Saving money is ADDICTIVE

It was a last-minute need. Jon is still suffering from congestion and coughing more than a week after the rest of his cold symptoms abated, and he was out of cough suppresent. Bedtime in two hours. In times past, I would have run to Walgreens, because I like that drugstore better, grabbed whatever name brand cough syrup looked best, and spent $8. Not a big expense, and when you consider that it kept Jon's coughing down so we could both sleep, a very reasonable expense at that.

But last night I decided to put my savvy shopper skills to use. I grabbed that week's Rite-Aid and Walgreens circulars to see if they had any cough syrup on sale. Huzzah! Using my Rite-Aid member card (which I signed up for a while ago, just in case I needed it), I could get a bottle of Tylenol cough on sale for $5 plus a $1 rebate. But I thought I could do better, so I fired up the old computer and did a 30 second search for Tylenol coupons and found one that gave me $3 off two purchases. So instead of buying one bottle of cough/cold medicine at $8, I was able to get TWO bottles for $5. That's $2.50 a piece, or a 70% savings. So very awesome.

After work I am going to the grocery store to get our weekly haul and I am super excited because I have 21 items on my list, 16 items that have a coupon (or two), four items that are on sale with no coupon, and only ONE ITEM on my list that has neither a sale nor a coupon price. In fact, if that ONE thing on my list doesn't have a brand on sale, I won't buy it. I'll make my own pasta sauce from the haul of tomatoes we got from our CSA. Also, part of my mad couponing skills will generate boxes of cereal as low as $0.99 a box.

I just feel like such a dupe for paying full price for so many things for so many years. There are thousands of coupons available, numerous sales and tons of special deals--not to mention the hundreds of websites dedicated to doing the legwork and finding everything for you--it is just so easy to spend less. And when I spend less on my list of groceries, it makes me want to spend less everywhere. No, not spend less, consume less. Consume fewer things, spend less when we do, be happy. Maybe that is my new mantra.

Why couldn't I have figured this all out five years ago? Time is an excellent educator.