Not so Extreme Couponing

There was a time in my life when I had nothing. My husband and I had both lost our jobs and was forced to live off of credit cards. That only gets you so far when you don't even have enough money to pay the bill. This is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. It has taken literally years to bounce back from that. And truthfully, we're still coming back from it. Finally, after a lot of prayer, and trusting God, Tim and I are on our feet. It has been a long road. At the worst, we had to take cold showers because we couldn't pay the gas bill, and I sold cakes to buy groceries. But I tell you this my friend, don't feel sorry for me, God has never left me without what I needed. Through all of this we have a new outlook on life. Also a new look on what is important. When Tim and I moved to Florida, we decided this would be a new life. Start over and hand in hand embark on this adventure. The story on how we got here was a blog post in itself. One thing I promised myself when we came here was never again would I allow myself to get into that situation. Never again would we be broke anxiously awaiting the next paycheck. It's really no way to live and all I really want is security. One day I decided to check out the extreme couponing show in TLC. It was like lightening striking! I can do that! I don't want to live in a grocery store, and I don't have a need for 10,000 tubes of toothpaste, but I can scale that down to my specific needs. So, I started doing research. Most of the ladies on that show go through hundreds of sunday news inserts a week...Well, lets scale that down for my family, I buy 3, sometimes 4. My first trip to the store was so much fun. I bought enough cleaning product to last 6 months for around $20. Now, I have a closet dedicated to my stockpile, and I don't have to buy my husband razors for a year, and I have enough shampoo to last just as long. Never again will I not be able to afford shampoo. My family and I will have security. My husband has a good job, and I get to make cake for fun, not survival. And I will continue to coupon in my scaled to realistic fashion. I praise God for getting me through that time, and I won't ever take his blessings for granted. If any of you think that couponing is ridiculous, you've never been poor enough to try anything. You've never really been without. Having that little stockpile is so comforting. And the best part, anyone can do it. The Key? Stay organized. It took about a $15 dollar investment to get started and $3 a week for newspapers. I only buy the stuff that I use and need. Shampoo/Conditioner, toothpaste and tooth brushes (I keep it to a year supply), dog treats, cleaning products...any extra, I will gladly donate to homeless shelters. Food stuff is about the same. Keep it to a year supply, and donate extra. Pay it forward.