Cut-Out Paper Money

When reading about The Wife of Noble Character in Proverbs 31, it talks a lot about feeding her husband and becoming profitable.  Well, I may not get up while it's still night or go get my food from afar, but I think that I can try my best to use my resources to at least feel profitable.

My mom introduced me to the life of couponing several months ago.  I'm not yet an "extreme couponer," but I will be one of these days! :]  Actually, I love to coupon.  At first Tyler was making little sarcastic comments on how he thought I was "cute" for doing it.  Then I dragged him to Dillon's with me one time.  

Let me tell you a little bit about how I coupon (yes, I've made this word a verb...as well as many others).  I have stopped shopping at Wal-Mart for all of my needs.  I have learned the ways of Dillon's and buy all my groceries there.  I'm still working on the Walgreen's game, as I feel that it's a bit more difficult and I haven't had enough time to figure it out yet.  

Anyway, back to my shopping trip.  I receive the Dillon's ad right to my inbox.  I know that I have from Wednesday til the next Tuesday to go shopping.  Right away, I look through the ad to see what's on sale and figure out what I need.  Dillon's has lots of cool sales such as, "The buy 10 items for $10," or the "Buy any 10 items, receive $5 back."  I LOVE those deals!!!!  I make my list, writing out what I want/need and how much it cost according to the ad.  Then, when I figure out how many of those items I need, I make a total price for the item.  After that, I go through my awesome coupon binder that my momma made me, and see what coupons I have for those items.  Most of the time, I try to buy items that I already have coupons for.  Sometimes it doesn't work out that way, though.

After I've gone through that process for my whole list, I gather my coupons and stick them in an envelope.  I fold my list and stick it in the envelope as well.  Then I grab Tyler and we head to the store.  I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into the first time he went with me.  I don't even think he wanted to go with me, but he came anyway.

Now, I have a process when I go to the store.  I start at one end and shop til I reach the other end.  I hate going back and forth between aisles.  It just doesn't make sense to me.  On the trip that Tyler came with me, I was buying things for him, too.  I had those coupons, they were on sale, and he uses those items.  He just didn't understand why I "needed" everything I put into the cart.  I do give him credit though.  He asked me how many of each item I needed and helped me put them into the cart.  What a great sport!

He had no idea what was about to happen at the cash register.  We put the items on the counter and waited for the final total.  It came to be about $90ish.  I'm sure he about had a heart attack.  It was then that the magic came out.  I got my cut-out paper money and presented it all to the cashier.  When all was said and done, the total came to about $40ish.  What?  Over 50% in savings?  I think so!  Tyler was so excited that I had saved that much money!  He had to update his facebook status, tell his parents, and tell anyone else that he knew.  It was quite hilarious and "cute."

He had been watching that show with me...ya know, the one that makes couponers look like hoarders?  He couldn't believe the savings that those people made.  I wasn't an "extreme" couponer that day, but I looked like it in his eyes.  I had saved over 50% and that was money that could be spent somewhere else.

I feel like couponing will help us out as newlyweds as we are starting completely from scratch.  If I can save us money in the grocery department of the budget, we'll have money to save.  I do believe that couponing can become a god, and people can become greedy.  However, those aren't my intentions.  Of course, it gets my adrenaline pumping at the checkout line, but I don't feel the need to buy things that I'm not going to use.

Tyler now goes to the grocery store with me all the time.  He has been very supportive in my hobby of cutting coupons.  He'll even gladly stop at the Dollar Tree to buy newspapers with me after church.  He actually asked me last Sunday if we needed to stop.  Wow!  We don't even go out to eat a restaurants without a coupon.  There's no reason we should have to pay full price.  Now only if we could get Cheddar's to put out coupons...

Couponing is a hobby of mine, but I think it might actually become one of his, too.