Why My Family is Stocking Up

My mom and dad visited the other day
It was so nice having them!  My dad holding
Caleb with Kyle behind him.

Last night I took Ryan, my 10 year old, couponing at the store.  I had to avoid the store I normally go to because it's always a nightmare there using coupons.  So we went a couple more miles down the road to another.  Ryan really wanted to come but I told him I needed to focus.  I really do go into The Zone when I'm in there.  Finally I said yes but only if he only talked when I had a question or if I didn't need to concentrate.  He said it was no problem.  

So we get in the car 9 o'clock at night and it's dead quiet all the way to the store.  I wondered why he wasn't talking and then I realized he thought the no talking rule started immediately.  I said, "Ryan, we can talk on the way there."  He said, "Oh man, all that wasted time I couldn't been talking to you."  Haha.  So for the last 5 minutes of driving we chatted up a storm.

Caleb stacking cans

So we get there and I start to see what's on sale and go through the aisles having to pin point "fake sales" vs. really good deals.  The fake sales are the ones where they make big signs looking all important for that one product.  They'll even put it out in the open away from it's normal aisle.  But of course it doesn't show original price.  So then I would go to the aisle to see and, yep, sure enough it's not a sale at all.  OR, it's be only 2 cents off.  2 CENTS!  Sadly, you would see a whole shelf cleared because it always dupes people.  


I'm not an EXTREME shopper so of course I don't only pay $50 at the end. But I did only spend $200 for 4 carts of groceries. Yeah, Ryan and I had to keep taking stuff back to the car.  Back in the day, I would spend much more on one cart of groceries. It was just amazing the money I saved yesterday.  Around $600 savings.  So that's not bad at all.  I spent 6 hours cutting coupons yesterday and had the kids rotate in to help give me a break.  That was only cutting the food coupons since that's what I needed.  I haven't started on all the others. I was extremely exhausted with a bad headache but sales were ending so we had to go before midnight.

I have no space in any pantries, cupboards, in my second fridge or even in the hallway closet.  No where.  So we are trying to figure out a space today where to put it. 

 A friend asked me a fair question today,
"Why do you buy it if you don't have space for it? Wouldn't that save you even more money?"


I replied "Our plan is to have 3 months worth of food stocked up for emergencies. Every family should do that because we never know the future. Things are kind of crazy right now. That doesn't mean that I get a variety of things each trip. I get a bunch of one, two, or three different items that are on major sale. Then I use my coupons on top of it. But since I have overstock from last month, the month's stuff will make it more variety. It's just good to have a plan ahead of time".


Dacil, a fellow couponer I met at the store saved my bacon and sent me this video on saving time with couponing. I do this in some ways but this idea is even better.  Would love to share with you!  :D