Baseball Cards? Think Again.

No, I don't collect baseball cards, but I do use the convenient little storage pages for coupons! I started couponing when we decided that we would transition from being a two income couple to a one income family. You can save a TON of money on your grocery bill by using coupons. After couponing for a few months though, I found that we had enough toothpaste to last us a decade and we were eating a lot of canned soup and frozen pizza. So I continued to coupon, but I also changed my shopping method. I'm not a fan of preservatives. I like the food we eat to be as natural as possible. So instead of using the coupons for granola bars, I used the coupons for oats and started making granola. Instead of using the coupons for spaghetti sauce, I used the coupons for tomato paste and canned tomatoes and started making my own marinara. We even make our own ice cream. You can make a ton of food by just having a few staples on hand. We save money on the staples (milk, eggs, flour, butter, etc.) by buying them at Costco. So I coupon compromise. We still use coupons for dairy items such as yogurt and sour cream. We use coupons for some of our meat. Sausage and tuna regularly have coupons available. We use coupons on frozen vegetables and rice. We keep our pantry stocked, but not overloaded. And if I have a few spare things of toothpaste, I just bypass the toothpaste sale that week. (Even though with couponing, toothpaste is almost always free or nearly free.)