Coupon Queen

I spent my afternoon with a client today. She and I went to the grocery store together. And she completely inspired me! She walked out of Kroger having paid only twenty-three dollars for an entire buggy-full of grocery items! The shopping process was painfully drawn out, and she was incredibly meticulous; however, she did not purchase even one thing that she did not have a coupon for, or that was not already on sale... or, in most cases, both!

The client walked into the store with a very specific agenda: buy more; pay less. She knew exactly which food items were on sale this week, and she had her coupons in her hand, at the ready. Accompanying those coupons, she had a list. After combining already-on-sale items with her coupons, she ended up paying next to nothing for the bulk of the groceries that she purchased.

Twenty-three dollars for more groceries than one person could possibly eat in weeks.

I was shocked.

And I suddenly realized something:

Bargain shopping takes work. It takes brains. It takes planning ahead. It takes time. It takes organization.

I am a terrible coupon clipper.

Wait... Correction...

I am a great coupon clipper; a terrible coupon user.

I tend to find coupons crumpled up at the bottom of my purse about two months after their expiration dates. Or I hoard coupons until I have so many that I could not possibly NEED to purchase all of the items that said coupons pertain to. Or I carefully guard an "important" coupon until I desperately need it (or until I think I desperately need it), and then, when I am pumped up, and ready to use it, excited for the sense of satisfaction and accomplish that I am sure is just around the corner, I realize that I left it in my other bag, or in the car, or on the kitchen counter. Or, I dig frantically through my purse in search of this all-important coupon, the entire time I am standing in the grocery store checkout line, still not having found it by the time I reach the register, flustered because I know I have a mob of angry shoppers waiting in line behind me, and finally giving up. Then, when I get in the car, I resume my thorough search through my purse (searching less frantically now), and find the coupon in the exact spot where I should have known it would have been all along.

Obviously, my coupon using skills leave much to be desired.

And all these years I thought I was thrifty. Boy, did this client prove me wrong. What she displayed today was sheer talent: Practiced, well-developed, unmatched (at least by me)... talent.

I am inspired.

It is time to turn over a new leaf.