COLUMN: The rise, fall, and rise again of couponing in my life

  • Melissa Herrera (COLUMN)
  • September 17, 2012
  • 432
                        
COLUMN SUMMARY: DO YOU SEE COUPONS IN YOUR DREAMS? DO YOU SPEAK IN TERMS OF FIFTY CENT VALUES AND WAYS TO DOUBLE? IT MAY BE TIME TO TAKE A BREAK FROM COUPONING - ALL SO WE CAN PICK IT BACK UP AGAIN AFTER SOME REJUVENATION. I have become lazy about coupons. Lazy as to how and where I can use them, really lazy to cut them out, and lazy about how valuable they are. Woe is me I’ve been ignoring the coupon. When I started on this crazy coupon game I was on fire. Double coupons? Giant Eagle in New Philadelphia. Free razors? Wal-Mart was the place to go. Hot deals on feminine products? Dollar General and Family Dollar in Millersburg were the place I headed. You might ask me, have you stopped buying those products? Nope, I’ve just become lazy and have been paying higher prices. Yeah, yeah I know – put me in a corner and make me wear the dunce cap. What have I been doing wrong and where has my zest for those colorful paper squares of savings gone? Finding savings, thrifting, decorating, plus stocking my cupboards have always been a way of life for me. Habits, which become habits after twenty-one days of doing them, should be kept in place if at all possible. But we forget about the burnout, and boy does it come with a vengeance. In talking to several friends I have that also coupon, I was fascinated to learn that they too had to set down those circulars for a while. They stopped cutting, and focused on different areas of their life. Some people never tire of it. I, for one, never tire of the savings I get when I focus on a good haul with lots of great coupons. But it is work – almost a full –time job and if you’re trying to do it while working full-time it can become tedious. Late hours at the table or on the living room floor just cutting away leave little time to focus on what might be more important. I never was a full-time couponer. My hauls were small yet satisfying, and I left the huge takes for the avid full-time couponers. Those shelf-clearing over-achievers who make me jealous of their stockpiles, yet glad that I’m not the one doing them. Honestly though, who doesn’t want a shelf full of laundry soap and shampoo? I do! But, for me, there just isn’t enough time to devote myself to it fully. This summer has flown by and I have stacks of nearly expired coupons that I never had time to use. Yes, I grocery-shopped, yes we have been eating and using deodorant on a regular basis. Have I used that coupon for Sauve deodorant that would have saved me fifty cents? No. I’ve been using my stock pile that had been pretty nice until I laid down the coupons. I’m down to zero shampoo, lots of dental floss, and a still pretty nice selection of deodorants. You know when your child goes in to grab a body wash off the shelves and there aren’t any there that it’s time to get busy again. “Moooommmmm, where’s all the body wash? Geez.” Maybe they’ve become a little spoiled? I think everything comes with moderation. With fall here my heart starts looking to cozy things again. Blankets, hot coffee, nesting, and time to cut more coupons. It’s time to stock it up once again, kind of like a squirrel for winter? Although, I do have to say I worked on my library this summer. I found all kinds of books on the cheap to add or finish out series of books I have been hoarding/collecting. You can’t really call it hoarding if the books are all neatly in order, now can you? I recently found book one of the Harry Potter series at Goodwill, adding it to books 2,3,4, and 6 that I nabbed at a garage sale for $2.50. I will finish it out and stalk the books I’m missing, because with all good thrifters and savers comes an enormous amount of patience. We build things over time, know what we need, and scour the ends of the earth to find it for pennies. I am patient with myself, because I know that the bend and weave of living calls for time-outs from things. It also calls for starting over and moving on up, and that my friends, is the ultimate goal. Please send me any tried and true coupon tips, great places to save in our area, tricks of the coupon game, or simply your words of wisdom. I would love to learn and share as I stumble through. I’m not an expert, but someone who wants to share her successes and failures along the way. Please shoot me an email at junkbabe68@gmail.com – your tips or sage words may just show up this column somewhere along the way!


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