I am so glad it is a new month, I was so tired of looking at the same coupons all the time! Just for the price of ink, you can print these granola bar coupons! Sorry a little sarcasm due to the post below 🙂

I looked under 77477 and there are a BUNCH of good ones!

$.75/2 Nature Valley Granola Bars

$.50/1 Granola Thins ( I love the PB ones!)

$.40/1 Fiber Ones

** BTW I am back home! We were gone all week on the most AMAZING adventure you can imagine. I will post details and pictures tomorrow. It was truly one of the coolest things I have ever done. Stay tuned…

There have been a bunch of articles recently about and dealing with the coupon community that I am sickened by, I will share this one with you and see what you think.

This week in Denton, TX, a woman was arrested for stealing the inserts out of papers at a newspaper vending machine (I have no idea what these are called!) You can go HERE to read the article. This was not the first time that she had done this, the owner of the machine was sick of it as it causes him to loose money and staked out the machine where she was finally caught.

Wow, just wow, because you know that by the character that she has already shown that most likely she is also clearing off every shelf, not following coupon policies, re-selling her stockpile and in general making every other honest couponers life out there miserable.

Couponing is such a cool and fun way to provide for your family. How can it also bring out the worst in people?

Also this week thanks to a report from Patti, at my local Walmart someone handed a cashier 20 of the same coupon that was photocopied. They all had the same bar code number. If you are a new couponer, I just want to make sure that you are aware that you CAN NOT photo copy a coupon!! It is illegal. You are defrauding the manufacturer and people have been prosecuted for it. If you are a seasoned couponer and are photocopying coupons, you are stealing, there is no way around it.

YUCK. I hate this side of couponing, there are so many ways to get multiple coupons that you do not need to do anything like the examples above. Unfortunately, people see others on shows like Extreme Couponing and think that having 100’s of the same coupon is the way to go. IT IS UNNECESSARY. I shop for 9 people and was on EC and do NOT have more than 6-10 of any coupon. OCCASIONALLY I might get a few more on a rare occasion for something like Gatorade, but that is NOT very often. If you understand couponing you realize that all these deals will come back around again, and again, and again.

** If you can not afford coupons, there are plenty of places to pick up a few inserts for free.

• Ask your neighbors! Most people throw them away!
• Ask your friends, they also throw them away!
• Start a “coupon basket” at work or church where you can swap coupons.

I have 3 delivered to me for $1.50 total a week, then I buy 3 more on Saturdays at regular price. I pay $7.50 a week for 6 papers, that cost is FAR outweighed by the amount that I save just with those 6 papers alone. Spending $30 a month on papers saves me $600-$800 a month.

As a couponer who has a passion for this and coupons to support my family, I feel very strongly about keeping it “clean”, you will not get ahead by not following the rules. Off my soapbox now…

What do you think?