To coupon or not to coupon...that is the question!

Blink…blink…blink… yep the cursor is definitely mocking me.  Its saying “are you really one of those blog people?”  Honestly I don’t know.  This thing started by watching that show on TLC (Extreme Couponing), where people get $600+ worth of groceries for less than $10.  I found myself sitting there thinking.. ”yeah that is great and all but who WANTS a room full of toothpaste and toilet paper?”  The small two bedroom home I share with my fiancé, Pablo, would never put up with it. Our two huskies, Harley Quinn and Rand would never put up with it.  Even the cat would look at me funny.

*House pictured
here is waaaaaaaaay
cooler looking than my own

But what if we could take that stuff and give it away?  I think one of the people followed on EC did just that.  Can someone really do this couponing thing well enough that they can open up a type of food bank?  Could I?  Is it possible (on a smaller scale) just to do this well enough to make an actual difference in the grocery budgets of the people around me?  It seemed to me that this might be an idea worth trying out.

Now I want to pause here to let you know that I am not insane.  I know that most couponing people don’t save 90% or more on their grocery trips, nor do I expect to save anywhere near that. Also those people devote upwards of 40 hours a week to these deals and I already have a job.  So what was I going to do?  I decided to experiment with couponing over this summer to see how much I can save and how much time it would cost.  My coupon experiment will consist of the following:

*Not Really easy

• Getting Coupons; 
• Organizing the materials for use;
• Purchasing “deals” with the coupons; and
• Tracking the savings and the time spent getting it.

Easy right?

I started clipping coupons, and do you know what?  There are a deal or two to be had out there!  Every time I made a score, I felt pretty good about it and even boasted about it at the office.  That is when one plucky co-worker (yeah you know who you are) decided I should write a blog about the deals I find.  When I brought up the idea to Pablo he just smiled and said, "yes, you must use your powers for good."

So here I am, with the mocking cursor just waiting for me to decide whether I have the talent to do this. I can promise you this, when I find a decent deal I will post it here for all of you to get as well.  So follow me for the next three months and lets find out whether this couponing thing actually works at all or whether the cursor is right.

Blink…Blink…Blink…