This post also comes with a bit of a "warning", if you will. I discovered "The Krazy Coupon Lady"'s website, and I want to punch her. If you're an extreme couponer and reading this, then I'd assume that anything I bitch about from here on our won't pertain to you. If it does, well, then you deserve it!
The Krazy Coupon Lady's website provides some pretty specific instructions on how to become a crazy couponer, like herself. Here are some of the basics:
- No more weekly menu with its accompanying list of groceries to be purchased regardless of price
- You’ll be cooking according to what’s on sale.
- You’ll be visiting multiple stores, saving from 50 to 90%.
- You’ll be shopping with coupons while a product is on sale and stocking up while it’s cheap or free.
- You’ll eliminate those last minute trips to the store because everything you need will be right at your fingertip
Step 2 of becoming a crazy coupon lady is acquiring said coupons. Her favorite method? Dumpster diving.
I don't think I have to say much about that. I find the idea of soccer moms digging through dumpsters more humorous than appalling. Did you use a coupon on those Talbot khakis? I hope so, because they're gettin' dirty.
By Day 4 in her couponing lesson, I've realized that she thinks herself a bit of a cult leader. I'll let it slide for now, we'll see if it gets any worse.
The rest of the days are pretty obvious. How to use a rain check, how to fight with store clerks, how to carry store policies around with you. Day 10 is how to become a faithful cult follower. Still, all of this is fine, I guess. I mean, what harm have cult leaders ever done to society? (it's hard to make blog posts sound sarcastic, so please, reread that in your sarcastic voice if need be)
But still, no vegetables. No mention of at least the importance of breaking your couponing habits to purchase the occasional fresh item. Now let us all hope that readers of this and other blogs are just wise enough to feed their kids something other than Tuna Helper, but people have sued over less. "I ate too much McDonalds because it's too good to stop eating". could sound a lot like "The krazy coupon lady didn't tell me to buy eggs"
I promise that I'm being over dramatic, I'm just SO put off by this. I mean, there is a part of me that has actual genuine concern over some less educated, struggling people who would let this get out of hand and end up with malnourished children (Again, sorry if that's offensive, but let us not pretend that we don't all know people like that) but most of me just thinks its so...I don't know. Maybe a word will come to be sometime and I can pin point my anger.
Let us also not forget to mention that Krazy Coupons Lady has lots of products that she's developed such as books, that you can spend YOUR money on to help her with her stockpile.
Okay enough of that. Let's get positive. The point of this blog was to try to develop ways that NON stockpilers could use to save money. For now, I'll just list some of the things Jared and I do, and in later posts, we'll delve into some of them.
1. Make things all by yourself. Jared apparently thinks baking bread is awesome. So beyond that fact that it may, in the long run, save money, he also finds joy in it. Same goes for stock. He's in carcass boiling heaven right now.
2. Food-save the hell out of shit. Now, I mentioned to Jared today to stop food saving EVERYTHING because there has to come a point when the price of what you're vacuum sealing in LESS than the cost of the vacuum sealer bag. We'll look into that someday, but for now, buying whole pork loins and cutting them ourselves is just another thing we like to do.
3. Go to multiple stores when you have time. Krazy Coupon Lady hates costco. Sorry, KCL (as she calls herself) but I fuckin' love Costco. My time is almost as important as money to me, and being able to buy large cases of macaroni and cheese and buckets of shampoo is awesome. We also LOVE the Strip District, for those of you fellow Pittsburghers. Wholey's has very great prices on fish and fresh meat. You can also get some dry goods and produce there...but one a warm day, you can walk up and down the street and get all sorts of wholesale deals.
4. Don't buy things just because you have a coupon. I'm still working on that. Totino's Pizza Stuffers are just gross.
5. GROUPON!!!!!
6. Stop spending quality time together if it costs you money. Haha. That's just a joke, but we're still working on how to feel like we do fun things now that we don't spend a lot of money. No more walks to get coffee. No more movies. No more nights at fancy restaurants or the casino. No...no we just watch TV and drink folgers.
Anyways, that's enough for now. But once again, another purpose of this blog is perhaps to get some discussions going on how to Fight The KCL and to come up with the more fun and interesting ways to save money, so comment on, my friend.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteEd just bought me a pressure cooker/canner! I have been wanting one for a long time, and now I'll be able to can soup! We were making VATS of soup in our turkey fryer and freezing them in plastic containers. Well it was great to have on hand, but... 1. soup sucks frozen. the veggies get mushy 2. it takes forever to dethaw. 3. after we were eating them the mass cupboard space the tupperware was taking was crazy! not to mention everytime i opened it there was a waterfall of plastic raining on my head...
i havent tried it yet but im excited to see how it goes.
couponing is rough. i always second guess them and mostly dont use them. example, giant eagle had coupons by the new greek yogurt, but i had to buy three and i only wanted to try one- so i didnt use it. Cereal coupons are hard to use too. it seems i always want cereals that ARENT on sale.
as for your costco obsession, i love sams. i get toilet paper, paper towels, meats, snacks, diapers, juice, and it lasts almost 2 months. i could spend $1,000 there and be stocked for a while but who has that kind of money. ive never been to costco but sams has bread for dirt cheap and i freeze most of it in the deep freezer. im glad slodes likes baking bread, i tried to make wheat bread once and it didnt work out. :/
as far as coupons for produce- they dont exist. which is why i love my garden in the summer!!
happy savings!!
Katie
p.s. lets go pens!
Coupon manufacturer apparently assume that we eat a lot of crap, wash our hair many times a day, and clean our houses 24/7. BUT...it's always nice when you DO find good ones that you can really use to save a lot on stuff you like that is normally pretty pricey.
ReplyDeleteI just read all of your posts and you gave me a few good laughs.
ReplyDeleteI don't print coupons because we can't afford the ink. I get them out of magazines and in the mail. I very seldom remember to use them and throw them out when they expire. Most of my coupons are out Rachel Raye's magazine (which I stopped getting because she has gotten all high falutin' and uses ingredients I've never even heard of). The Sunday paper is always good for some coupons. You can check out food sites, like Kraft, Nabisco, etc. Some of them have their own coupons and the stores have to accept them. As mentioned by someone else, make sure the bar code is clear.