I am not new to couponing in general, but to the extreme "sport" of it I am new. I call it a sport. A sport because you have to have agility to hold all those coupons in your hands or on your cart all while keeping in mind how many of each coupon you have and how many items that will give you. All the while you have to lift those heavy groceries from shelf to cart, cart to conveyer belt, and from your cart again then into your car and once home, from your car into your house and into your pantry! (I think that next year I will try out for the grocery bag lifting competition in the weighlifting section of the olympics! Just kidding!).
Couponing can be everything you want it to be but you have to remember that it takes time and patience. Unfortunately, it also involves acknowledging that you have a problem when you "free" items start taking over your childrens bedroom closets, your dog's doghouse and cage, and your bathroom shower. Couponing can becoming addicting. I will be the first to acknowledge that nothing feels as good as walking out of a store having spent only $14.00 on $115.00 worth of goods. Or, more so, walking out of a store with a $0.07 bill because you got everything free except the tax on an item. I love showing off what I got for free. I love telling others about the great deals I have gotten. I love openning my linen closet and seeing the 12 bottles of body wash, 8 Air Wisk air freshners, 4 Air wick Candles, the 7 deodorents, 10 toothbrushes, and the 4 backages of dental floss that I got for free, not to mention the 6 packages of Parkay I scored as well for free. I breathe in the fresh smell of newness and glory. But it is addictive.
My only advice is that when you get to that point that you know you can't find a sensible spot to store items, or when you begin hiding the free stuff so you can bring it in the house and again sneek to hide it from your husband/wife so that they don't say to you, "Dear, you have a problem..." then please seek help. If you can't give up that feeling of amazingness on the great score, then be kind to your family and keep a box in your car to put some the free things in there and immediately drive down to the local homeless shelter, church pantry, or local military troop donation site and give some of the things to charity. It is all worth it. Donations to charity are also a great writeoff on your taxes.
Till the next blog, this is Melissa the Deal Diva signing off.
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