Are you calling me cheap? (hopefully!)

Growing up, I had big dreams. House on the beach, luxury cars, exotic vacations, wild shopping sprees, unlimited amounts of money. Those things were foreign to me, because we were poor. Really poor. Strange how those things are still foreign to me, and I no longer consider myself poor.

Somewhere, in the very farthest places of my imagination, I still hold on to those dreams. They will never materialize, and I'm not even sure I would want them to anymore. I think it would complicate my life, and I have grown accustom to simplicity. With that said, one of those ridiculous dreams I still hold out hope for is the ability to eat out for every meal. I LOVE to eat out. It never gets old. I can eat out every day of the week and not tire of it. And, I do not discriminate. I love all types of restaurants: Mexican, fancy-shmansy, Subway, steak houses, Olive Garden, salad bars, Baja Fresh, local hole-in-the-wall-Mom-and-Pop-types. You name it and I have probably eaten there (or have plans to).

Problem with this type of lifestyle is the money to back it. In order to feed my habit (pun intended), I have sacrificed in other areas of my life. I NEVER buy new clothes/shoes/accessories for myself. I have given up pedicures and trips to the salon (I get my hair cut like once a year). And quite frankly, I have become somewhat of a train wreck fashionably speaking. And I've tired of it. I'm sick of the battles I have almost daily with my closet and my mirror. I yell and scream at them for not producing better results, when I am the only one to blame.

So recently, I decided that I had to find other ways to cut back. I needed to find a way to maintain my love affair with dining out, while replacing the yoga pants that clothe me 23 hours out of the day (just long enough to shower and put them back on). My solution: cut my grocery bill in half.

My first thought was to force my family to live on Ramen, but because I am such a kind mother/wife, I decided against that. Next was to confront my fear of coupons and dive into the freakish world of couponing. I know, "freakish" seems like a harsh word, but couponers always seemed cheap, strange, lower class. Plus I HATED clipping coupons. I would clip, they would expire. I would clip, they would get lost. I would clip, I would forget to use them. So I avoided them. Like the plague. Until about 3 weeks ago.

I dove in. With help from the couponing website of one of my girlfriend's, FabuLESSlyfrugal.com, I took the plunge. And I realized, like I do with most of my irrational fears/judgements, that all of my preconceived notions were wrong, and couponing was, well, fabuLESS!

I'm still getting the hang of things, but in a 2 week period, I saved over $150 (and I'm a novice!). My rules were simple: I would never buy anything I would not normally use just because I had a coupon, and I would not change my family's eating habits to adapt to the coupons. I haven't broken a rule (although I have picked up a few things I have never tried before because I got them for FREE!) Now I am obsessed with finding the best deals, and I get an almost euphoric feeling when I have saved a ridiculous amount of money. Below is a picture of one of my first coupon shopping trips. I spent about $28 for everything you see. And, although I felt like I was stealing, there was no shoplifting involved. Honest.
Crazy, huh? I had to go to 2 different stores, but it was worth it. Also, I know it seems like a lot of junk, and nothing healthy. But on my next trip I picked up meats, veggies and fruits that were all on sale. So there is a balance. And yes, it does take extra work. It took me about an hour to organize this shopping trip, but I saved over $100 (to put it in perspective, before I would have spent almost $28 on the soda and Aveeno cleansing pads alone!). And if that wasn't incentive enough, knowing that I could then turn around and guiltlessly use that money to get my next restaurant fix, well that was well worth it. Souper Salad, here I come.....