Crazy Coupon Lady

We've all seen them.. with their binders and their calculators, they have this money saving thing down to an art! Thanks to the show "Extreme Couponing" more and more people are taking an interest in shopping with coupons. And alas.. even I have succumb to such a thing. I don't have a binder yet, but I do have a coupon for one!

For me its for fun and to save money. At the end of the 2010-2011 school year my husband's hours at work were cut.. no more overtime.. and hardly a normal work week. Our budget was made for his baseline check but we always had more than that. Our budget had always been more of a loose guideline to where our money should go than a real budget. Now... that's it. What's in that budget is what we have.. no more, no less. My sweet husband panicked a little. I told him, we can do this.. the budget makes sure everything gets paid.. we're just going to have to be diligent with what we have. Summer vacations were rethought, birthday parties were canceled and out came the scissors. I started to get excited every Sunday and Wednesday. Sunday for the coupons and Wednesday for the grocery store sale adds. I have *almost* cut our grocery budget in half over the past month. I'm in AWE of the mighty coupon LOL. I watch the coupon show and I used to laugh at the people who had these stock piles of stuff. Now, I am one of those people. I have no need for paper towels or toilet paper ( I have more rolls than I plan to count) Dish soap (I have 12 bottles) shaving cream (4 cans) Laundry detergent (3 BIG bottles) or fabric softener and dryer sheets ( I have enough to last us 3 months) and that's not counting canned goods and cereal. If there is a good sale on something we use and I have a coupon, or 4, I buy it. I go into a store, I have my list and how much those items are and how much my total cost should be at checkout. This is how I shop. That way, before I even leave the house I know how much money I'm going to spend. That has saved us. We still watch it and opt for date night in rather than go out. We've signed the kids up for free bowling all summer.. that as been a BLAST. Through this tough time we have learned more about each other than I think we would have otherwise. It's brought us closer together and I am so thankful for it ^_^ HURRAY FOR COUPONS ^_^