baby steps to the elevator...

I have a friend who tried going on a coupon inspired shopping trip and ended up spending more than she normally would.

Just a review. 
Everybody asks:
Don't you end up buying stuff you normally wouldn't buy?
and
Where do you get all of your coupons?

or they don't ask questions, they just tell you stuff like:
I don't have that kind of time.
and
I'm too ticked off about the whole mess in the Middle East to focus on coupons.

I've heard it a million times.

A little knowledge can be dangerous.  The thing that gets press...the thing that people talk about, is the big hauls.  I spent a little over $5 recently and came home with a little more than $100 worth of groceries.  I also came home with money the store gave me to take their products not too long ago.

So someone hears that, buys a paper and wonders how come they aren't being given money or saving over 90%???!?!?

Because most of the time you don't win the Super Bowl.  You get a paper, cut out 20 coupons and maybe use 3 that week.  You save $3, which pays for the paper.  You have 17 coupons left over and you use them along with the 20 you get out of next week's paper.  Maybe that week a couple of your coupons line up with some sales and you've got twice as many this week....so you save $10.  It snowballs.

You figure you can save more than $1.50 with each paper so it makes sense mathematically to buy more than one paper.  With each paper you get another 20 or so coupons.  And then you find free sites (like the one linked to the right) that let you print their coupons on your home computer.

Maybe you figure out ways to organize them so it's not any slower to go shopping than before the coupons?  Maybe you have a week where all of your coupons match all of the sales which match all of the things you want...and you save 95%.

You don't win the Super Bowl every year (or even once in some team's history).  You just keep plugging along and you save money every single time without fail.  It pays off every time a decent amount, and every once in a while a ton.

I hope that this has been as inspiring to you to read as it has been for me to write.