Extreme Couponing

It's the latest craze in grocery shopping...extreme couponing. I could soooo become an addict, very quickly, but thanks to inheriting my father's frugality AND due to the fact that we live 20 minutes from the closest town which has only two grocers, I am at a loss to practice the program the exact way it is intended.  I somewhat envy my friends who

live in that town and others who live in towns surrounding our little Ghost Town who travel an hour to the nearest metro area to trek from Wal-Mart to Target to Aldi to Walgreens to CVS to Rite Aid and so on... in order to maximize their booty!

I am a very organized shopper. I go through local ads, make out my menu for the weeks I'm buying for (I usually shop two weeks at a time), then I clip coupons according to what I need . . . I don't typically purchase insane amounts of one product because we simply do not have the storage space.  I once had extreme coupon envy and, therefore, was fantasizing about moving to a larger house with a full basement where I could coupon until the cows come home and store all of my loot in the basement . . . then that frugal thing kicked in and, well, the fantasy evaporated like the rain that has not gotten past 30,000 feet this summer!

You see, when this family makes a trip to the city, it's a full day . . . we start early, hit a few stores (one of which HAS to be the local Christian book store where Mountain Man spends hours on end making lists of books he wants to purchase and/or read), then we head to lunch with the in-laws, then it's back to more shopping, leaving groceries to the last stop so all the frozen goods aren't completely thawed and in the beginning stages of cooking by the time we get home.  So, needless to say, we're tired by lunchtime, then since we usually eat down-home cookin', like Swadley's BBQ, for lunch. We all know what happens when our bellies are full of good food and we're already tired . . . you get the picture! So by the time we make it to our usual grocery spot in the city, we're all flat worn out, patience is hanging by a raveling thread and when everyone goes, we have to travel down every isle in the store and make more lists of things we want to buy or put on our birthday/Christmas lists. 

Now, tack on the fact that it is summertime in Oklahoma . . . especially this summer with it's incessant heat and weeks on end of 100+ degree weather . . . the more we can stay away from the concrete jungle, the better off we all are because when this mama starts melting, everything in my sight melts . . . it ain't a purty site!!! With that said, I am happy to stick to my usual plan of shopping with the small-town grocers and say that I am perfectly content with making out my list of things I need and searching for coupons on those items. It still gives me the thrill of the hunt and the victory of a kill, yet saves me the anxiety of driving into the city with husband and six-year-old in tow, navigating through the insatiably outrageous traffic. Staying out of the city will create less traffic in the metro areas, leaving more room for my couponing friends who have hit the extreme isle with a vengeance!

So, fellow couponers, happy couponing and for those of you who have the science of extreme couponing down to an art, clip on!