The Cheapskate Mom

As I'm preparing to teach a coupon class at my church this Saturday, I sat down to type some notes and think about what God's put on my heart about it. I want to share a little bit of those thoughts here.

One of the most popular excuses not to coupon is that it takes too much time and saves too little money. As Christians, my husband and I have had the conversation many times wondering why people won't accept free money. If I had asked most people with this excuse if I could show them how to save $50 this week on their groceries with 1-2 hours of clipping and planning, they'd be impressed, want to do it, but ultimately wouldn't. Now if I handed them $50 to spend on the groceries I bet they'd use it, wouldn't they?

Even if you can "afford" not to coupon, the main thing God's putting on my heart is that the money belongs to HIM. I realize that no one can be perfect with their money, but, I still want to encourage others to really pray about what God wants them to do with their budgets, specifically with a variable expense like groceries. We DO have control over how much we choose to spend and what we buy. And often, we can find coupons to use towards the very same things we already purchase, which usually doesn't take but a few minutes of time, and time belongs to God, too.

By saving money with coupons--and using strategy--it enables us to tithe more, to donate items that were free to us, to help others, to save for the future or apply our savings to other areas of the budget. For me, it has provided an opportunity to build relationships with others in the grocery store, to show love and kindess towards cashiers and also make a huge impact on those standing behind me in line. Using coupons helps us to learn patience, perseverance, instense focus and humility in realizing we are probably on the nerves of either the cashier or those held up waiting for your massive wad of coupons to be scanned in. I can't say I have always had this attitude, but it helps with the learning process, and I believe it's a huge reason why God has led me to use coupons the way that I do.

Realizing we are dealing with God's money had as much of an effect on me as I hope it has for you. I don't think the extent of your couponing matters as much as your willingness to do it at all, and realizing the big picture is about honoring God with your finances. God has given us the income we have and He can take it away at any moment. So please don't behave as though it is not going anywhere, you have no way of knowing or controlling this. But what you can control is your behavior with the money you have right now, and I believe couponing is one of the best ways you can do that.

Folks make many excuses not to use coupons, and most of them make sense at first. These are a handful of the most common myths associated with coupons that I have personally proven to be false.

"Clipping coupons takes too much time."

Some people feel overwhelmed by the idea of spending hours clipping and sorting coupons. Oh what they don't know--you can gain anywhere from $1-$100 in your grocery budget that week for just an hour or two of clipping.

"Cents-off coupons can't help me save money."

Yes, they can, even if your store does not double or triple. Just using 10 $.50 coupons in each weekly grocery trip winds up saving you $260 each year. And, if they double, $520. That $260 can cover homeowner's insurance for some, and for me, $520 just falls short of paying my six-month auto insurance policy. And, using coupons this casually is not time consuming at all. I bet if I were handing you an extra $260-$520 this year, you would take the cash, wouldn't you?


"There are never coupons for items I buy."

If you are looking and paying attention, you can most CERTAINLY find coupons for items you do buy, or will buy. My mother in law gets two sets of inserts every week, but she buys certain things (she is only shopping for two) and can't use them all up-- even for items she DOES buy! So be sure to clip every coupon you MAY use, even if you don't need that item right this second. And, it's necessary when trying to save money on groceries to flex a little bit, and do a little bit of digging. From using Coupon DeDe, I am able to have access to coupons that I'm not recieving from my local paper.

Note: I had to edit this a little bit because I realized I didn't proofread it and it sounded rude. Sorry for those who read the earlier version and felt it was abrasive--That's not where my heart was at when I wrote this! :)