Saturday, February 20, 2010

Coupons

Do any of you hate grocery shopping? I do, in the worst way. The mere mention of, "We're out of bread," transforms me into a grumpy giant -- a condition reversible only by a pint of Ben & Jerry's and an hour-long back massage. But alas, an empty fridge will never fill itself, so off to the store I go.

You know, this is a chore I've never loved, but it seems my anxiety over the task has grown over the past few months after I began "couponing." Each week I spend waaaay too much time clipping and sorting coupons from three copies of the Sunday paper. Then I get on my computer and spend what feels like an entire morning making my grocery list on this website. Then, of course, by the time I'm actually able to go shopping, I can't find half of the things I want because the other five thousand coupon-clippers in Utah County got to them first. Consequently, Smith's is always the worst with this -- they have great sales on lots of different products but you have to buy them in increments of ten. Of course I can't get everything on my list so my cart never fills up that evenly; I then wander the aisles dejectedly, searching for something that I have a coupon for and might use, just so I can get the super-sale price on everything else.

I currently have a year's supply of barbecue sauce, aluminum foil, and chili con carne.

I've only been at this a couple of months but the other night I decided I should quit. This isn't worth the time, right? I should just burn all my coupons and tell Smith's where to stick their "10-for" sales--what a liberating thought!

I was ready to do it.

But then I got to the register and something magical happened: I spent $60 on $100 worth of groceries. That reminded me of the time I spent $40 on $100 worth of groceries. And the fact that I've cut our grocery budget way down while building a pretty impressive food storage.

I think I'll give it a little longer.

Am I mental?