I caught the end of a show on TLC that was showing on Saturday night (I think?), called Extreme Couponing and it was truly insane. People getting 100s of dollars worth of groceries for $10 or less and others getting thousands of dollars worth for hundreds or less. On the one hand, I hope I never have so much extra time that I am able to collect as many coupons as they do, sort them, etc. On the other, I can definitely identify with the "high" they talk about when they give the cashier their coupons and watch the total come down haha.
I've never saved anywhere near what they did on the show - nor do I ever buy more than 1 cartload of stuff - but if I can cut my total in half, woohoo!! I'm usually pretty happy for the rest of the day. ;) Sometimes ... I even wait til the cashier is done scanning all my items and THEN give her my preferred card AND coupons to see even crazier savings. Note: With usually at least 2 kids in tow, this is not very hard to pull off in a very natural, nonchalant way. ;)
Still though, IMO, saving $ is definitely a two-way street. On the one hand, spending less is almost always nice. On the other, I believe my time IS money and how I spend it is very valuable, especially since adding things to my to-do list usually means taking time away from enjoying my 3 little ones. So, there has to be a balance. Fortunately we have a God who knows what we need/want and can and does provide even the seemingly unaffordable. With the help of Google Docs and a couple of free spreadsheet downloads I found, I've started keeping pretty close track of our spending so far this year and I have to say that more than anything, it's been blessing to see how God provides! Truly. I usually hate math, but I'm quite excited for the 2011 fiscal year. ;)
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