Extreme Couponing

Yesterday I posted something about Extreme Couponing on my Facebook page and it got me thinking to explain why I extreme coupon. I must say that I don't go all out like the people on the TLC show but I do pretty good for my family and I do have a stockpile. Not a huge stockpile but I do stockpile the things we use all the time. I won't go to the store and buy 65 bottles of mustard but I have gone and "bought" 12 before - most of which I gave to the Westerville Area Resource Ministry. I've also "bought" 15 tubes of toothpaste that also went to WARM. I don't believe in having these large stockpiles in your basement - making your home a store in it's own. Maybe if you have large families like the Duggers but most of us do not. If I do "buy" large quantities of something, I generally give most of it to WARM. Lots of times I give away stuff - I've brought coffee creamer to my Monday AM bible study, brought stuff into other staff members, and took items to other family members. I like to spread the wealth if I can! The reason I got into stockpiling is because I found that I was able to save loads of money. My family was in a situation where we were low on funds and I had to think of ways in order to save money. Once I got into a routine, it was easy and I started to find ways to shorten the process and save more money. After doing it for several months I noticed that I was able to save quite a bit of money so we were able to put money towards different "wants" that my family had. Because I've been extreme couponing and stockpiling we've been able to:

-Enroll Aiva into art classes ($200 for eight classes - 4 sessions so far)
-Enroll Ana into karate classes ($189/month)
-Enroll Aiva & Ana into preschool ($135/month)
-Go on vacation to Myrtle Beach
-Nate is going on vacation to Wilmington, NC to see his brother
-Redecorating our living room
-Membership to the zoo

These a just a few of the things we've been able to splurge on because I coupon. If this is something you would like to get into, you can check out one of the blogs that I frequent. She not only give her opinion and thoughts on Extreme Couponing on TLC but she give you some good resources to go to to get started. Good luck and happy clipping!