Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Coping With My Couponing Obsession

First of all, I've only been couponing for about a month. I'm not anything like the people on Extreme Couponers. I do use coupons and I do have a coupon notebook with clear plastic holders to organize my coupons. But the most of any one thing I've ever bought at a time is 4.

I call it "couponing for normal people". While I'm sure I'll use 27 laundry detergents or 421 toothbrushes in my lifetime, I don't have the room to store all of that stuff right now. So, I buy a few of one item when a deal is great. Or, I'll just buy one of an item and continue to buy it whenever it goes on sale.

With that being said, I have reached a point in my couponing journey that I've developed enough of a stockpile to stop buying certain items. A true couponer would tell you that when your supply of an item gets below like 20 then you should stock up...for me...I usually don't have more than 4-5 of anything at one time.

This works for me. I'm still getting good deals but I'm not overrun with inventory. Anywho...all that to say that now it's become a rush for me to see how much my grocery bill goes down each time after my coupons are scanned. Just last night I hit up my local Harris Teeter to take advantage of the last night of Super Double coupons and my grocery bill went from $75 to $42 just from coupons. Insane! It's kind of like a runner's high. Or what I would imagine a runner's high to be??

Here's a fairly recent picture of my "stockpile", minus a few items I purchased last night. It's not nearly as organized as I'd like it to be...that may be a weekend project. This is one part of my upstairs linen closet. I might get some of those flat board things from The Container Store to put on the shelves so the items don't fall down in between the wire slats. Is that crossing a line? HAHA.



To combat my couponing obsession, I'm only allowed to clip coupons for things that I still need. I currently have about a 1 year supply of laundry detergent, shampoo, toothpaste (hidden to the left of the Tresemme shampoo), deoderant, tissues, lotion, razors (hidden behind the Listerine) and hand/bathroom soap. I have about a 6 month supply of toilet paper, paper towels, Lysol wipes and body wash. So I'm not clipping coupons for any of the items listed above until I use these items. As a wise M said, "you won't save money until you start using all of these items". If I keep buying, I'll never use them and take advantage of the savings from buying them on sale and with coupons (as opposed to paying full price).


Another way I'm coping with my couponing obsession is only clipping coupons for name brand things we use...and still buying generic if it's cheaper. In most cases, a sale + coupons (often doubled) on a namebrand is cheaper than the generic. But if it isn't, I don't buy it. That's not a good enough deal. And then I also only clip coupons for the items we exclusively buy the namebrand of. (Deoderant, toilet paper, etc.)

Has my couponing gotten out of hand? Maybe. But hopefully I'll really get into a groove where I'm savvy enough to know what is and what isn't worth it and when the deals are the absolute best. I've joined a few FB groups/pages that post great deals and coupon matchups with sales. And my new favorite email every week is the Harris Teeter weekly deals email. Either I've become obsessed with couponing/sales or I'm just getting older?

These are some of the ways I cope with my couponing obsession. Do you use coupons?

3 comments:

  1. I should use coupons more than I do - I tend to clip and forget them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i want coupon also in italy... :-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm the worst about letting coupons expire.

    Dana supplies me with stockpiles of shampoo/conditioner and laundry detergent. God bless her.

    As for those mega annoying slatted shelves, I just buy foam board and cut it to the right size to put on top. Then things can't slip through the cracks or topple over as easily. You could even cover the foam board with some pretty paper or fabric if you want to make it look a little lovelier. : )

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