, I have always been a little on the fence when it came to coupon shopping, mostly because I am easily embarrassed, and pulling out a stack of coupons and having others wait behind me while the cashier rang me up was high on my list of easily embarrassing moments; that was until Saturday, April 30th.
I came across an episode of Extreme Couponing on TLC; in amazement, I watched three extreme couponers save huge amounts of money. I didn’t want twenty-three packs of noodles, but I did want to cut my grocery and personal care shopping bills in half.
My goal was to save at least half of my monthly shopping budget and thus began my coupon journey. The Coupon Challenge, Coupon Teacher, and Southern Savers are the three couponing websites I started with, reading everything they had to teach me about couponing.
I spend all day Sunday clipping coupons and getting my binder organized. My cost breakdown for getting started:
1 Binder – $5.98
2 packs business card sleeves – $3.88/ea
2 Sunday Paper – $2.16/ea
Fortunately, I started on one of Harris Teeter’s Super Double Weeks. I made two trips and managed to save over Seventy-Five Dollars. Needless to say, I have been couponing now for almost a year, and it has been great. I stock up on condiments, body wash, deodorant, cereal, and can stuff that comes in handy for a quick dinner.
Couponing works because I have realistic goals and zero intentions of raiding the grocery store’s shelves. Extreme Couponing is more of a build-up for unrealistic expectations; the truth is, all the grocery stores in Raleigh, North Carolina have limits on how many coupons can be doubled per day.
Start couponing or don’t; that is your personal choice. Ignore the people behind you with their bad manners and grunts, and don’t pay any attention to the arrogant cashier you might be unfortunate to run across every now and again. Plan your shopping trip well and get your coupons in order, and you will do just fine.
