Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Coupon Karma

Hannah has been an awesome sport trekking along with me through my coupon madness this week. You see, there's a great sale at my local grocery store for cereal and I figured I'd give the whole drug store reward program thing a try at Rite Aid. If I thought I knew anything about coupons before, the past few weeks have been an eye opener. I've been using the website www.forthemamas.com to find out how to pair my coupons and sales. It's making a huge difference! Our cabinets are stocked and the bank account isn't empty.

I'm really excited about couponing (in moderation) because there are several positive things that will come out of it.

1. More savings means I can stay home longer with Hannah.

2. Following the sales is encouraging me to diversify my menu. I'm incorporating healthy, in-season foods and using my creativity to learn how to cook new things!

3. I can start making donations and care packages. This would be nearly impossible on a limited budget, but now I can collect extra items for the Ronald McDonald House and soldiers overseas- two causes near and dear to our family.

4. Extra coupons don't have to go to waste. Last week I sent all my expired coupons to a friend at a military base since they can continue to use them for 6 months! (If you don't know a military family, but would like to donate your coupons check out this site: http://www.ocpnet.org/Mailing/Mailing1.htm)

5. Today I handed out two dupes to other Mamas at the store shopping for the same stuff. It feels great to "pay it forward" and put a smile on a stranger's face.

One of the things that turned me off about using coupons for the longest time was having to cut them out. I finally realized I could use my paper slicer (like the one in the picture) and it is so easy now. I can zip through an insert in minutes and then I organize them in a photo album.



I'm pretty sure the coupon booklet in my mailbox this afternoon was a direct result of all my good couponing karma. If you've been turned off by Extreme Couponing, maybe this new point of view will show you that using coupons can be much easier and more beneficial than you thought.

1 comment:

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