Friday, April 22, 2011

Becky In Couponland

I titled this as "Becky in Couponland" as sort of a play on Alice in Wonderland.  She was pushed and pulled in so many different directions.  She was confused at times.  She was in way over her head more than once ... almost to the point of losing it!  She had lots of decisions to make - some were good for her and some could have been better!  I feel like that sometimes, in the sea of coupons and saving.  It can be overwhelming sometimes. 
I've learned that you have to have a plan.  And I've also learned that to save money, you first have to spend a little.  This month, I've been working on my "stockpile".  Now, I don't stockpile foods (much).  I came up on some fabulous coupons for buy 1 get 1 free on body wash for the guys in my house.  Also, I found some for buy 1 get 1 free on some body wash for myself.  Now, I've gotten dozens of bottles of body wash for free.... but remember I had to buy 1 to get each free 1!  I used all my coupons that I had becuase body wash doesn't really expire.  And with 3 guys using that body wash, they'll have my stock pile used up in just a matter of months.  I won't have to buy any body wash for several months, and half of it was free!!  But I had to buy more than I normally would at one time.  The same for their deodorant.  That stuff has a shelf life of about 2 yrs!  I had $1 off coupons for that deodorant.  Walmart had it specially packaged and priced with the body spray that they use.  I was basically buying the deodorant and getting the body spray for free PLUS $1 off each package.  I had SEVERAL coupons for this also.  I used them all.  They'll use up that stuff before it would "expire".  Again, I had to spend more at one time than I normally would.  But, in the long run, I've saved a lot of money!  Make sense? But, I have to decide what's better to go ahead and buy now when I have a coupon and what's better to wait on.  I don't have room to store EVERYTHING!  And, is it worth breaking my budget this week to save $1 on something that I could wait a few weeks to buy?  But the coupon expires THIS week!  See my problem?
I'm hoping after I stockpile several deals on household stuff that we use, then my grocery bill will begin to shrink!  Maybe if I only have to buy food items for a while, it'll cut that bill down!  I really would like to go into a store one day and bring home $100's worth of stuff and only have to pay $10 after sales, deals and coupons.  But, we have to have food and weekly groceries, so I'm not really counting on that!  But, if I can just save a few dollars here and a few more dollars there .... I'll be happy!  I'd be THRILLED if I could get all those groceries for just a few dollars, though! 
So, I have jumped in with both feet, running wild through Couponland!

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