The Result

Okay I am posting this blog to let all of my fabulous followers know how my extreme couponing trip turned out yesterday.  Let me begin  by saying that as Clay, Addi and I were getting out of the car, and I was getting my 8 coupons situated, ( thats right, I said 8, baby steps..), we see this lady getting out of her car carrying a HUGE binder full of coupons.  I am woman enough to admit that she is more than likely going to be on the Extreme Couponing show before me.  So here we are in a grocery store that I haven't shopped at before, with my sale ad and 8 coupons in hand.  We were a force to be reckoned with.  Our first stop was to the bathroom, because you can't coupon on a full bladder.  This was the first glitch that occured.  I was planning on walking in to a bathroom with at least 5 stalls and  a few sinks.  This was a single bathroom, in a grocery store.  I wasn't sure those still existed.  It really threw me for a loop, and made me second guess this whole shindig.  I am a creature of habit, I like knowing where I am going.  This store was new to me and I felt awkward and out of place.  It was really bizarre how out of my comfort zone I felt, and when you throw in the fact that I was holding coupons in my hand, well lets just say someone had a meltdown, and it wasn't my 19 month old daughter.  There was stomping and whining and I am pretty sure I said something along the lines of " I just want to go to Wal-Mart and buy the Great Value brand."  Thank goodness I had Clay there with me or I really would have left.  As I was arranging and rearranging my coupons trying to look like I had some sort of clue what I was doing, he took a couple of coupons and went and found those items for me.  The idea of extreme couponing is to match the coupons with the items the store has on sale that week.  I only had a few coupons to match with their sale items, so thats where we started.  Honestly I don't know if my personality is good for couponing.  There was a level of anxiety involved that I am just not sure was worth it.  I almost felt like I was doing something wrong, and I just couldn't breathe correctly until we left the store.  On the plus side we spent $27.00 but we saved $21.00.  That was exciting for us, but I just can't grasp the whole idea of buying something that you normally wouldn't buy just because it's on sale.  This is going to take some more practice for me to totally get it and to see if it is the right fit for our family.  If momma ain't happy, noone's happy, and I was a bundle of nerves in that store.  We did share a few laughs however as we were walking up to the checkout counter we looked at the coupons again and realized they said "do not double" on them.  And then we realized that you had to have that grocery stores savings card to get the sale prices.  Clay and I played paper-rock-scissors to decide which one of us was going to ask the cashier about these questions.  I lost so I had to go ask which brought my anxiety level up a notch or two.... Good Times......Thankfully we could apply for a store savings card right then and we were able to use the sale prices.  And they did double the coupons.  Overall it was, in my opinion, more trouble than I was prepared for.  But again I think it has more to do with my personality than the actual couponing.  So I will try it again, but I have a feeling that for the next few weeks our pantry will be full of the Great Values brand.