Thursday, October 13, 2011

My Coupon Story

Jenny at Southern Savers prompted us to share why we use coupons and I thought it would be nice to post here also.

 
My husband and I used to fight about money all the time. He set a budget based on how much money we had left after bills, savings, etc. I felt like it was waay too low ($50 for 2 people for a week), so I would just go and get what we needed and let him deal with "making it work." It sounds horrible now, but the way I felt was that we NEEDED food, but the other things, like saving for retirement, were not as important for a pair of twenty-somethings. I would always look at the circular and set up my menu around the sales and I would almost always buy generic. I thought I was a savvy shopper and if I couldn't make $50 a week work, then it must be impossible. I would regularly spend $100-$150 dollars per week and it would inevitably lead to a fight.  While I was complaining to my sister one day, she told me..again…to try couponing.  She had been following Jenny’s blog for a while, but I thought it was too complicated for me.  Finally, I decided to try CVS/pharmacy.  I watched all the tutorials and read all the “getting started” information and then I waited for a week that Jenny was excited about to try my hand at it.  It only took 2 weeks of free stuff for me to get hooked on using coupons.  Now, a year later, we have added a baby and I have a comfortable grocery budget of $75 per week.  For that, we get all the essentials and even have money left for non-essentials, like body wash and ice cream.  I really feel like I’m “living the life” and I feel that coupons make our lifestyle comfortable.  It’s funny because I live better “in this recession” than I ever did before.  I have more in my pantry and more in my wallet than I had a year or two ago; I feel like a complete coupon success story.

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