Bringing people together, one coupon at a time

I've started hosting once-a-week coupon swaps at home. I might have mentioned this. Often there are 9 kids and six women in the house at one time. It's great, and we've become a little coupon society. You get to learn a lot about a person when cutting coupons with them.

S is a natural at this. She's learned how to scour the ads and work the deals for the free stuff. She's avoided CVS and Walgreens up to now only because she didn't quite understand them. Now I've got her working those deals as well. S is the one who will actually do the math on a deal where you get 10 bottles of syrup for $4. That takes some doing, let me tell you.

R is an on again, off again couponer. She really wants to save money, but she's pretty busy. Of course, my view is an hour a week won't hurt anything. She's also in charge of Box Tops at school, so she should notice how many free things have box tops on them. R even brought a friend along once, a friend who I think S freaked out because she hit the friend with way too much information at once.

G is, well, slow. Oh, she's super bright, but not in this area. Try as I might, I can not get her to pay attention long enough to learn this system. She wastes money paying for the Grocery Game and not printing out her lists. Even the lists with lots of free stuff. And yet she bemoans having to work two days a week and how her husband is always after her to save money. She'll do it right until it takes too much concentration.

T is right there with me on working these deals. She's the only person I have to worry about clearing the shelves before I get there. Good thing I hit more stores than she does.

And N just joined our group. N was excited to be invited to do coupons with us. I found out why. Her husband has been a truck driver with truck problems. They're living on food stamps right now, and his car isn't working, so they (like us) are a one car family. I really wanted to help her, so I had her come over and go through a few stacks of coupons I had, but while she was there, S came over with the new ads. We found pizza rolls for free, margarine tubs for 10¢ and toothpaste for 25¢. We loaded her up with coupons and sent her out to buy a bunch of cheap stuff. She's so happy! Now she feels as though they'll make it. You go girl.

I went through the pantry and gave her a few things too. Amazing the supply of stuff I have. I'll never miss what I gave her, and she'll absolutely use it.

I've been donating my "overstock" a long time; school, Ronald McDonald House, Katrina victims, even trying to get together packages for soldiers overseas. I hadn't realized there are people with needs right here. So I think the next step is going to have to be an overstock shelf somewhere in the house. If I had a set of shelves where people could come and get what they needed, it would be easy for them to see I'm not sacrificing when I hand them a bag of groceries.

And if I kept prices on them or attached stickers with what I paid, people would see how good I am at this and buy up some of the overstock, allowing me to keep doing that. I mean, I have a friend who was amazed at the syrup deal, but can't see herself buying 10 syrups. Put them on a shelf with a 40¢ price tag, and it becomes another thing entirely when she can get two bottles for the deal price. I benefit because I can buy in large quantities without Sam's and without worrying about spoilage. They benefit because they don't have to figure out the deals and stand in line.

So apparently my new corner store is going to be the Fish Market.

Gotta love it!

And to celebrate, here's a gift I want you to have. Just between us.