Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Extreme Couponing on TLC

Becky emailed me this article this morning titled "Extreme Couponing - What they don't show or tell you". It has a lot of really great points and definitely recommend it.

A few things I want to point out if you've watched the show and feel discouraged:

1) The point of couponing is to save your family money not see how many of one specific item you can get for free. Now, I totally believe in stockpiling a 3-6 month supply of an item at rock bottom prices so you can shop from your pantry until the sale rolls around again. I recently grabbed 12 bottles of Purex when they were on sale for $0.99 - I haven't seen a sale like this since we moved to NWA last July and who knows when I will again. I do not, however, support buying enough of something (and keeping it all for yourself) to last 10-15 years. There is a huge difference in being prepared and being excessive.

2) Any dollar saved should be celebrated. Please do not get discouraged if you go to the store and your total does not drop to $5 or less from $150. I will make very specific coupon runs where my totals will drop drastically but I also go to Aldi, Target and Braums once a week and spend about $40 on fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy for our family. You spend as little as possible in some areas so you have the room to buy the essentials in other areas.

3) You CAN get things for free each week! There are items you can stop paying for: Deodorant, Body Wash, Toothpaste, Floss, etc. Just saving on these things can create huge wiggle room in your budget. You CAN cut your grocery bill in half. It takes some time, effort and commitment but you can do it! Please remember that by shopping smart (using a coupon on an item you were going to buy anyway) you are BLESSING your family and that is our main goal in all of this.

If you missed my post on keeping your priorities in line you can read that here.

No comments: