Monday, July 25, 2011

Tough Economy Makes Families Want to Stock Up

Any part of the week we have extra kids in our house.  Can you
guess which two are not mine?  Tee hee....
Wow, I can't believe I've gone 4 days without blogging.  It's UNREAL how crazy busy I am and I don't even go to work every day!  Sometimes I sit there and day dream about only cashiering like I did back when I worked at JCPenney.  I told Charles that if I ever had to work again after my kids grow up, that'll be my dream job.  Just ringing people and and talking to them.  Forget about the pay.  I can't believe I complained about it when I was a teen.  Now I'd be all excited to just talk to people and help them buy stuff.  Remember those days?  Crazy, crazy....

Here is another point of view though that I was thinking about today.  There is NO money.  No material thing. No gadget.  No Cable.  No car. No house that could ever get me to change my mind and want to go to work while my kids are being raised.  There is just no temptation for me whatsoever there.  The only regret I can see myself ever having is not spending enough time with my kids. I can't imagine laying on my death bed saying "Man, I never really lived because I never got to buy that Hummer I always wanted."  Nope.  I am not joking when I say that we cut every unnecessary expense in our life so I can stay home. Our bills are very, very simple on purpose.  I'm not knocking at all people who have to work!  I am only saying for myself. I know how hard it is and I've had all my cards crumble. It is really tough times out there and more and more families are just really struggling.  Been there, done that.  I guess that's why I'm putting so much time into saving and stocking up right now.

Part of my stash of dishwashing soap
How can my days POSSIBLY be so insanely busy?  You know what's been making me crunch time?  Couponing.  I learned a hard lesson from waiting to cut coupons till they add up.  I just went shopping again so I had to sit and cut coupons.  It took me soooooo long.  I'm talking hours to catch up.  I will always cut and put away my coupons as soon as I get them now.  That was just ridiculous.  Then I went to the store and saved huge.  But still... it really takes some time and dedication.  Maybe even practice.  The first time I went coupon I settled for 50% of savings.  I was kind of sad about it and was determined to try harder. Then it was in the 60's, then 70's, and now 80's.  I guess the biggest thing is not just getting excited about using a coupon but truly waiting till it's a rockin deal.  I've never had my pantry and both fridges soo full so it's exciting and my family is reaping big time.  

Free toothpaste
It's really cool having 32 toothpastes I got all for free, the toothbrushes too.  Or only paying 88 cents for expensive shampoo or whatever it is.  We'll definitely have deoderant, shampoo, toothpaste, shaving stuff, feminine products, dishsoap, etc that'll last us about a year.  That's from only couponing the last two weeks!  I won't pay for anything unless it's at least 80% with sale and coupon.  Otherwise, forget it.  It stays on the shelf.

Stacks of kids crayons
I really need to start getting my shampoos for free.  If I would've saved my coupon I would of gotten 10 free Aussie shampoos today and even got money back.  ARgh!  Patience.  I'm hoping to get good enough where I can give them away to people in need.  Seriously, I'm not gonna need 100 packs of toothpaste. But I sure am heck gonna aim for them to give.


Anyway, tomorrow is a HUGE laundry day and I'm babysitting so I'd better get some rest.  


I LOVE MY BLOGGY friends!  

5 comments:

Chris H said...

There are not many coupons available in New Zealand... and I'm sure we could never get ANYTHING for free!
You have a lot of toothpaste!!!!

Tall Tales said...

You know Jenny you should make Christmas baskets with practicals things for your family. You know my kids would be excited to get any American goodies even if you wrap up cereal. I'm not kidding. Dan loves CEREAL and would think you where the greatest if you gave him a box for Christmas.:D Just a thought.

Virginia Revoir said...

Yeah, that sounds pretty neat. When my stock gets too big of free stuff I am hoping to make gift baskets and give them away to people.

Kerrie McLoughlin said...

dangit, i am supposed to be working on an article right now and i just had to click on your blog b/c you are so uplifting, and i love seeing your stash! we have some pantry shelves in the basement and i used to have it full but now we barely fill our kitchen pantry, and it is small. i feel like i'm at Aldi all the time! you are brilliant to stock up, and i would give stuff away, too, once i got too much ... gift baskets are awesome. so for all the toothpaste, do you just find a good coupon and then wait until it goes on sale? do your stores double coupons b/c ours don't! retweeting this.

Virginia Revoir said...

Kerrie, the store near is Fry's which is the stores you usually see on Extreme Couponing but they go by different names elsewhere. They make all their coupons worth $1 no matter what the face value says. So on Sunday the Colgate toothpastes were 10 for $10. I had 10 coupons so it made it free. Plus I had Colgate toothbrush ones and got those free.

Thank you for coming by and visiting!!! :D