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Why do you coupon?

I've always couponed since college but became hardcore when I had 4 babies in diapers and a fellow triplet mom introduced me to AFC. I moved on up quickly and got introduced to here where things upped it a notch (or 10!!) I've been here for almost 3 years but did other sites for quite awhile before that. I do it to save money to buy extra stuff that 4 kids want. It frees up cash to splurge on things we don't "need" like name brand clothes, karate lessons etc. I have to admit I also have an addictive personality and before this I focused on Cake decorating and before that I lost all my baby weight with Weight Watchers....(now I am fat again but richer!!!) We could most likely live fine without couponing but it takes away a lot of stress and fights we would probably be having. DH reallly has no idea what real life costs in his little insulated work world.
 
HarrisFamily said:
I don't give my children "anything or everything" but I use to have to tell my kids no to stuff they really should have had but we didn't have the money. That hurt!

Quick example:

The other day my DS6 coach said he really needed a new glove for baseball. Truly in the past we would have to wait till a payday to budget that in. My husband went and grabbed it that night with him and didn't even tell me about the convo or the glove till they got home. It made me SOOOOOO very happy in two ways, 1) we didn't need to wait for the payday 2) my husband didn't have to come to me to ask if we had the $. My husband makes decent money, he has worked his butt off since he was 18 at the same job moving up through the years. It hurt me so much for him the "bread maker" in our family to have to come to me to ask if he could get something for one of our kids. Now he knows we are ok and of course he can spend $25-50 on an item without asking. Yes I work too but he makes twice as much as I do and deserves it too!
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Oh I hope I didn't speak out of line or anything. :huggy: I'm sorry if it sounded like that.I didn't mean too.:surrender: It is wonderful that you are now able to buy the things you need since you are able to have save $ . Being able to get the things the kids need when they need it is awesome! and is a wonderful excample!
 
Because its the way I have been brought up. I can't pay full price for anything and my family always stockpiled so I do it too. Not to mention I like my frees!
 
I love being able to stay home with my little guy and this is my contribution to the family since I am no longer bringing in an income. I have been couponing on and off for about 10 yrs. I love the thrill of the hunt of a great deal to get something for free or really cheap!!! I took sometime off right after my son was born but as soon as he was 1 I was back at it hard core. I love not paying for the health and beauty stuff I get. I don't have winetags in my area so if I can get that free i can use that money towards meat and things I can't get really cheaply.
 
For me, it's my paycheck. It's the value I add to my family's bottom line.

I worked from the time I was 14 until I married my husband. I was raised to the the kind of person who works hard, and takes pride in a good job. That sense of exhaustion at the end of the day is a reward for a day lived honestly. Not working was a little bit of a brainfuck for me. On one hand, I was married to an IT exec, and I certainly didn't have to work. And I got pregnant a couple months after our wedding so with my diabetes I quickly became a full time patient with all the extra prenatal care a diabetic pregnancy calls for. Then I had a newborn...and after all that settled down, what? I stay home and watch Oprah and eat bonbons? Please. I couldn't. I couldn't NOT contribute something to our financial well being. It's just been engrained into my character since I was a little girl...I'm a Castillo. We work hard.

So then I got into coupon shopping. It's work. It takes planning and research and math. It challenges my brain enough, the couponing tetris, when you have to figure out what to buy with what and what else and what coupons to use on your transaction to get to your cat threshold but minimize your OOP.

I continue doing it because it's fun. I love sticking it to The Man, he's always trying to keep me down. I continue doing it because it affords me the opportunity to be more generous with donations than I would be able to if I were buying items to donate at retail, and I LOVE giving. Giving makes me all kinds of happy.

I get so much personal satisfaction from finding great deals and putting together the best scenarios. I get so much joy out of being able to donate and give to organizations who help people in bad situations. And I feel like I'm doing something to contribute to my own family's personal wealth when I can make each dollar my husband earns go further. I might not have a job that pays me a paycheck every two weeks, but I have a job that feeds my family as well as strangers in our community incredibly affordably. Each week when that Sunday paper gets FWAPPED! up on my driveway, I'm out there in a blink to snatch it up. Paperboy just dropped $100 on my driveway, that's my bread and butter baby!
 
Been doing it for 3 years.

I don't like paying full price for anything. I figure my money is hard earned why not keep as much as I can. Plus I like to "Beat the system."




M
 
I started when gas hit $4 a gallon a couple years ago. I use premium gas and have a large tank...so I was determined to save enough so my fill-ups wouldn't hurt so much.

Simple, but that's why I started.
 
I've been doing it a few years since hubby's salary keeps going down and my kids keep eating more and more food! I agree with another poster who said it's their job/salary. I will have to go back to work at some point, but this has helped me put it off for awhile.
 
We've never had a lot of money and I've always couponed some, but not like this. Then when my twins were babies someone posted a deal on another (non coupon) board I was on. Target had Gerber baby food for 2 cents a jar. My kids have always been big eaters and at the time my girls were eating 3-4 jars a day each. So over 50 jars a week. So I bought enough baby food to last until they were done eating baby food. Then I starting thinking if I can get baby food this cheap I wonder how cheap I can get diapers. Once I figured out how to get diapers cheap I started working on the rest of our groceries. That was about 3 years ago.
 
I've always been frugal my Dad grew up in a small mountain village in Greece and basically never had enough to eat, came to this country with nothing and he's always taught us to save save save....you never know what's going to happen so you should always have savings.

Also I'm disabled (spinal arthritis) and have a difficult time bringing in a paycheck so I've I'm always worried about money. It's truly frightening to realize if my husband loses his job I can't get out there and "hustle" waitress, bartend whatever it takes to bring in a quick buck because I'm usually immobilized with pain.

Basically I like to hope for the best and plan for the worst....so couponing is my way of keeping more of our money in the bank for emergencies.....plus it's a total "high" to walk out of the store saving 90%....who can't get addicted to that?
 
I was going to tell you all this long story but to cut it short DH and I met 5 yrs ago, married 3 1/2 yrs ago. As single parents we struggled. Together things really started to happen. I got a promotion from .8 to full time after 6 1/2 yrs on the job and DH got a raise and 6-10 hours of overtime every week. When I look back we should have been saving, saving, saving, but we now had more to give to our children so if they wanted we gave it to them. On sale of course with coupons sometimes. We did this for maybe a year, I got laid off right before my 8th year anniversary on the job. Our children got spoiled in that short time and I found out about Double Coupon Days at Kmart.
Now DH hours got cut now to barely his 40 hours a week, We got bills, I'm a SAHM who just start subbing at my sons school this school year, summer is here meaning no income for me soon. To tell you the truth I'm not where I should be as far as couponing is concerning because I still can't bring myself to purchase something that we don't use in order to get a RR. I'm scared of the next few months. I hate Kmart, but I lived for the doubles. I'm grateful to have a site like this one so I can continue to save for my family survival. And reading most of the post from this topic I can't help but to think I could be saving more for my family (shame on me!). AND YES THIS WAS THE SHORT VERSION.
 
I coupon so we can eat and have name brand items. After DH was laid off, so many things had to be cut out. Mani/pedis, new clothes, etc, but I realized that if I used coupons, I was still able to have good food and the name brands I so love. We still struggle- everyday. This just makes it easier. I have come to realize that I am addicted to saving money. There is nothing better than the feeling you get when you save money.

I am a coupon addict. :giggles:
 
Barb09 said:
Ritachick22 hit the nail on the head! "COUPON HIGH!!!"

Nothing like it!!!! Other highs COST money...this one SAVES it!!!!! Ever been soooo excited about the deal you did today you can't stop babbling about it?! Coupon high!!!!
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Love coupon highs! They definitely get me through a long day at work. When the deals are good, I have to go on my lunch to "get my fix." :giggles:
 
2kittens said:
Oh I hope I didn't speak out of line or anything. :huggy: I'm sorry if it sounded like that.I didn't mean too.:surrender: It is wonderful that you are now able to buy the things you need since you are able to have save $ . Being able to get the things the kids need when they need it is awesome! and is a wonderful excample!
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OH NO I didn't think that at all, I was just explaining more...
 
Barb09 said:
Ritachick22 hit the nail on the head! "COUPON HIGH!!!"

Nothing like it!!!! Other highs COST money...this one SAVES it!!!!! Ever been soooo excited about the deal you did today you can't stop babbling about it?! Coupon high!!!!
Click to expand...

Most of my friends and famil think I'm nuts! But once they get their first "High" they're addicted. Sometimes I feel like a "pusher"!

But like Barb said at least this high is FREE or sometimes the stores "pay-us" that's the Lollapalooza of "highs" as far as I'm concerned.

The only bad thing? Sometimes it's hard to resist the FREE stuff even though your're well stocked....the solution. Food Pantry!
 
Bottom line I have always been a cheapskate--frugal

Started CVSing about 2 years ago and within 6 months had so much stuff for basically free taht I could not belive it took me so long to jump aboard.. and way Lat january i was laid off dh took NUMEROUS huge paycuts--we had to survive--i had read lots of grocery stories on cvs boards but never at our local stores--then when laid off i searched and searched and found this board--now we have lots of food--still no $$$ but we have food! :)
 
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