The time has come my friends. It is time to commence chatting about coupons. I have intentionally held off on the couponing “chat” for various reasons. One of the reasons being that I know couponing frightens many of you. I like you. I want you to hang around here, so I didn’t want you to run away screaming from the “crazy coupon” lady.
I have good news for you. You need not be frightened because:
A) I am very much not the crazy coupon lady (although the “crazy” thing is yet to be determined)
B) There are a lot of myths associated with couponing.
Let’s start by clearing up several couponing myths:
- Couponing is the only way to save money on your groceries. Obviously, this is a myth because I have never discussed coupon strategies here before. Yet, we have talked about many ways to slash your grocery bill. This myth is not in support of couponing, but I want to be very clear that you do not have to coupon to feed your family less expensively.
- Extreme couponing is the way to go. I will be honest. I personally have a huge aversion to extreme couponing. I believe in balance and keeping it realistic. For me, being the crazy lady in Aisle 9 with the 100 cans of tuna in her cart does not qualify as “realistic”.
- Coupons are only for junk and processed food. I take great offense to this myth considering I feel confident that I do not mainly feed my family junk or processed food. From time to time? Sure. It is all about balance. The majority of the coupons I use are for personal products, household products and dairy products. There are coupons for organic foods and quality items available. It is just knowing where to find them (and {squeal} I will show you).
- Coupons are too time consuming and not worth my effort. Ok. Coupons can be time consuming if you want them to be. It is your decision. Personally, I spend very little time on coupons each week. Of course, I do not use a ton of coupons either. If I spend 30 minutes and save $10…holla!
Now that your curiosity is peaked and your myths debunked, we can look forward to exploring more about couponing. My “plan” (this is where you insert a loud {ahem}) is to share with you each Thursday a new series entitled How to Coupon and Live to Tell about It.
If you don’t want to miss a thing about couponing, you can subscribe to the Frugal Flamingo via Facebook, Twitter, email or RSS .
If you have coupon questions, be sure to comment or email me so that I can address them. Otherwise, I hope that you join me again next week.
Linking to Frugal Friday
Looking forward to this!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I'm nervous:)))
DeleteI'm looking forward to learning more. As in, I am starting from scratch. I don't even know where to find coupons!!
ReplyDeleteI will write the posts just for you my friend:)
DeleteYeah!!!
ReplyDeleteYou have me all back on the meal planning bandwagon, so this timing is perfect:)
Glad you are on the train:)
DeleteI use to be a major couponer. Before Kids. And before my favorite store - Price Rite. I find that buying their off brands without coupons are generally (note I said generally) cheaper than than going to the big store and using a coupon for name brand stuff. So, I'm a bit of a skeptic. I probably could save a little money on toiletry items if I used a coupon but, honestly, I don't want to bother with hunting them down.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you and I should do a challenge. Use the same shopping list/menu for a week. You buy with coupons, me without and see how it shakes out. :D
I'm not saying coupons aren't good. If they work for you, by all means do it! :D