Sharing the Love of Coupons

Today I finally got back to doing for others. It felt good since I've spent so much time focusing on myself. I met with the teenage girl, Karla, that I have been mentoring for about 2.5 years now. We spent a lot of time together in the first year and I was committed to meeting with her every week. However, as time wore on and I got busier I wasn't able to meet as frequently. We decided to commit to two times a month but it seems we haven't followed through with that and now that I am back up in Minneapolis close to here, I would like to try and fulfill that commitment.

I picked Karla up after work today and her and I did some grocery shopping together. I suppose this wasn't just a good mentor duty then, however, I did feed her. :D Had she not come with me, there wouldn't have been any food. Also, I thought it would be a good lesson in life for her. To see the cost of food and how quickly money can go.

After coming home and eating, Karla and I did some craft projects. Mine...did not turned out as planned and I took it apart. It's something I'll have to work on again later. Karla worked on those plastic bead projects that you make into a shape on a board and then you iron and melt the beads together. She made some for her friends for Valentine's Day and I helped her to iron them. We had a good time and discussed that we would be trying to meet two times per month now. I've been trying to work on getting her into a job shadowing opportunity one day as part of the program we worked with is to be focused on college and future profession. I will have to organize that for her as I've been trying to “get to it” for months!

Another lesson that I hope Karla took away from today's get together? Couponing. (Okay, maybe she's too young to care.) Yes, folks! I'm committed to couponing now. You were probably wondering why I took Karla with me and why grocery shopping was so urgent...well, it's DOUBLE DAZE at Rainbow Foods! Manufacturer's coupons are doubled! How can you go wrong? I created a list of all the coupon items I wanted to buy and all the other coupons and set out to shop with purpose. Some items that were on sale, such as shredded cheese, I had to buy two of but they were all items I could freeze.

I've also been utilizing a really useful tool called, www.couponmom.com. A woman who is MUCH better at couponing than I, that helps people to use the coupons in their areas, most efficiently. Combining them with other coupons to get the best deal possible. One thing I also love about her site is that it tells you what percent of savings there is on the certain items, so you can make the most of your purchases. Also, my FAVORITE part is that when an item is FREE due to the couponing, she marks them for charity to donate to food shelves! YES! :) I recommend you all check her site out.

Today for food, personal products and household products I purchased an amount worth:

$88.93

How much did I save in coupons today?

$26.38!

For a grand total of: $62.55

That's a savings of nearly 30%!!!

I did see some err in my ways which I will rectify for my next grocery shopping trip.

Double Days only lets you double 5 manufacturer's coupons. The checkout lady doesn't really care which ones she scans first or what their amount is, she just cares that she gets them scanned and does it in order from top to bottom.

Lesson learned? Organize my coupons by the greatest amount saved to the least so that the coupons with the most value are on top and therefore doubled.