Coupons

This morning I went to the house of an acquaintance to listen to her give a little tutorial on using coupons. This goes a tad beyond the cut out coupon and then give it to cashier when you buy the item - she's more along the lines of the crazy coupon people that you see on Extreme Couponing etc. who get items for free or for a penny or go to the grocery store and walk out having been paid to take home the items.

My nutshell reaction is this: Super cool, but honestly I don't have the kind of time to spend poring over websites/flyers/etc. to do this.

Also? I have to admit that I have more brand loyalty than I would ever have thought. The idea of only buying cereal that's 3 for the price of 1 is really awesome to me...but I can't get past the shelf full of different kinds of cereal she has in her pantry. We're a Cheerios family. Sometimes we get Lucky Charms (for a treat). I suspect there are a few other types Tim would eat, but the kiddo? It's those two or bust, most of the time. And I'd hate to stock up because it was such a great price and then have it just sit there because I have a picky kid.

That's the other thing. She stocks up when stuff is on sale. And I get that, I do -- I guess I do kind of the same thing because I buy some stuff at Costco. But honestly, to me it's different to buy a pack of 4 tubes of toothpaste (and it's Crest because that's what we use and like) that will last us well into next year than to go get free toothpaste with coupons and have sixteen different kinds of toothpaste in your cabinet and it doesn't matter if you really like that kind cause it was free. Same goes for shampoo and deodorant...I guess it's not just the kiddo who's picky.

The other other thing is that, in reality? I don't buy as much of the stuff that's on sale. Staples in our house are meat, cheese, and veggies. It's a more expensive way to eat, which stinks, but it's the only hope I have of not ballooning up to Michelin Man size. So I can't keep all the breads and grains and rice and snack foods in the house - because I love them, and I would love them even more if they were cheap or free...I'd just be spending all the money I saved on new, bigger sized clothes.

It's an intriguing idea. And I may play with it some to see if I can at least save on the things I do buy and use (though I look through the coupons every week and rarely actually tear anything out) or see if can make some substitutions to things that are on sale...but I think that's realistically one more thing that isn't likely to become a massive part of my life.