Extreme Couponing Sans Thievery

 American society is breaking far from the traditional views of the perfect family looks like. We are long from the days of keeping a pristine household, women staying at home to raise the children and men being the sole breadwinners. Heck, we just voted a black man into presidency. So, with the outstanding changes we are making as a society, why are most men so preoccupied with being the "breadwinner!" This said, how many of us women actually have a man who is the breadwinner? Some or few at best. So if we are making equal or more money than our men, why won't the men use coupons to stretch the buck? Because they feel like they should be the breadwinner. It is emasculating to hand over a 35 cent coupon for Smuckers. 

For most men, using a coupon implants the idea that he is not a good provider. He thinks: If I need to save 35 cents on Smuckers I'm in real bad financial shape. However, next week he'll drop $2,000 on a brand new computer--even if he needs to draw that money from his retirement account. So what gives?

If your household is like mine, we don't nickel-and-dime. If we want to go to dinner, get a round of Starbucks or see a show on a whim, we do it. But how do we have the extra cash to do such things? I use COUPONS! Just think how how much you would save if you both use coupons for purchases and seeked out the good deals.

By saving your receipts as evidence, speak up to your hubby about how you saved $30 on your shopping trip that day. Itemize how much of that was from preferred customer savings, from buying on sale AND using a coupon. I just told me husband yesterday, "I bought Palmolive for $18 cents". Of course he said, "You're joking!" Keep this up and your hubby will fall in line, looking for sales on items he always buys or waiting for items to go on sale.

Nothing is more irritating than seeing articles and blogs, even entire books, published on "How To Get Anything for Free". These publications advise lying, stealing, being an overly bearing and rude individual, and scamming. Don't do this! Why? By scamming, you may get everything for free but do you know what happens then? Someone gets a pay cut, or loses their job. Eventually this is what happens. Why should these scammers live the good life while us honest people are taking pay cuts because people like to scam at any cost!?

Additionally: Don't be that person who brings in their travel mug to the supermarket and fills their mug up every morning with the "sample coffee". You're hurting someone's take home pay! Eventually! Samples are there to entice you to buy, not to be FREE to you. If you truly do not want to buy after sampling, ok. But don't take advantage. Same thing goes with any samples, taking a handful of cookies from the sample tray at the bakery is theft! The company does not want to be rude and wants you to continue to be a customer, but they just lost $4 because you were greedy. I hope your supermarket is still in business when you go there next month... or maybe they had to close because all the profits were lost in sample coffee and free cookies and other scammer individuals.

 You Know to look for coupons, find a sale for the item and keep preferred customer cards for every grocery store in your 10 mile radius. But do you do it?

Doing: Buy the Sunday paper and clip anything you may eventually need, Sign up at Coupons.com, Use a dump email address (use hotmail or yahoo) to sign up for newsletters and coupons on your favorite brand's sites. Look online at your supermarket's circular ads. Make a list of items, buy ahead if you must. Pay attention to your coupon's expiration dates (using expired coupons is a cheapskate thing to do), or possibly buy online. Pay attention to FREE SHIPPING promotions on item you will buy online. Walmart is great for this. They keep a lot of items on 97 cent shipping. Awesome!

Clipping everything and keeping in a tupperware is great. You will somehow remember what coupons you have. When you find a Buy One Get One AND you have a coupon, you can get your Palmolive for 18 cents each or whathaveyou.

Do tell your hubby about deals at his favorite stores and keep an eye out for special promotions and coupons. He may not care about the grocery shopping he rarely does, but he'll care if he can save $10 on his favorite DVD at BestBuy and then buy a second one with his savings, without going into his retirement account.

 If you think that you will buy unneccessary items JUST to use up your coupons, you have the idea wrong.

Do be afraid to buy a different brand of toilet paper or face moisturizer if you can get a great deal. You may end up liking it better than what you usually use!

Clip everything, but only use coupons you need. Overspenders will buy everything they have a coupon for and that's the wrong idea. You are trying to SAVE money, NOT spend your savings on a chocolatte bar at the checkout. So make your list! Write your total savings on your list before you go! Total what you will be spending. You should have a round-about number, sans sales tax, and should only go over by $5 if you forgot to write something down. That's the rule I go by. $5 splurge or if I forgot. I don't get to splurge if I forgot something.

I make $100 per week at my part time job. It is just my husband and I. And this is my break down for this week:

$40 for cigarettes. ($60 left)

$20 for gasoline. ($40 left)

$20 for emergency fund ($20 left)

$20: Toilet paper, Milk, Bread, Coffee creamer, BOGO ground turkey, Ramen noodles, Bananas, Cereal, Orange Juice, Palmolive, Hand soap, Bar soap, Onions, Bottled Water, Deli meat, Pancake mix and a roll of Spree. YES for $20! -- well $19.54 to be exact.

YOU CAN DO IT! I had to go to 3 stores, within 5 miles from my house, but I did it with $20. I made lists and it only took me 45 minutes, including the driving time.

Most of us have $100 extra to spend in excess of our rent and utilities, car payment, insurance etc... (which my hubby pays for) So I still have my $20 for my emergency Starbucks at the end of the week and maybe $1 show and a medium popcorn.

Live frugally, not scammy, and have a fuller life! Stop worrying about money friends! Kick out that "I get to spend money on my self once in a while" theme. If you overspend, you'll be unhappy.

P.S. Most weeks I can get cigarettes BOGO or use coupons. A lot of places have a 2 or 3 pack deal. So I spent $40 this week for a carton, but last week I only spent $27.00 on cigs. I still have that extra $13 I saved last week and just add it all up to by any clothes I may need. STOP with the Coach and Burberry handbags if you are poor! ---By the way---- Most of us ARE! I swear I had a woman holding an authentic Burberry bag and pay me with food stamps. I couldn't believe it! These can cost $1,000 and no cheaper than $350. My green crocodile Nine West bag, which everybody loves btw, cost me $9 at Platos closet. Just because you're frugal doesn't mean you have to look it.

Let's not be stupid with our money folks! This is how we got in this recession mess as it is!