Coupons, Coupons, and More Coupons!

My daughter and daughter-in-law are both becoming avid coupon users.  My daughter-in-law has gotten so many free items that it amazes me.  Now they have gotten me so excited about it that I am having monthly coupon parties at my house so we can get together with our friends to share coupons and tips with each other, along with yummy snacks and recipes.  I am printing coupons off the internet almost daily and getting the weekly coupon sections of the newspaper.  I have a pile to be gone through and clipped as I write this.  

I've now gotten to the point where making my grocery list depends on what coupons I have, and the coupons I use depend on what is on my grocery list.  I know I can become too much of a perfectionist about this whole thing and let it hamper my doing well.  I tend to over-complicate things.

A few years ago I created a really cool grocery list spreadsheet.  I thought how simple it would be to just highlight and color in the items I want on that list and print it out.  The only thing that came up as a problem was that often I would want something not on the spreadsheet and I didn't have room to add it.  Now here I am wanting to figure out how to make it even easier because making a simple grocery list while keeping track of all my coupons is not easy for me.  So my response to this is to come up with yet a new spreadsheet grocery list that has a way of listing the coupons I will use next to the item.  I am not sure this will work.  


In the meantime, this pile of coupons is not getting any closer to getting clipped and my grocery list needs finished before Thursday.  I do know that the first monthly coupon party was fun and I am looking forward to this month's get together.  We meet in the mornings while kids are in school for convenience of those who have kids, and have a bring-a-dish-to-share brunch.  This is a great time to try out new recipes and brunch recipes are just a lot of fun to try.


When I see my daughter-in-law bringing home bundles of free items she got with coupons it just shows me what I can do on my limited budget if I learn how to do this.  My daughter-in-law is raising seven children and anything she can do with coupons helps her and my son greatly.  For myself, I have to learn not to be using coupons just to use them, but to stick to things I will actually use in my home once I purchase them.  Otherwise I have wasted money.  Now if I get free items, even if I don't use them myself, I can use them to donate to food pantries and other places that help the homeless or other low-income people like myself.


I will keep you posted, hopefully, about how this couponing works out for me.