Sunday, February 07, 2010

2-7-10
Day 142

Even with a bottle of "Rich, dark chocolate Ensure," my day ended with me exhausted, drained and remembering why I stopped struggling to "make coupons work" years ago.

My time is valuable and worth something, too.

I spent three hours online last night, looking for coupons for food my family eats; today, I drove more than an hour searching for the Sunday paper and looking for store-specific flyers only to find they are in the paper anyway; then three more hours clipping and organizing the coupons before I went shopping.
I was as organized as I could have possibly been and still my shopping trip took nearly three more hours.

I read each coupon to be sure I put the proper brand, size and quantity in the cart. I searched for the teensy-tiny expiration date to be sure I was in compliance and even stopped by customer service before I started shopping to determine if I could use competitors' coupons - not at Wal-Mart!  This means Wallyworld has seen the last of my grocery buying. Publix is far more coupon-user friendly...if I decide to use them again.

Even after carefully reading and just as carefully separating my usable coupons, I had to hurry back to get another buy-one-get-one-free item, because the cashier would not simply give me half off for the deal. Any coupons that were clipped a little too closely were returned to me and doubles? NOT there!

By the time I returned home, I felt I'd put in a 12-hour day. Thankfully, my guys all pitched in to bring in the food and put it away for me.

How much editing could I have done today, if not for these blasted coupons? How many publishers could I have submitted short stories or poetry to and how many chapters of my novel might I have completed, had I channeled my energy toward that, instead of trying to save money?

I have heard some women claim, "couponing is my part-time job." I'm not willing to earn less than minimum wage doing something I already detest - shopping! I'd rather be a cashier taking your coupons than to spend another Sunday searching for a way to save a few dollars.

I started my day off with Ensure. I'm ending it with Cabernet Sauvignon!

posted by Unknown at 2/07/2010 10:13:00 PM