Coupons. You either love them or you hate them. I’ve been on both sides of this spectrum, and I’m here to tell you why I went from an extreme couponer to shopping coupon free, and how I’m still able to save money on groceries and everyday household items.

To tell you where I’m at today, you need a bit of my backstory. It was 2011 and there was this new TV show on TLC – Extreme Couponers. I. Was. Hooked. At the time it was only my husband and I, we were newlyweds and living in a cozy townhouse. In retrospect our expenses shouldn’t have been too much, but we spent close to $1,000 every month on food! Before you think we’re complete gluttons, let me explain – we’d do a full grocery shop every week with the intention of cooking, but ended up eating out. A lot. Most of our food went to waste.

 

 

I took up couponing and didn’t just embrace it… I developed a full on obsession! I had a huge coupon binder, and every week I’d buy multiple copies of the Sunday paper for the inserts. Not only that, but I’d go dumpster diving for more coupons! Not my proudest moment for sure, but I got a high on all the money I was saving! I couldn’t get enough! There were weeks where I would visit up to 9 stores to get the best deals. I lived in a large city and since everything was so accessible, I figured that it was no big deal for me to take a few extra minutes to pop into a store to grab a great deal. I did this for a couple of years, and ended up with a 2 year stockpile of shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and several other items, most of which I got for free! Well, the price of them was free, but do you know how many hours went into scoring these deals? Between collecting the coupons, cutting and sorting them, reviewing weekly ads and blogs, planning my trips, and then going to different stores, I was spending around 10 hours a week on this little hobby of mine.

During those two years I noticed some not-so-good changes in my overall wellness. I was gaining weight and was stressed out all too often. Looking back it’s so obvious what was happening. If you coupon, you will probably notice that there are slim to no coupons for fresh produce and healthy foods. I was planning our meals around sales, and ended up with so many things that I wouldn’t have bought if they weren’t discounted. We were eating processed foods and I was stressed out trying to balance my 50 hour a week job with all the responsibilities of life along with this feeling that I had to coupon to save us money – it was my responsibility, or so I thought.

Something needed to change, and it took a major life event to do so. My husband and I decided to move out of state. We went from a busy city to a quiet town in the country and my selection of grocery stores was narrowed from over 10 down to 3. That said, my focus when we moved was not in couponing though; we were living with family while we searched for our house. I just started a new job, and didn’t have the time to devote to another thing at the moment. Thank goodness for that too as this was the start of my transition away from coupons.

How We Saved

Grocery shopping in our new town looked drastically different for us pretty much from the get-go. It was summer when we had moved, so we would shop for produce at our local farmers markets. We ended up eating like our extended family that we were living with, which meant smaller portion sizes, healthy fresh produce, and lean meats. We were no longer eating a lot of the junk that I would have bought before we moved like chips, frozen pizza, and candy. Our recipes were simplified and we were spending less grocery money on a weekly basis pretty much immediately.

There are other options to save on your groceries as well. Find a local co-op. Bountiful Baskets is available in select locations around the country and hands down they are my favorite to buy into! The pricing is reasonable, and the food is fresh and healthy. You can also sign up to buy your meat in bulk through Zaycon. They offer high quality meats at great prices, you just have to keep an eye out for upcoming deals and book before they sell out.

We made other decisions to save money as well. We discovered our local library and borrowed books as opposed to buying them. We cancelled our cell phone plans and switched to pre-paid cell phones. This was complemented with a web-based home phone line so that we could make as many calls as we needed to from home at a low cost. We also decided to ditch cable and bought an antenna that is discretely located in our attic. I learned how to bake bread, grow herbs, do my own nails, and make homemade laundry detergent, which ended up being a lot of fun! I even ditched drinking soda, which was hard but so worth it not only financially but also for my health. We were saving hundreds on a monthly basis and I didn’t feel like we were sacrificing at all. In fact, I was enjoying my new hobbies, not to mention my down time.

There are so many things that you can do to save money that don’t have anything to do with coupons. These can even include fun events and things to do in your neighborhood. Let me know in the comments below if you’d like me to write about fun and free things to do as a family and/or as a couple! As always, we’d love to hear from you!