My Couponing Story: Why I Started & Why I Stopped

If anyone knows me, they know I love a good deal.  Believe it or not, I didn't always act like that.  But in my mid-late 20's I started to use coupons for everything.  Little by little I would get better and better at scoring great deals.  Combining sales with coordinating coupons, it was awesome!  I finally found a wonderful blog that had 2 like minded ladies, who had a passion for saving money, posting multiple times per day about great deals at local and national stores.  I became enthralled with the idea that I could get all this stuff for pennies, free, or in some instances the store would pay me to take it.  That's right, they would PAY ME to take it out of the store for them! *mind blown*

My friends and family would joke that couponing was my job - it really was!  It took up lots of my free time, but I loved it.  Scoring deals and working with the right coupons at the right store at the right time, it was great retail therapy without spending a boat load.  I would even score deals on items that I wouldn't use.  (more on that soon)   

This is what a section of my old house looked like - I got all this with COUPONS!

 

After having a change in my life plan, I decided to take pause at my spending habits.  Even though I was only spending a little at the cash register, when was I going to actually use all this stuff?!?  So I put myself on a no couponing purge!  That's right, no more coupons for me unless they were food items I was going to use in the next month.  So I finally started living off my stock pile.

When I made the decision to "live" off my stock pile I thought it would last about a year, at most...  Fast forward over 2 years later and I STILL have stuff - it's insane!  I even got rind of all the items I knew I would not use.  I had made a decision to go to my local food bank and donate quarterly, before quitting couponing.  I also had a few family members and friends that would come over and "shop".  They loved it, and I loved giving it away.  It was very rewarding to give away things that would normally cost over $100 + to people I cared about. 

So when I eventually downsized to a 2 bedroom apartment the big purge happened.  The food bank LOVED me for donating consistently, but I was moving far away.  I told the gal there that I would no longer be donating to their organization, she was bummed but understood that I was heading out of town.  I wish I could still save money in the way I did before, but I no longer have the space for it.  Someday I will get back into it when I find a more permanent home - and adequate space! 

Have any of you ever seriously, couponed? Or know of a couponer in your life?  Leave a comment if you care to share.

Thank you for reading!