My take on coupons...and humanity

First I want to say that I understand not everyone who uses coupons is this way (I even use them from time to time), and that I don't mean to step on any toes but this is how I see the couponing craze, and how it makes me CRAZY.

If you have seen Extreme Couponing then I am sure it seems glamorous and exciting to think you can get things for free! I won't lie, I bought into it at first.  I mean the thought of being able to get things for free, and lots of them, was amazing! I will be honest and say that I have never seen the show, but I don't have to, I get to live it every single day I go to work. I used to think it was fun and interesting.  I wanted to be on the specialist lines and see what the deals were so I could go later and pick up the same things for little or nothing.

I had 5 newspapers delivered to my door every Sunday so I could get a bunch of coupons, I printed them off the internet and grabbed the high value ones I saw stuck to packages.  I spent hours, clipping and sorting and organizing my binder, looking online for the latest deals, seeing when the next "double coupon day" was.  I was never as extreme as some, but I had begun to develop a nice little stockpile in the garage of sauces and cereals, shampoo and deodorant.

As the show became popular, and more people learned the "tricks", coupon classes popped up all over and people would organize shopping groups, I began to feel much differently about coupon usage.  I think the first time I began to question my feelings about it was when I was working and there was a phenomenal deal on cereal.  Cereal for 98 cents! After coupons and doubling, they were 100% free. People were beating down our doors, price matching and doubling and buying literally hundreds of boxes of cereal at a time.

As I was working, I had 5 couponers in my line each with a cart full of cereal.  Management began to question what to do, they were emptying our shelves, buying boxes that were different sizes that our competitor carried because exact sizes weren't stated.  Regular shoppers were upset because there was no product available for them to purchase, they were all being hoarded by couponers.  It was when they began yelling at me, belittling me when I didn't provide them with the deal they thought they were entitled to, that I began wondering how people can stoop so low, get so worked up over cereal.  They were rude, mean, and felt they were entitled to the great deals.

This was when I quit extreme couponing.  As a retailer, we provided a service to the customers, to make it convenient to shop at only one place by allowing price matching and coupon doubling.  These people treated us like trash, bringing cashiers to tears, calling management and demanding they get what they deserve.  We were taken advantage of, stolen from, lied to.  It saddened me that people would be so gluttonous as to belittle people.

I understand that some people will say that the retailer got what they deserved.  They opened their doors to it and shouldn't expect people to be different.  Policies have been revised, programs put in place, yet it still is an issue and probably always will be.  What I can't understand is how can people use so much stuff? I STILL have cereal in my garage from 6 months ago that my kids can't seem to go through.  I have shampoo stocked up that will probably last another 4-5 months and toothbrushes to last a year.  And this is with very mild couponing.  I can only imagine that these people who have bought cases of things will be hoarding them for months and even years to come.

Aside from all the ethical reasons of why I quit there are other personal issues.  A lot of the items that can be bought for cheap or free, are convenience foods and things that aren't really healthy.  I try really hard to not buy pre-packaged foods and make most things fresh.  I just had no use for much of it.  My kids aren't huge cereal eaters so it takes them a long time to go through it.  The time I was spending going through coupons was unreal!! I was going to school at the time, caring for my 5 kids, working and keeping house.  I just honestly didn't have time to do it anymore.  At that point, my time was much more precious than the money I was "saving".  And really, I wasn't saving that much.  I would spend $50-60 on coupon items and then still have to do my regular shopping so it worked out to where I wasn't really saving any money.

I understand that times are tough and people are trying to save money.  Not everyone has the same beliefs as I do and that is fine also.  I just wish people could look at it from other perspectives.  By taking advantage of the retailer and realizing they are losing money by providing them this service, it will cause prices to increase.  We have already seen bonuses disappear since this began.  Understand that your cashiers are just doing their job, there is no need to yell at them when they are following policy and just doing what they are required to do, they are people too.  Understand that there are people who don't coupon that might want the same product you want.  There is no need to clean off a shelf just because you can.  Its gluttonous and hoarding and selfish.  Realize that maybe you aren't saving so much money.  Healthy foods and making a meal plan and sticking to a grocery list will oftentimes save you a lot more money than couponing will.  And lastly.. many of the things you see on TV are not realistic.  Those people spend a majority of their day looking for deals, it is their job!  Many of the tricks they use are not legal and are cheating the system.

Budgeting Made Easy- a Product Review

My entire adult life has been a financial roller coaster.  We made poor choices, impulse purchases and had many children very close together causing even more strain on our middle class income.  I have read many  finance books from all the "experts", The Automatic Millionaire, Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. We had an extensive Excel spreadsheet listing out all out expenses, our income, what bills still need to be paid.  I feel that I had the book smarts for what it would take to get out of and stay out of debt.  For some reason, it just never panned out in real life and we were unable to put the information and tools together into a realistic working budget.

I felt something was missing.  I love Dave Ramsey's guides and advice about getting out of debt.  It is so practical, makes perfect sense and we used it for a while to eliminate some past debt.  However now we don't have much debt, just some small accounts and the house that we are using to rebuild our credit.  Last year we began doing other things on a larger scale, like putting more into retirement, and paying ourselves first by investing some.  Yet every month the money seemed to run out, things would be tight and when you looked at the situation it never made sense. 

I had finally had enough and went out on a search for the tool we needed to keep us in check and I feel I got very lucky when I was reading a blog in my list and they mentioned using Pear Budget, an online budgeting tool that allowed you to track your income and expenses and create a budget that worked.  I thought it sounded great and pitched the idea to my husband.   A skeptic at heart, he wanted to know more so I looked at reviews and read as much as I could so I could inform him of the specifics. I realized the weakness in the great spreadsheet we had before was there was no way to see if we were staying within that budget.  It showed how much we should budget for a certain category but after that there was nothing to keep us accountable.  We needed something that would show us what we planned and how much we actually spent so we could see where all the extra money was going.

What sold me on trying it was the free trial.  Now I know what you are thinking.. there's a hitch.  Well actually there wasn't one with this.  The 30-day trial allows you to set up a budget, create a plan, enter receipts, and compare your spending to your budget, with absolutely no commitment.  I didn't have to enter my name, my credit card info or anything.  I just had to create a username and password and if I decided to keep using the service, it would be $4.95 a month.  At first I thought.. why would I pay for a tool to help me save money? It seems counter-productive.  I have to honestly tell you that this program is worth every single penny of the fee which is equal to one spendy gourmet coffee.  As soon as my trial is up I am signing up for the full meal deal.  

In the one month that we have been using it, we have been able to see where we are overspending in the budget, I have been able to adjust it according to what may be going on in any particular month.  I have never felt more in control of my finances than I do right now.  We were stumbling along blindly before, wondering where all the money went, what on earth did we spend it on?  With Pear Budget it is so simple.

Here are a few things I love about it:

- a REAL free trial with no CC information to be shared until you sign up

-great online support

-100% customizable

-ease of use

-I can use the information in the spending to adjust the budget to be more realistic

-Its working!

Here is my disclaimer: I am in NO WAY affiliated with Pear Budget or the creators of it.  I just think it is a fantastic tool that will hopefully help others finally understand their finances.

We fully intend on keeping this program for a very long time.  It is apparent that the creators were passionate about creating a tool that was efficient and productive and had the users in mind when creating it. I expect this to be the best financial year in our history as a family.  I feel in control, and that is something I have never felt before.  So please head on over and check it out.  If you feel you want to continue using it please use my email address (jessicadaley7795@gmail.com) as a reference, I may just earn a $5 credit if you sign up.  We all work so hard for our money and should be in control of it, so if you are feeling a little bit confused or overwhelmed then please go check it out.

Motivation

It's been 23 days since I was going to recommit and sadly I have only been to the gym once. I have also only lost one measly pound. I don't know if it's the dreary, rainy weather or pure laziness. I am honestly afraid that I may become injured again.  I tried to do one of my exercise videos and even after one short session, my heel was feeling painful.  For Christmas I received a book that I had heard good reviews about and had been wanting to read.  I am only about half-way through but it has helped me accept that in order to be a real runner, I must listen to my body and know when to take it easy.  The book is No Need for Speed  by John Bingham and he gives a very down-to-earth approach  to what it means to be a runner. He explains that you don't have to be the fastest and it isn't always just about improving, its about loving what you do.  I have learned that it isn't worth it to be injured if it will cost me my chances of ever running again so I am limiting the amount of impact exercises I am going to do.  I highly recommend this book if you are a runner, want to be a runner, or just want to learn a little about human spirit.

Whatever the reason is that I am having a hard time getting on track, I have decided I can't let it control me.  I have been watching The Biggest Loser and their theme is "No Excuses".   I really have no excuses that would be acceptable. Even though I am choosing to take a break from running and high impact-exercises for my foot, there are other things I can do.  I am accountable for all my actions and I can't blame anyone or anything.  I was really inspired by Ben, who asked to be voted off and sent home.  I was a little pissed that he did that because there are so many people that would have given anything to be there yet he asked to go home.  What I was impressed about was he is a father of 9 children. He went home and managed to lose over 50 lbs on his own after leaving TBL Ranch.  As soon as I saw what he did I realized that I have no excuse, I am just stopping myself from doing what I already know I can do.

What I need is motivation.  I wasn't really seeking it, I was more or less passively prodding along, thinking the weight was just going to fall off as I miss a day here and there of journaling, or make lame excuses for not going to the gym.  Brent and I have decided that no matter what, we are going to take a family vacation this year.  We have been together 12.5 years, and married over 10.  We have 5 kids who have never been on a real vacation to a new place aside from a few trips to Tennessee and once when Taylor and Bridget were small we went to Camp Snoopy in Des Moines, Iowa.  We need this, we deserve it.  So this my friends is my motivation:  to not look like a beached whale as we vacation this summer in a cabin,  to not cringe when the camera comes out wondering if I will look gluttonous or if my chub rolls are hanging out.  I want to look back at those pictures of our first real family vacation with joy and happy memories and not worry about what I looked like.  I told myself that this was going to be my year for taking care of myself and the only one that can make that happen is me.  Wednesday's are weigh-in days.  It might be too late in the week to see any changes but hopefully I can begin to see things going in the right direction.


Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with NBC or The Biggest Loser, or with John Bingham and his book.  This is purely my own opinion and I have not received any compensation from anyone.