The Best Way to Double Your Money...

is to fold it in half and put it in your pocket.
I think Benjamin Franklin said that but I don't honestly remember.

Several of the women I know have just recently discovered 'Couponing,' particularly as Money Saving Mom does things with playing the CVS and Walgreen's game. I have to chuckle a little when I hear how excited they are about them. When I used to get like that, I got the feeling that people thought I was a little over the top. Actually, now that I think about it, that might not have been the coupon talk.

Anyhow, now that gas prices have risen enough that most households have felt a little bit of a crunch, people who talk like that aren't considered quite so strange. I'm glad for them that it is so.

I have always loved coupons but I don't use them much. It isn't that I need help figuring it out or anything. When I first got married, my husband and I figured out all the intricacies of the coupon game. For the first year of our marriage, our weekly budget for food was $20. When we first moved to South Carolina with a 4-year-old and a baby, it was $60. And stayed that way for the next two years. Then I found myself fixing school lunches while food costs all over the nation began to spike.

The reason I don't use food coupons much is mainly because the majority are usually for convenience items and I try not to use a lot of convenience items due to health and expense. It is rare for me to find coupons for flour, eggs, or dry milk. Even when I do, the brands tend to be more expensive even on sale and with a doubled coupon than the generic. What we eat (particularly the meats) tends to reflect what was on sale that week or the week before. I also tend to shop at a lot of the dollar stores (Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree) for canned goods, household items, and such. I have often found a better deal there.

That doesn't mean I don't still do the coupon thing but I rarely use one unless the item is also on sale and we prefer to shop at those places that will double them. And occasionally, we'll have a 'cheap thrill' going shopping with the sales and the coupons. It is hard to pass up a free package of muffin mix even if I do think the finished product is inferior to my home made ones that costs us a few cents.

One thing I do now and probably will do until I go to the nursing home was taught to me by Hubby. Each Tuesday or Wednesday, when the sale papers arrive (or if I can't wait I'll go online to SCIway to see the sale papers), I sit down and look at each one making note of what is on sale for a good price in our area. This is the one I made this week (I think you can click on the picture if you want a closer look):

I also note items that I might need for something, like a church event or to go in the food pantry, if I think I might have to get them that week even when they may not be the best price they could be but are better than my usual haunt. I have my own codes. Hubby often has to ask for a translation if he looks at it. This is probably about the size of a 5x7 picture and I usually try to put it in the car at some point in the week so its ready if I find myself in the neighborhood of one of my stores during other errands.

By the way, it also makes you feel better if you get turned around and head in the wrong direction because then you can redeem yourself by picking up a few sale items. Not that that has ever happened to me. I always know exactly where I'm going. And how to get there. But, you know, if that happens to you...

If I know I have a coupon for something, I'll go ahead and mark it with a "C" in a circle. The coupon clutch also stays in the car except for when I bring it in to add and cull coupons. That way I'm always ready for a good deal.

I'm happy that people are being a little more cost conscious now. It makes me feel good to see these women catching the fever to reduce their budget. But I'm really glad that they won't feel the same kind of censure that I did. It's about time our culture caught up to some good sense. I guess even the 'gas crisis' has a silver lining.