Thursday, May 24, 2012

Giving up on Coupons

So it’s time for another “Giving up on Good” post with Naptime Diaries and the Tiny Twig. 

As the name of my blog points out, I am the envelope keeper in our family.  I’m the one who spends the money.  As a stay at home mommy who doesn’t contribute to the budget financially, I put tremendous pressure on myself to handle the money I am entrusted with well.  I work hard to stretch every dollar and to treat each one with honor.

I like coupons.  I love to look through newspaper ads and collect those colorful slips of paper.  My husband calls me the “coupon queen” which is very generous, because I am nothing like those couponers on TV.  The ones who spend $0.31 on six buggies of groceries and head home with 97 bottles of mustard, 31 tubes of toothpaste and nothing they can actually eat for dinner. 

As much as I like them, I’ve recently reworked my relationship with coupons for two reasons.  First, I was starting to feel like a coupon failure.  I will never be the girl at Harris Teeter with the three ring binder full of coupons I collected when I stole all the Sunday papers in the neighborhood and climbed into eight dumpsters.  Secondly, I was starting to buy things just so I could use a coupon.  I was spending more money on things I wouldn’t normally buy or I was buying name brand instead of store brand just because I had a coupon.  I was getting carried away with the game of it and it wasn’t really benefiting our budget. 

Yes, I still use coupons but I gave up on stressing about it.

9 comments:

  1. I had to stop couponing, at least for now. It was stressing me out!

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    1. Before baby it was a much bigger priority. Thanks for stopping by.

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  2. I rarely coupon anymore either! It can be so stressful. I think it's a great choice if it means less stress for sure :)
    Just stopping by from Jessi and Hayley's linkup!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by! I'm trying to be a lot more go with the flow when it comes to couponing.

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  3. This was me! I did the same thing and it never dawned on my until my husband asked me why we had a certain food when no one liked it. Great post!

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    1. Thank you! My husband was the one who pointed out my "spend more to save more" disconnect, too. I'm glad I'm not alone.

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  4. yes & amen! i often times felt guilty for not couponing, but when i tried, it wasn't worth the stress.

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    1. That's why I love this link up. The pay off is not worth the stress! Thank you for stopping by.

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  5. I have tried and tried to be one of those coupon people, but each time it fills me with anxiety. LOL It's hard work!

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