Why Do I Coupon???

I was at my local grocery store doing my usual-shopping. I had my list and all of my coupons that I would be using. I approached the check out and separated the items that I would be getting for free after a coupon.

As I was checking out, another customer came into the same line. I turned to her and apologized to her that I was using quite a bit of coupons. She stood there and stated that she was fine and that she had some as well. This sparked up a conversation about "why we coupon".

This got me to thinking. Why do I coupon? I guess the long and short of it is that I do it to make sure that my family has a certain way of life. Think about it. If you use your coupon when an item is on sale, you have now maximized your savings. More savings at the grocery store equals more money in your pocket. More money in your pocket gives you the ability to build your savings and take care of whatever you need to.

Couponing for me gives me the opportunity to make sure that my pantry is full. Full pantry means less trips to a restaurant and healthy meals for my family. Couponing also gives me the means to help someone in need. By couponing, I have been able to take care of a few households and donate to a local charity. Before using coupons, I felt that money was always tight and we had no wiggle room. Now, our room to wiggle is a bit wider.

I have been couponing pretty heavily now for the last three years and now I'm hooked! It only takes me minutes a day, overall about an hour a week to get all my coupons together for my weekly trip. The coupons that I don't use, I give to someone else who can use them. Do they use them? I hope so. I can't see why they wouldn't. Even a $0.50 coupon doubles to $1.00 and this is now a $1.00 saved.

Sure there are a host of other reasons that I could list, but I won't because they are all over the blogosphere. Just Google couponing blogs and "how to coupon" on YouTube. The results are amazing!

My DH promised me a long time ago, that he would do all that he could to take care of our household. I promised him the same thing. I guess this is one of my many ways of keeping mine to him. Oh yeah, that shopping trip, I almost forgot..... my total savings was $87.02. My OOP (out of pocket) was $90.00. This would have been less but DH had some items on his list that I didn't have coupons for.

Why do you coupon???