Are you a couponer?

There is a lot of information about coupon-ing these days. There are whole websites dedicated to coupon-ing. There’s even the show Extreme Couponing on TLC (though I haven’t watched it since I don’t have cable). One of the ways I tried to cut costs in our budget in the beginning was by coupon clipping. I tried. I bought myself a handy little organizer. I subscribed to some sites. I faithfully reviewed and cut out the coupons. At first I thought maybe I was doing something wrong. I was saving a very minimal amount of money. But weren’t people buying shopping carts full of groceries for a dollar?? I never managed to find many coupons for anything I actually buy. I felt a little like a failure about coupon-ing for a while. Then I came to the realization that we just don’t buy many prepared foods and that is what many of the coupons are for. I cook. A lot. Three meals a day. And I bake a lot too. Nothing complicated. I stick to healthy simple recipes and I use mostly whole, basic ingredients. It’s not common to find a coupon for whole wheat flour or for a bag of sugar or white vinegar (which I use in making cleaning supplies). On occasion I might run across a coupon for a dozen eggs but it’s rare. And honestly, if the item isn’t a healthy staple for our family I’m just not interested (my families’ health always comes first). After trying hard for a while to jump on this bandwagon, I decided to let this bandwagon roll on its own merry way. Coupons are great when I can find them for items I buy regularly and I love finding and using them for things like paper towels or toilet paper. But I just haven’t had any significant success with it and can’t justify buying a lot of the items the coupons are actually for.

So how about you? Do you coupon? Are you finding success with it?