Well, I completed Speech #2 last night and I haven't got my grade but I think I did okay... it was a bit longer but I think I cut all the fluff I could to make it this short. Ended up being 5mins and 20secs which was only supposed to be 4. What can I say - don't get me started about couponing right!?! :)
Anyway, if bored --- enjoy --- maybe you'll learn something since the topic was "informative". There will be a quiz 5mins after completing the reading. No pressure :) jk
Couponing is my new way of life. Here’s how it all started for me. My coupon guru friend took me to the store with her to show me this world I obviously knew absolutely nothing about. Coupons housed in a little envelope, typed lists, strictly sticking to items she came in the store for and most importantly checking prices at the register – what in the world is going on I thought?! To say the least as she handed over her mountain of coupons I immediately was baffled at the numbers dropping like hot cakes at the register before my eyes. I couldn’t believe such a thing was even possible. I began to sweat – I was literally watching my back leaving the store wondering what manager was going to tackle us for getting away with so much for so little!
Immediately I told myself to shape up and get on
board or else I would drastically be missing out on the possibilities of having
money for other things minus $300 a pop on groceries every other week. I used to dread the register at Publix, I
could never calculate on the fly to see where I’d be and when I would it only
hurt worse because I was way over what I expected.
So I set out to find out everything I could about
this exciting world of couponing. I took
a class through True Couponing; which is based in the Tampa Bay Area. This class changed my family’s life. My major take away from the class was
through this quote from the Holy Bible, Proverbs 3:9-10; “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all the
crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim
over with new wine”. Basically I’ve
applied this to couponing, getting abundance for my family to build our nest
and then sharing it with others including my family, friends and charities in
need for essential everyday items.
First, let me talk about the benefits of
couponing. Couponing offers many women
and even men a hobby plain and simple.
You may not have a lot of time in the evenings after you come home from
work but it’s a good way to relax and it’s cheap entertainment!
In addition to a hobby it expands your critical
thinking skills – playing out scenarios in your head to get you the best
savings. Couponing makes you get
organized which could be a huge benefit in every aspect of your life. You also become a frugal shopper instead of a
money waster and you get to a point where you’re hunting for coupons for
restaurants and even shops in the mall.
You’re able to set the bar and find deals that are out there and more in
your monthly budget.
The overall concept
of couponing is very simple. Dustin
Smith, a TLC spokesman said it best when he quoted, "It's not an
instructional or how-to program.”
Couponing becomes a new way of life.
To start you have to get a newspaper
subscription. I’d like to point out that
I had never even purchased a newspaper prior to couponing so don’t worry if you
don’t know why you even need a newspaper.
Sunday newspapers contain coupon booklets – they vary
by the week and some weeks have better coupon bundles than others. To start, you’re basically looking for two
major coupon books in the whole paper – the Red Plum and the other called the
SmartSouce. When those arrive at your doorstep
immediately take them out of the paper and file them in a file box noting the
date on the front of each booklet.
Let me say that again, you want to file them away
immediately. I constantly tell my
friends not to be “flippers” and by that I mean those who flip through the
entire booklet clipping coupons as they see items they normal buy. When you do this you’re defeating the overall
coupon theory, which is basically this:
hold the coupons until they are at their lowest price likely BOGO known
as “Buy One, Get One” deals. Then, (and
only then) dig out those coupons and go to the store during the sale week.
Now that we talked about actually collecting coupons
you also have to know the sales tactics of a store. Generally speaking, most items go BOGO every
three months so you should plan to buy accordingly. For our family of three I buy in groups of
four. Four spaghetti sauces generally
last us two months and I only buy sauces during a BOGO sale. This means that by the time we’re on our last
sauce, I’m hitting the sale at my local grocery the coming week to restock my
supply.
Sometimes there’s a misconception about coupons:
people tend to believe the store is being cleaned out or ripped off. For citing purposes, How it Works on
Discovery Channel notes that “Manufacturers will reimburse you for face
value of this coupon plus eight cents if submitted in compliance with our
coupon redemption policy”. This actually
is on manufacture coupon in fine print. This
means the grocery store has the potential to make money on the coupons you use
– even when you combine them on BOGO items and sale prices.
While that leaves you something to think about let me
quickly mention the value this has on everyday life. If you’ve ever had a tight finance month
couponing, can take the heat of another high value expense because when you
start couponing you watch your grocery bill drop in half as you get better and
better at couponing. Couponing gives you
the freedom to save for things you wouldn’t normally be able to purchase on a
whim – for example a family vacation, a new iPad, maybe add to you retirement
nest egg… whatever it is that you want, couponing can pave the path to seeing
enough savings to be able to apply it to something you would like to have down
the road.
In conclusion I’d like to leave you with this
passage. Timothy 6:18 “Let them do good,
that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.” Kati founder
of True Couponing closes her workshops by saying, “now go and be a blessing to
others”, such a fitting statement for someone who’s changed MY life and shown
me how to coupon, the benefits of couponing and also the value it’s added to
our family.
Sources:
New International
Version, Proverbs 3:9-10. [Colorado Springs]: Biblica, 2011. BibleGateway.com. Web. May 2012.
How Stuff Works – A
Discovery Company How, How do store coupons work? [North Carolina] StuffWorks,
Inc., 2012. Howstuffworks.com. Web May
2012.
Quotes:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sc-cons-0421-frugalista-coupon-fraud-20110426,0,2329448.story
"It's not an
instructional or how-to program.” Quoted Dustin Smith a TLC spokesman.
Chicago Tribune, Business
Section. [Chicago, Illinois]: Tribune
Iteratice, Inc “TI”, 2012.
ChicagoTribune.com. Web. May
2012.
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