Coupon Hell

I am in coupon hell. What does this mean, you ask? Well, a couple of years ago, a well-meaning teacher's aide at my kids' school turned me on to this site called The Grocery Game. There are other sites that do the same thing, but basically it teaches about serious couponing, stockpiling good deals, etc. The website will match up the coupons with the store sales for you, for maximum savings.

When I first discovered this method of shopping, I loved it. I really loved the fact that we never really ran out of anything. What, you're out of dishwasher soap? Well, there are five more bottles on the shelf in the garage that I probably got for about 77 cents each. However, as with most things in my life...I start out like a house on fire, learning something new, all excited about it...and then I get bored. Once I learn how to do something, then I'm ready to move on and learn something else. Call it a character flaw. (I do.)

So this brings me to the coupon hell that I am in. I am sick to death of clipping coupons every Sunday, filing them in my binder, checking the website, making out my list, blah blah. I'm totally bored with it. However, it's also hard for me to resist a great deal. The hell part is that I'm totally over this project, except that I could never bring myself to pay full price for anything in the grocery store (including personal and cleaning items) ever again. $4.19 for a box of cereal, are you freaking kidding me? On average, I pay about $1.25 for a box of cereal, sometimes as low as 50 cents a box, and there's no way I'm going back. I'm addicted to saving 50% or more on my grocery bill every time I go shopping, but I hate having to go through the work of getting there. Hence, I am stuck in coupon hell. I get the good shampoo (Herbal Essence, Sun Silk, Finesse) for the same price that I used to pay for Suave. I buy Lady Speedstick 24/7 for 67 cents apiece. A huge rush is getting stuff for free, which happens more often than you might think. It's really nice that on the weeks that money is tight (usually on the 2nd week of the paycheck), that I can get by with only spending $40 or $50 for groceries for the whole week. And that's for a family of five, folks. I think, on average, I spend $70-$80 a week. There's no way I can walk away from that. Maybe it's just coupon purgatory, as I'll be stuck doing this from now until...forever. I think my tombstone will probably say, "But it was on sale....and I had a coupon!"