I just think that spending only $4/week on groceries would make it nigh onto impossible to eat enough real produce and real meat to make up a healthy diet, that’s all.

Second, by using coupons to purchase the basics – soap, etc., I often have “overage” available to purchase other items. For example, today I bought my contact lens solution at Walgreens. Regularly $9.50 a bottle, it was on sale for $7.50 and I had a $2 off coupon that I printed easily enough off the internet. Took me about 1 minute, cost me maybe 5 cents in ink and paper, and a little sales tax. I also got a $7.50 “register reward” back for that purchase (this week’s “freebie” item) so I’m $2 to the good, less the cost of ink, paper, tax and my time. A minute gone from my life isn’t a big deal to me – but I’m not one to spend hours chatting on my cell phone, driving my kids around all day to soccer and dance and what have you…so I had that minute to spare.

I got 3 full cases of cases of printer paper free a few months ago from Office Max, so really, that sheet of paper was free. Yes, I did use a little printer ink and I paid sales tax, so I don’t have the full $2 in overage, but it’s pretty darn close to that. So that $2 can be used to buy 4 rolls of toilet paper, a gallon of milk, 6 cans of tomato paste, 4 boxes of Jello, a box of granola bars, a carton of ice cream, a pound of coffee, a box of crackers or a multitude of other (semi-) healthy food items at Walgreens. Just because you think “drug store” when you see Walgreens doesn’t mean they don’t have a whole host of nutritious foods to choose from when spending that nearly $2 bonus. Today, I used it to get 2 cartons of Daisy sour cream for 99 cents a container. Baked potatoes with fresh butter and sour cream for dinner, anyone?

And, if you are keeping track, I also got the contact lens solution pretty much free. I did pay sales tax. I use a bottle just about every two months so if I repeat this deal six times over the next week (which I will do, quite easily) I will have contact lens solution free for the next year along with about $12 worth of free – HEALTHY – groceries. I may spend some of the other $2 “bonus” dollars on eggs, bacon, cheese, bread… see where I’m going with this???

I could just as easily spend the overage on Ho Ho’s and Reece’s Pieces, but I’m on Weight Watchers so I’m gonna resist that urge.

Do you still think that printing a few coupons off the net or clipping from Sunday’s paper is extreme? I don’t.

Now, let’s go one step further. Supposed I manage to snag 12 bottles of contact solution over the next week. That’s pretty doable, I think. Twelve trips to Walgreens, of which there are four just on my trip to work in the morning. I don’t hang around one store, wiping the shelves clean of all the contact lens solution – that would be rude. But if I stop at just two of them on my way home each night I’ve already netted ten bottles, and lets say I grab two on Saturday.

Hmm, what to do with six extra bottles of solution? Well, I can donate them to my church’s food pantry. That’s pretty nice of me, I think. Even people receiving help from food pantries wear contacts. Or, I can trade a bottle of it along with a bottle of shampoo and conditioner (that I got free last week) to my neighbor for six tomatoes and a bag of sweet corn. Or a dozen green peppers. Or, I can put it out in my garage sale, which I’m having to rid myself of clutter, for $2 a bottle and make another $12!!! Which, of course, I’ll be spending at the u-pick strawberry farm just down the road…in order to make myself a couple dozen pints of jam, which will last me all year…

Seriously, couponing not worthwhile? I beg to differ.

1. I totally get that situations like that do sometimes happen, but to say that you could routinely spend $4 or less on groceries each week and get good foods is still misleading, I think. And clearly that’s an arguable point. However, out of all the people saying, “it’s possible” I would love to see how many people ACTUALLY consistently spend only around $10-$15 a month on groceries for their family, and how much time they actually spend on it and getting good quality foods for their family as well.

2. People get so defensive in these situations. I think it’s sad to jump to conclusions. Saying “it’s not for me” and saying, “no one should ever do this.” are 2 different things. Kristen wasn’t judging her she was just giving the reasons why SHE (Kristen) wouldn’t want to do it.