My Couponing Experience

The past 2 months, I've been couponing and I got the same result as I have had in the past:  I spend MORE money a month than I normally would.  Yes, I may have gotten 10 boxes of instant oatmeal for 57 cents each and Kellogg's cereal at $1 a box and $1 off here, another 50 cents there but in the end......I spent more on groceries this month than I have in a very long time!

I only spend $80 a month on groceries a month for my family of 3.  However, with couponing, I'm buying stuff I don't really need and wouldn't have bought.  For instance, we have a large 50 pounds bag of oats that I make oatmeal with.  I don't normally buy the instant oatmeal but because of the coupons I did.  Most of the time coupons are for processed foods, which we don't eat normally.  When have you seen a coupon for something natural and not packaged up?  I mean most of the coupons are for boxed muffin mixes, canned this and that, cereals, etc.

So, with that being said, I think my best deals from coupons comes from Walgreen's and that is primarily just toiletries, not grocery items.  Savings on toothpaste, shampoo and such like are great and coupons in that instance are a great use of my money.

Also, even though all the couponing work had been done for me online, I still had to print the coupons, clip them, organize them and then at the store go through massive piles of them and on and on.  Then I walk out of there spending more money a month then normal and my cart full of processed items.  That's not a deal to me.

I can see using the occasional deal and coupons for shampoo and things I normally buy but why would I spend each week doing this massive coupon hunt when I can feed my family already WITHOUT coupons on $80 a month!?

For the time this next month, I would have spent getting the coupon deals, I'm going to enjoy my extra money that I'm not spending on my coupon deals and get me a Starbuck's coffee or a book lol. =0