I'm sure at some point, you've heard about TLC's "Extreme Couponing". If you haven't heard about it..lemme explain how it works: It's a show where people spend ridiculous amounts of time hunting for coupons to maximize their savings when it comes to grocery shopping. In most cases, they get hundreds of dollars worth of food for a fraction of the price. That's fantastic, right? Yeahhhhh....'bout that...
The new year is right around the corner and, of course, it's time to start eating healthy all over again. We're about a year out from potentially moving, so we're tightening our purse strings even tighter so we can save more money just in case we move back to the States, although, I'd really prefer to stay in Belgium. That's to be seen, though. Anyway, eating healthy isn't exactly cheap. And by that, I mean it's usually expensive. So I got a wild hair up my tail and decided to see if I could save some money via coupons..YAY!
After several mind numbing hours, dozens of websites, registering with fake emails for "exclusive" deals, fiddling with my fussy printer...and an Excederine Migraine pill.. I ended up with this:
I already had the Dryel coupon, the Benefuls "Snackin Slices" coupon, Challenge Butter coupons and "Finish" dishwasher coupon from previous purchases...the majority of the headache clearly came from finding coupons online. I don't have the luxury of having coupons readily available just down the street in the newspaper stand since, well, I'm not in America. So, I can't just gather up a bundle of those lil buggers and clip clip away..instead, I gotta click click click...click...click...sigh...click.......click....
I think the frustrating thing is that I really couldn't find any coupons for "healthy" things...if I was wanting a killer deal on Poptarts, soda (lots of soda), anything Pillsbury, Spam (really??), cookies, candy, blah blah blah, I would've hit the jackpot. I felt like I was on a hunt for the great Dodo bird since I wanted coupons for stuff like Birds Eye for frozen veggies, or even Libby's for canned veggies, and various other things that weren't slathered in fatty happiness. I'm not on a mission to build up any sort of treasure trove of all my killer deals (also known as "stockpiles") like some of the people you see on the Extreme Couponing show. Shit, we have weight limits when it comes to moving and I CERTAINLY don't want to waste my limit on food! I rather put that towards kick ass European antiques:
So, after my purchase of sixty six items and with all the effort of twenty five coupons, I managed to knock $22.50 off of the final total (a saving of 12%). Not too shabby, but honestly, not worth all the headache it took to find the coupons. It's no wonder the people who are featured on that show dedicate 8 HOURS a day to couponing..anywhere from forty to sixty hours a week! Great googly moogly!
At least I stayed under my budget, but I can thank my grocery list for that since I ONLY bought what I wrote down what we needed verses "window shopping"..which is what really racks up the cost for most people when they have their adventure in the grocery store.
Meh, oh well. At least I gave it a shot.
3 comments:
I am drooling over that stockpile photo! I want a pantry like that for very little money!!! But, I'm like you...I just can't bring myself to devote that much time and headache to putting it all together. I don't have what it takes, whatever that may be.
I know how you feel. I can never find healthy coupons. Between Lucas and I (my husband eats crap! lol)we spend sooo much money on fruits and veggies. Its redic!
Personally..I think that stockpile photo is full of crap that I don't need in my house on a regular basis! Most of the people on that show are buying junk food and crap! I will pay the extra to have healthier options around!
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