Coupon Craziness

Happy Monday yall! Haha, yea right. No Monday is happy. Sunday is my absolute favorite day of the week, and I hate to see the end of it. I always like Sunday because Sunday means my husband is usually home with me (unless it's the one Sunday a month he's at the fire station which stinks), we get to go to church, we usually see some family, and Revenge comes on TV!! More recently though, I've been given another reason to love Sunday. The Sunday newspaper comes out, and with it comes...COUPONS!!!

A little while back, a friend of mine, Jennifer, started couponing and got me interested. So, I bought a book called, Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey and it really piqued my interest. I read it twice in two days, and decided Hey, I really think I can do this! I had always thought that the math required looked too complicated for me, and that clipping all those coupons was just too time-consuming. Now, I won't lie; it is some complicated math, and clipping coupons is time-consuming. It literally takes me hours to get through everything. I'm glad I have a big kitchen table, because I use the whole thing in my process:

Stack of papers- I get 4 of the Washington Post

All the coupon inserts pulled out of the papers; papers are set to the side, with the comics and weekly circulars saved to be read later.

Stacks of identical inserts so I can clip 4 of the same coupon at a time 

Coupons clipped and sorted by category

Coupons sorted into their categories in The Binder.

The Binder with the hundreds of coupons, organized neatly into thirty-some different categories so I can find them  quickly while I'm out shopping.

Looks tedious, right? Yea, that's because it is. But the amount of money you can save is totally worth it. When I walked out of Target with my first haul, I felt like a million bucks. I bought $84.33 worth of stuff for only $23.03. That's...drumroll please... 73% savings yall!!!!

This might sound silly, but when I figured up the math and realized what my savings would be, I cried. I just think it's incredible that I can do something to save my little family so much money. If I can keep this up, I'll literally be saving our family thousands of dollars this year. That's thousands with a big giant capital S. Even one thousand would mean a lot to us. We're young, we have a child, and we have a mortgage. We're able to take care of each other and pay our bills, but we have a very strict budget and we don't spend any money we can avoid spending. That little extra wiggle room that my couponing gives us allows us to start budgeting for a new car (mine has almost a quarter of a million miles on it), saving for college for our son, or paying off our house payment sooner. Knowing that I'm doing something to get us there feels amazing.

On top of that, I know it's another small step I'm taking in becoming a Proverbs 31 wife. "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life...she provides food for her family...she sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night...When it snows, she has no fear for her household..." Becoming that wife of noble character is a tall order; there's a lot involved in becoming like her. But couponing allows me to build up our stockpile so we have plenty even if times get tough, save us money, and take care of my husband and son like that wife of noble character does.

Who knew?!? Coupons can get us food to fill us physically, and can at the same time, help fill me with the Holy Spirit and help me in my walk with Him. Yes, it's a lot of hard work, but yes, it's absolutely worth it! If you're interested in getting started, check out this site and start learning about it!! Good luck!!