Thursday, March 31, 2011

I AM a Couponer

It feels like I’m on a rollercoaster being pulled up the first hill. My heart is racing and adrenaline is coursing through my veins. But I’m not on a rollercoaster, and I’m not bungee jumping. I am standing at the cash register at the grocery store watching items being scanned anxiously waiting to hear my total.


But it’s not over yet. I feel like I am in a fog, my hands are shaking as I hand over a stack of coupons to the cashier. He scans them one by one and my total begins to go down. He scans the last coupon and a weight is finally lifted when I know I have saved over 90% and I am going home with a cartful of groceries for pennies on the dollar. I AM a couponer.
Couponers often get a bad rep. We hold up the lines at the store. We don’t mind asking for a manger. A lot of times people think we are hard up for cash and we wash out our Ziploc bags. We hold up the lines because we know that spending a few extra minutes in line guarantees we are going home with a lot more groceries for A LOT less. We don’t mind asking for managers because we know store policies better than employees and computers aren’t perfect (Right Watson… Toronto… really).

We don’t wash out Ziploc bags because there is a difference between cheap and frugal. Couponers are frugal, not cheap. But hard up for cash we are not because it is payday every Sunday.