From Scratch

I fell off the coupon wagon. Life got interesting, work became stressful, and the act of spending hours a week putting together a shopping list and cutting the coupons did not seem attractive to me what so ever. I stopped purchasing newspapers, I didn't look online anymore, and I actually stopped grocery shopping for about a month. Luckily enough, I had groceries to last me a while due to previous coupons and a huge stock up sale with my father. Things have calmed down a bit around here and I now have the time and motivation to dedicate to couponing and saving money on groceries. I realized how much I'd fallen behind when I went to go get new batteries for my WiiFit and found.. no batteries. It was eleven at night and no stores were open. Utter fail. So I went out that Sunday, bought newspapers, and started all over again. By 'all over again' I mean all but three of my coupons from before were expired and no longer usable. My lack of dedication wasted me weeks of work and money, throwing me back to Square One all over again. It irritated me, a great deal. I'm making this post to be grumpy about it - but at least I've learned what not to do. (Namely, don't fall behind, idiot.) Today I have to go buy batteries without a coupon because of this blunder. This also irritates me more than I care to admit. Luckily I can throw it off as 'spur of the moment' or something equally a lie when I run out and do errands later today. Either way - time to get back on track. -Erin

Here's the deal.

I'm on a diet.

Yep.

I'll be going back to the place of my birth on February 14th and part of that trip involves picking out bridesmaids dresses for my sissy's upcoming wedding. This is a fabulous thing as I love shopping and I love her and it's glorious all around! The issue is that when I was at my ideal weight of 132lbs at my 5'5" frame, I was twenty-three. Two years later and I am at 149.4lbs and I have to be picking out bridesmaids dresses

Not only that but I no longer fit in a good 2/3 of my wardrobe. This, of course, irritates the living bejeesus out of me - I don't want to spend all that money on new jeans and bras and shirts! Eff that! Along for the ride is the fact that my doctor says my vitals are all awesome except for cholesterol.

Yooou heard me right.

Twenty-five.
High Cholesterol.

I was as flip-shit as you are right now, I promise you.

So this is vanity, monetary needs, and health all mixed into one.

What does this matter to us, you may be asking yourselves. Coupie Newbie, this is a blog about coupons! One that you haven't updated in too long of time, may we add!

Well, dearest readers, you're right. I have neglected you and this blog and for that I apologize. It was very cruel of me. I will wholeheartedly admit that the holidays dampened the soul somewhat, with two weeks of no coupons and then missing possibly the biggest haul of the year. Never mind that! Let us forget my betrayal!

Instead, this will become my diet blog and, with that, how I coupon in order to remain healthy.

That's right: healthy couponing.

It's slightly more difficult but entirely possible. I will be doing this.

As a word of warning: my ideas on what consists of 'healthy' may differ from yours, readers. The things I eat or how I exercise may be seen as extreme or not extreme enough. This is perfectly okay; our bodies are all different and our dietary needs are far from uniform.

With that warning I will add that I went from 190.5 lbs before to 132 within a year doing exactly what I will be doing now. This works for me, from the food down to the exercise regime. I won't be starving myself nor will I be working out two or three hours a day. I cut out many things and exercise portion control along with daily exercise, no matter how little. This is my method, it's what I will be doing, so if you see I am adding, Gods forbid, real sugar to my coffee, stuff it.

You don't want me without my sugar.

This started yesterday, O Readers Of Loyalty. This is a month long endeavor that will hopefully continue past my trip. I know it is highly unlikely I will reach my goal, but as long as I can fit into those damned sparkly jeans, I am alright with that.

Also, I'm going to start swearing a little. Can't lose weight properly without swearing.

Until next time, readers!

Binders.

I would just like to say, with all sincerity, that I hate binders. It's true. I hate them. I hate them with a freaking passion unless they have all of my stories inside of them. I wish to heave them all out of a window much like a bosom heaves from a corset in a trashy romance novel.

Yes, yes, I know I just made a post glorifying the binder and how lovely it is to be organized. Binders are indeed great... but this doesn't mean I don't loathe them. I tried to binder/organize it, you know, I really did. By food, meds, shower supplies, animal stuff, all of that. They were divided up neatly, put into the proper little sleeves, and then the binder put down so I could get some work things done.

Ten minutes later, I pick up the binder. Binder tilts and my coupons go every freaking where on the floor. I flipped my lid because oh god coupons everywhere and out of order. It took me five minutes to gather them up once more and eventually I grabbed out some letter envelopes and titled them things like 'meds/shampoo/razors' and 'kitchen/cleaning/paper products' and simply shoved all the related coupons into their individual envelope because Jesus Lord Mercy, the Binder of Doom made me want to bash someones head in.

As well many of you may have guessed, I was much too lazy and distracted to hit up Walgreens. That's for this week (I think...), Friday before the doctor's appointment. Instead, Giant was hit up with the padre. It ended with massive amounts of food and he did not get the majority of it. I felt bad. There were coupons used and again, I don't think all of the ones I handed over went through properly? But there was two carts full of food and I was frazzled and hungry and Dad was hungry and we were trying to finangle things and...

Long story short: Progresso has some ridiculously good soup. I will be devouring them all, always, forever.

This post had a reason when I started it two days ago but, alas, my mind has drifted from the original train of thought outside of 'man, great soup' and 'man, I really hate binders' and yet I still haven't managed to cut everything from Sunday. Time to get doing that! I only have until Friday morning, darnit.

This is what we call 'crunch time'.

I promise I'm not THAT broke.

Okay, so there were some concerns about one of my statements in the first post - the comment about being shampoo-free.

I promise, I can afford shampoo. It's around five bucks for a bottle without coupons or a sale and my hair is short but truth is, I've been looking into using alternatives for a long time now. I googled "shampoo alternatives" and up popped How to "No-Poo" Shampoo Alternatives. I decided to try it because why not - I lived by myself and I live at work, so if it turned out to be super gross, no one would see and it wasn't something a five minute shower couldn't fix.

Well - turns out I love it. My hair was all soft and lovely and long story short, I like it. I've been doing it for about two and a half months now. Even my sister reacted in something like horror when I told her (and promptly ate her words after I dried off my hair to reveal awesomeness). Disbelievers: 0, Coupon Newbie: 1. Ha!

That out of the way, I did the first shopping trip with coupons thing yesterday. I'm sorry to say I didn't look at the screen while it was being rung up so my POM coupons didn't go through (despite me double-checking with the cashier verbally) and didn't notice until I got home. That said, I still saved almost twenty-eight dollars.

Not all of it was couponing! Some of it was, others were from in-store sales. I'm still new and am totally expecting these mistakes, so I'm not too put out by it. Serves me right and I'll be triple-checking everything as they ring it up. Even with that, I still consider the trip a success.

Giant was having a sale on new Bailey Creamers, two for three dollars. I like Baileys, I needed creamer, and I had none of those illusive .75cent off International Delight coupons that are apparently crawling over the internet somewhere. (If anyone has some, send them my way, please.) So even without coupons, they were the cheapest (and hopefully the most tasty!) even if they were the smaller size.

On a fifth, closer, look, it appears as if she missed three of my coupons and I was too worried about being a pain in the ass to pay attention to the screen. Well - now I know. Pain in the ass is better than not getting the four dollars off. Sigh.

Either way I made it out with ten boxes of Pasta-Roni, twelve cans of soup**, two boxes of Super Pretzals, two Chavrie Goat Cheeses, two POM drinks, and four Baileys Creamers for under thirty-five dollars from the 63.20$ it would have been before sales and what coupons were scanned. Also, I got 2.50$ coupon for my next shopping trip, so that's cool.

Walgreens or CVS is tomorrow, I'm not sure which. Maybe both. Maybe neither. It's very possible I'll feel too lazy after work to bother going. Either way, I'm doing my best to make a list, check it twice, all of that good cliche stuff.

The coupons will rise again!



**Apparently 'condensed' means 'add water, stupid' and it's very possible to burn tomato soup. The story is less hilarious than it sounds.

In the beginning, there was a binder

I am going to start this blog off with acknowledging the fact that a binder is vital to the success of couponing. Why do I know this, you ask?

Five minutes ago, I was sitting on my bed, looking through my wad of coupons grabbed from this weeks and last weeks newspapers, trying to locate that *one* sugar coupon because it was on sale at my local market. I had more coupons spread around me in a brilliant shower of clippings, all pinned together with paperclips, all of them taunting me with their inability to be easily found despite my meticulous 'food' and 'not food' piles.

Some were even out of order.

It took me over a half an hour to just get six items on my list for my very first trip into the land of coupons and once I tried for CVS, I threw down the coupons and let out a mighty cry.

"Fudge this!" I said, with language that did not contain any reference to food. "I need a binder. I will be stopping at Staples in order to not go insane."

To those who doubt the very meticulous tendencies of the long-time Coupon Enthusiasts, doubt no more. I doubted. I was arrogant. I assumed that because I loved lists and piles and paperclips that I could delve into the world without a plan, like Batman on a bender.

Alas, it was not to be so.

Hi, for those of you still reading. Call me Coupie Newbie - I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you? I am twenty-four years old and am living on my own for the first time. I live on the premises of my job, resulting in a pay cut. While this means I don't pay rent or utilities, it also means that with the piling student loans, car payment and insurance, the cost of necessities such as food and cleaning supplies is beyond my reach. I've gone shampoo-free, using baking soda as a shampoo (and actually, I LOVE IT! Don't knock it until you've tried it, I'm never going back!). I suppose this is the classic tale of 'I'm broke, save me money' that many people have when going to coupons.

That's fine with me, I don't mind being one of the crowd.

This blog is meant for motivation, to track the progress of my coupon adventures. I will be posting each Sunday with what delightful coupons I am absolutely giddy over (That Chavrie goat cheese coupon on their facebook?! I squealed!) and then on Tuesday, there will be a post of my shopping trip. Due to my schedule, I can't go shopping on Sunday or Monday, which I know may hinder what I can or cannot buy.

But never fear! I will continue onward!

Expect pictures and prices, me posting what I could have paid, should have paid, and what actually left my wallet. I like saving money almost as much as I like eating and showering with actual soap, and I have a feeling you do too.

Today is the first shopping trip as I have a surprise day off. I will be invading Giant and going to Staples for a binder and some of those... baseball card thingies. A lot of them. I want all of them.

I will be prepared.

I will have a binder.

And I will coupon