A soapbox moment....

ahem.

If you've read anything I've written since this blog debuted in July 2010, you'll know that I enjoy bargains, couponing & never paying full price.

What I don't enjoy is the skeptics.

Thankfully I have friends (and now my sister!) who embrace my love of savings right alongside me and get just as giddy at saving a buck as I do.

But there are the doubters...and I KNOW everyone has the right to their own opinion...but as someone who works diligently to save the many bucks that I do, nothing frustrates me more than when people tell me that couponing doesn't work for them/there aren't stores that would help them/coupons are only for junk/blah blah blah.  (It is so infuriating when someone is an "expert" on something they really have not put the time in to learn about!)

Now, to be honest....I could really care less if anyone else ever used a coupon....seriously.  I'm also not talking about "extreme couponing" here where I walk out of a store with 500 packages of paper towels for free.

We live on a very...very.....very trim budget.  We don't use credit cards and my husband is in social service and moonlights as a pizza delivery driver.  You do the math.

Couponing has provided food, clothing & personal care items for our family (and extended family and friends at times) for free or very cheap.

It takes time, diligence, patience----and some common sense to really make coupons work.  As for the "junk" that coupons are made for....

I bought 4 tubes of toothpaste, travel size detergent, body wash, shave cream & ketchup all for free this weekend....and coffee for about $3 off a can (matching store sale + store coupon)---forgive me, but we all use toothpaste, yes?

So, ahem....before I step off this soapbox....please understand it really does not matter to me whether or not people exercise the right to coupon!  I get that it's not for everyone/doesn't interest them/there isn't time to invest in it--I get that!  But please, do me and other couponers out there that do so to make ends meet a favor...please...please don't tell us that we "spend more than we save"or that we are "only able to get junk"

Because at the end of the day, I'm a stay-at-home mom who is pouring enormous effort into helping ends meet for her family....and those phrases aren't accurate and can actually be fairly hurtful.

steps off soapbox for the day...