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Well, I have recently fallen into the cult of couponing!

Is it easy?  NO!  But so far, it has been pretty rewarding...and maybe, just MAYBE, a little, tiny bit fun.

At first, I didn't understand why people even bothered with coupons.  They are usually for expensive items that still don't match up to the store brand's prices even after a coupon.  But after talking to a few people and reading a few blogs, I gradually got the idea that coupons are generally for items that are already on sale, or for items that will bring you some type of reward just for buying them.

I have now realized the importance of looking to see what is on sale.  I just finished my first coupon excursion at Kroger yesterday.  I made a list of things I absolutely had to have and things that were on sale that I thought I would enjoy or thought I would use in the future.  I do not have the space to stockpile things at the moment, so that was out of the question.  But...I ended up buying $131.75 of groceries for $96.13, which is a savings of 27%!  I know...it's not too much yet.  But I hope to keep looking through our local ads every week and trying to match them with my ever-growing pile of coupons (which I need to organize somehow) to save us some money!  Two small snags we encountered in our experience: 1) Assuming that some fruits and vegetables are in packaged in one-pound increments.  2)  We intended to buy sliced cheese that was on sale, and we picked up the wrong brand, which was not on sale.

Yes, is is time-consuming so far, but I hope as time goes on, I will get a lot faster at this and that it will be well worth it.  My eventual savings goal for grocery trips: 40-50%!