This is a perfect week to talk about pacing yourself when you begin using coupons.
It’s been a crazy week with a ton of coupons from Sunday’s coupon inserts and the awesome printable coupons released in the last couple of days. Too many deals to keep up with…let alone fit into the budget.
I’m went head first into this couponing endeavour when I first began. I clipped every coupon in every insert and organized them in the baseball inserts in my coupon binder. I shopped Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS each week, stacked my coupons at Target and Meijer, and quickly built quite the stockpile (no, I don’t have a garage full of deodorant)
Confession…I’m still using health & beauty items from my stockpile almost 3 years later.
The Reality…you can do everything right, find the most amazing deals and completely blow your budget.
Now there’s nothing wrong with being excited about this new way of shopping. I remember when I first discovered that I could use a Target coupon and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. Yay!
Pace Yourself
Pick a couple of the very best deals each week and stock up on those items.
You still need to eat and 30 bottles of body wash will not suffice as dinner for your family.
Set aside part of your grocery budget for building your stockpile and make sure you have enough left over to buy the weekly essentials such as milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables.
How much of your budget to you use for building your stockpile?
Check out the rest of the Save Simply series to learn more about getting started with coupons.
This post is just like looking in a mirror. I’ve couponed for years, but I really started hitting it hard two years ago when I got laid off. I got SO FRUSTRATED that I was doing everything “right”, but our grocery budget didn’t budge. On the bright side, we’re good on toiletry items for a few months. :) I realized when it became more of a stressor than a blessing to my family that it was time to back off and focus better. Thank you for making me realize that I’m not doing this wrong; I’m just normal.
P.S. Sorry it’s so long! This just really got me.