We are not unlike a lot of people out there today and I am sure most of what I am writing about has been here or someplace like this before, but today really opened up my eyes to just what you can do by clipping coupons. My wife has been doing this for about 6 months now and has all the regular routines down so when we she goes shopping she has a purpose and plan.

We get the local and regional papers twice a week. The the clipping frenzy starts. Have you ever see sharks feed in a frenzy well you don't want to get near her when she is clipping and organizing. One could lose an ear or finger or just get buried alive in excess newspaper. They wouldn't find you till the next set of papers arrive at our house.

Our lives are stressful and have been turned upside down in these economic times like most Americans because finances are stretched, jobs have been lost, so we as a family are doing what we can to help save where ever possible. My wife always teases me about how the stress effects our love life. So both of try to put some laughter back in our lives. Today when she had all of her coupons laid out on the living room floor in groups, and I mean all over the floor, I went over to her, kissed her neck and whispered in her ear, 'Let's do it right here, right now'. Well that was a definite NO!

I said I was only trying to be spontaneous.

When we were shopping today we went into take advantage of a bargain from a name brand. Buy so much of their product and receive a rebate on other stuff. So we intended on spending about 60 to 80 dollars. She has a binder that she takes with her that has all of her coupons in it categorized into groups. We pick up the paper in the Market with their coupons in it also. We are shopping off of a list that qualifies for the brand name rebates, so aisle to aisle we go getting just what she has outlined. Each time she gets a product she gets the corresponding coupon for that product and puts it in a special flap in the binder. We get a couple of extra things that we need and get to the cashier. She was young and my wife told her that she had a lot of coupons to use.

The register was ringing up product after product and the total was going way beyond the $80 that we had planned. We spent about $204. Our finances are short and didn't want to empty our account so I was nervous so minus store preferred savings card and in store coupons of $76 the total went down to $128. Then the cashier took the coupons from my wife and said, "I guess you do have a lot". She started scanning them and the amount started to move down and ended up at $87 saving $41. Plus we got some additional savings through a machine called a "Catalina" which prints out savings from manufacturer companies for future products and shopping that totaled about $40. We don't have to buy anything or use coupons with these savings so that is pure money in our pocket. That would put our shopping costs at about $47 for over $200 in products. Pretty good deal. The cashier said the same thing, 'Wow, you did save alot, but they take too long'! Well with the price of fuel going up, and the economic downturn, I guess the time it takes to clip and live in paper city is worth it.

One thing I know for certain, changes in the economy has made us think out of the box. We have found out a lot about ourselves and what we are capable and able to do to make it. You still have to get up everyday so be positive about life.  Two years ago we weren't using coupons and I would never have thought twice about them. Our lives have changed in our eating habits too. We eat so much more healthy than we did before. When we shop we only shop for healthy and nutritious.

We really save using coupons. This was only one example of shopping trips where we have saved a bundle. I know just looking at some of the expressions from the cashiers after they see what we saved, it makes an impression. Not only that but because we are shopping for certain brands with the coupons, we have tried a lot of other products from different manufacturers and have seen great differences in the quality and performance.

I heard my wife say one day that she needed to get on a train. I thought we were going on a trip, but no, we weren't.

She has joined these coupon trains where other coupon clippers get together through the Internet and exchange coupons with each other. Someone is picked to conduct the train and then they all send in lists of coupons they are looking for. There are coupons sometimes in the paper that we can't use but someone else across the country or just in the next town may need them. Then these train passengers send their coupons that they don't need to users that do. This seems like a great idea and if the group is sincere and diligent each party can take advantage of some great deals that they may not otherwise have.