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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Extreme Couponing Envy


Extreme couponing = extreme envy.  When I watch this show I am slightly contemplating getting a binder and sitting at a table with my 4 children cutting through a sea coupons.  It's a great way to develop fine motor skills by the way.  Images of grocery trips lined with buggy after buggy of toilet paper and barbecue sauce dance around in my head.  Then reality (my 17 month old) smacks me in the head. There is no way I would have that much time to devote to something so extreme, but maybe I am saying this because I have never gotten thousands of dollars worth of food for FREE.

I love these women's commitment to finding free ways to feed their family.  I love the idea of making lists, creating a binder with sections, pockets, zippers, secret codes etc...  Okay the secret code thing was made up.  And- the stock piles.  (That's where the envy begins for me.)  I would love to go into a storage room with neatly lined shelves of toilet paper with labels facing gloriously at me.  Who wouldn't?  On some level it reminds me of people who have bunkers in the event of war or something.  That thought doesn't hang around long though.

To be honest, I have my own extreme shopping addiction.  Cereal boxes.  Since staying at Libby's house for almost a month this summer I started craving a shelf of neatly lined cereal boxes.  Don't ask me why but I just like the look of it.  So now I can't stop buying cereal when it is on sale.  By the way we only eat cold cereal once a week.  So these babies are sticking around for a long time.

I am also obsessed with price matching.  I have utilized charts, iPhone apps and monthly menu planners in an effort to capitalize on savings.  It is addictive.  The more you save the more you want to save. This new world is shocking to me because I was the one who would spend the same amount on a pair of shoes as I did on my rent.  Shocking I know.  But they were really nice shoes.

Do you have extreme couponing envy?  (Search deep down...trust me it's there.)

3 comments:

Mike and Katie said...

I have NO coupon envy because none of the stuff we eat falls into the coupon category. Oh, sure there's the occasional sale coupon for lettuce or carrots but there's stock piling that.

My neighbor was doing that for a while and she showed me the stuff she was getting for really cheap or free. It was processed foods we don't or can't eat or hair and skin products we don't or can't use.

Nope, but I do like buying 50 lbs bags of quick oats, 75 lbs dry beans and 1/2 beef. That's the kind of stock pile I like.

voiceofreason said...

I am totally with you on this one Myrtle! I would totally do the coupon thing if I had the time!! But I always question if the coupon process is the same here in Canada as in the states, somehow I don't think it is.
:( I also envy the stock pile, I am going through hard times and I have been through even worse before, it would be so nice to know you have something to fall back on if you need to. BUT what I would like to do even more and would get soooo much more from is donating alot of those products to food banks or families that need it. Every year I volunteer with a Christmas Food hamper program and it makes me feel so fulfilled knowing someone is smiling because of something I did.
Great Blog topic Myrtle!

Anonymous said...

I'm more with Katie above. I'm also Canadian--I do now know anyone who can find coupons like they do in the States, which is just across the border for us. Wish i could find some for some products--I do find the show is making me look harder and I've signed up for some coupon websites.

It sure would be nice to go shopping in my own stock pile, but I don't think that will happen.