The jury's out.

Weeeeeeellllllll.... I've started this couponing thing. My cousin came up a few weeks ago, and he was telling my dad how his wife is so good at couponing that she saves $500-$600 per month. My sis and I have been wondering how on earth girls do this - we've heard stories of mega-savings. And we want on the money train. So Angie (the cousin's wife) kind of showed us what she does. And we've been giving it a shot.

Ummmmmmmmm.... it's really time-consuming. I probably spend like four hours every Sunday, combing the ads, cutting the coupons, making a meal plan that matches the things that are on sale, etc. And then I spend roughly two hours a week going to a few different stores to get the deals. I think it's going to take awhile to get to that amazing spend-almost-nothing status that some girls have gotten to. I think Nat has more of a propensity for it than I do, which makes sense. She is really good at money stuff. She and I call each other like three times a day to express frustration at bad coupon experiences and rejoice over good coupon experiences. It's been kind of fun to do this together.

What I'm finding is that I'm spending the same as usual, but getting more. Because most coupons are like, "Buy two to get this price on each of them." Or "Buy five to get this price on each of them." As a result, I'm noticing my food storage expanding. And it's not food storage I won't touch. It's stuff we use. I have like ten boxes of spaghetti noodles down there right now. And buttloads of diapers. Etc.

Savings so far:

Week #1: Spent: $149 Saved: $63

Week #2: Spent: $168 Saved: $20

Week #3: Spent: $137 Saved: $20


About a month ago, Ben and I were talking about spending more time together. We were noticing that I was lying on the couch every night, watching TV, and Ben was sitting at the computer watching vampire TV shows every night. No time together. A couple of weeks ago, we started kind of doing the couponing thing together, and that's been fun, actually. Ben pays more attention to prices than I do. I look on the shelves, scanning for the cheapest one of what I need, grab it, and then forget about it. Ben mentally remembers, like, "Yogurt is this much per thing at Wal-Mart." So, when I'm combing through the ads, I'll see something at Smith's that looks like a good deal, and then I'll say, "Ben, how much is a paper towel roll at Wal-Mart?" Then he tells me, and I look to see if the Smith's deal is a good deal. It's been nice to do this together.

He's pretty skeptical so far. He doesn't see the value of building up food storage. I admit that I would love to be saving much more every week, but I'm going to keep at it for awhile and see where things lead.