When Did I Become This Person??

I remember as a little girl watching my grandmother as she sifted through the Sunday sales ads and coupons and wondering "What's all the fuss about?" I remember standing in lines at the grocery store as she handed the clerk a stack of coupons thinking, "This is taking forever." I didn't understand the difference between the before total and the after total. I just knew I was ready to go and have fun.

Now, I'm an adult. I have 7 little mouths to feed besides mine and my husband's. And we are a one income family. I need to make every dollar count. When we had fewer kids, I could take a certain amount each week and know that our pantry and refrigerator would be stocked. Now, the budget has dropped and the occupancy has increased. It's time for me to make to two mesh.

We could do several things. We could just resign ourselves to eating ramen noodles almost everyday. Or we could change the way we ate. Or I could start clipping coupons. Or... <ding ding ding> we could change the way we ate AND clip and use coupons. I always tried to plan around sales anyway. This coupled up with coupons could be a wonderful thing for our budget!

We also decided to take a drastic step to see if our grocery budget decreased: We decided to have mainly a meatless diet. Meaning, we would only use meat up to 3 times a week! This will begin on Friday.

Now, I am by no means an extreme couponer. I am just learning the ropes. I get excited over the smallest deals. I have not mastered any of the drugstore programs. But, once I do, they will be added to my pages above. I pretty much understand the grocery stores already.

I hope to grasp this concept and get awesome deals for us. And I hope to pass any knowledge I gain onto others.