Okay, so I’m down to less than one scene for my novel, and that means I’ll be back to blogging on a more frequent basis along with all my other activities by the end of the week.
I couldn’t help posting today, though, when I saw this article about the backlash against extreme couponing. A few stores are starting to scale back on all those deals a person could get by using coupons. Target, for example, no longer allows shoppers to “stack” coupons (use a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item… best used when the item is on sale). Wal-Mart revised their coupon guidelines back in March (I think I did that link right). I hope this doesn’t lead to them revising them again.
I will say, based on my own observations, I’ve only seen one “extreme” shopper when I was at the store. Because she wasn’t used to it, at that store anyway, it turned into a fiasco that kept the patient ones in line waiting twenty minutes. I was one of those until I decided the ice cream I’d gotten would melt by the time I got home. Even after I’d switched lanes, gotten my stuff and headed out the door, that extreme couponing couple was still working with the manager to figure out what went wrong with the coupons (that was forty-five minutes from when the first bit of trouble began). Like I said, I’ve only seen that once. Most of the time, the people I see use a handful at best (I’m one of those). Even the ones with the binders full of coupons don’t use stacks upon stacks of them.
So, for those who love extreme couponing, and for those considering it, please read the list of do’s and don’ts at the end of the article I’ve linked. It’s a good list and bears repeating.
And for those who don’t know how on earth those people get such incredible deals, it takes a lot of time that most people don’t have. I’ve found it’s better to do what you can to follow the basics: buy in bulk, garden (those in apartments could look into container gardening or sprouting seeds meant for consumption or growing wheatgrass), working the menu around sales and seasonal produce, cooking from scratch and so on and so forth. There’s plenty of stuff online. Heck, I might even post a list myself. We’ll see.
Amy Keeley 