Addictions aren't always bad.....right?

Yep...I admit it. I have a new addiction...COUPON SHOPPING! Yes, I have become one of those women who shops with a large binder full of coupons. It's as if I figured juggling a 3-year old and an (almost) 2-year old while grocery shopping wasn't quite challenging enough. A good friend swore by coupon shopping (thanks for all your help Kerstin!), and like many, I just wasn't interested at first. It just seemed so overwhelming and time-consuming, and I just couldn't see how clipping a couple of coupons good for 50 cents off was really going to save me any money. I can now shamelessly say how wrong I was, and I can't imagine shopping any other way! I got really grumpy the other day that I had to pay $3.99 for a package of string cheese....why didn't I have a coupon for that! Grrr...

I have been coupon shopping for just over a month, and really have to restrain myself from artfully arranging my purchases every week, and taking pictures. I can't believe how much I can get for how little! Here are a couple of examples. The two pictures below represent two separate shopping trips in the last few weeks. For ALL of the items in each grouping, I spent less than $50. That's over $200 worth of items in each photo. Not bad for a rookie!



In the last month, I have gone from basically NO food storage (unless man can survive on oats and rice alone!) to having a closet overflowing with extra items, that we will be using over the next several months. I have accumulated a year's supply of many items such as laundry soap, dish soap, ketchup, toothpaste, body wash, razors, and Children's Tylenol. For my entire year+ supply of laundry soap, my out of pocket cost is about $10. I LOVE IT!

I have become a total coupon dork, and have no problem admitting that sometimes I open this closet just to admire. I will also admit (since we're all friends here) that it's difficult for me to take naps on Sunday anymore. That's the day all the coupons come in the paper, and I look forward to it all week! Wow....if that didn't just make me sound like a middle-aged Mormon mommy, I don't know what will. Sigh.....