You know what my favorite thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning is?

Ok, well maybe not my favorite thing, but a strong second to seeing my little munchkin’s face in the morning after a deep 12 hour sleep, all swollen like he was stung by a bee.  Drum roll please…coupon clipping in the Sunday paper!  I know what you are all thinking.  You are one of “those moms.”  Yes, yes I am, and darn proud of it.  I will say I haven’t gone as far though as to have the fanny pack coupon organizer.  I swear I saw a woman with one at the Target check-out line a while back.  At the time, I laughed under my breath at how ridiculous it was, but although I don’t think I will ever go that far, I do have a deeper appreciation for those who have that much time to save a buck.   Not to mention the ability to sport a fanny pack with such conviction after 1992.  That’s guts.

Back to my point – have you seen how much money you can save with coupons?  It’s absolutely addicting!  My husband laughs at me while I sit on the kitchen counter every Sunday morning with my morning chai cutting through the coupons I plan to use for the week’s trip to the grocery store.  I grocery shop at SuperTarget and one weekend, I received a coupon for $5 off of $25 spent on baby items.  Since I needed diapers, that was no problem to spend.  Then, I received an additional $3 off of the diapers, and $2 off of wipes.  I think by the end of that grocery trip, after my many other coupons for the week, I ended up saving around $17.  You can’t tell me that’s not some quality saving!  Now, I don’t want this to be deceiving because I definitely don’t always save that much, but I save $1 or so here and there on cereal, frozen pizza, soups, diapers, deodorant, toothpaste, you name it.  And that adds up.  Not to mention, I am always scoping out what is on sale that week.  If teddy grahams are on sale and graham crackers aren’t, it’s a teddy graham week! I also have no problem trying out generic stuff.  There are some things I have to purchase brand name stuff, but if I can’t tell the different, it goes in the cart.  For example, the Target brand contact solution is the exact same stuff, and so much cheaper!  Now on the other hand, Target brand diapers, not so much.  If you havent tried them, I will just say they have no odor control. Pampers all the way.  I am sure that some of you are thinking I must be the cheapest person out there and wonder who has time to save coupons, but I really don’t spend that much time on it.  It’s almost somewhat financially irresponsible not to give the Sunday paper a quick glance to see if you can save yourself some cash each week.  Why not!

If you think I am bad, I don’t stop at the Sunday paper. I have never paid full price for an oil change because I keep every oil change coupon we get in the mail.  If you start paying attention, I bet you will notice them more as we get at least one a week and usually save $10.  I am HUGE fan of Home Goods and Marshall’s, and would definitely consider myself a Maxamista (if you havent seen the commercials, you will have no idea what I am talking about).  I’ve only had one pedicure in my life.  It was for my sister’s wedding, and although it was nice to be pampered, I could just paint my nails a fun color and it’s all the same to me.  I beeline to the “sale” rack upon walking into a store, and never walk into Quizno’s without my dollar off coupon that you get with every purchase (my favorite restaurant ever).

You must be wondering, “Does she ever indulge in ANYTHING?” The answer to that is absolutely… if it’s a good deal and justified!  For example, I find it absolutely ridiculous that a latte from Starbucks almost $5, but I do treat myself to one at least once a week because a venti non-fat, extra hot chai from Starbucks has a marvelous way of making my day that much better.  Because I cannot justify spending that on a daily basis, I did manage to curb this guilty pleasure on a more regular, less expensive way.  I now purchase the Tazo chai concentrate from the grocery store and heat on the stove top with milk for a nice little at-home chai…for much less.  Check out my blog at midwesternmamai.com to learn how to make an at-home Starbucks Chai. I also broke down and treated myself to a girl’s getaway to Florida last October.  My husband graciously offered to watch Declan and since I missed the girl’s trip the prior year, I decided I needed to bite the bullet, take the time off from work and getting stuff done around the house, and have some good girl time away. After coming home, I missed my boys like crazy and knew I would have hours of work to catch up on, but wow, that was the best money I have spent in a long time.  That trip was the pure definition of “rejuvenation.”

The truth is, I don’t need much to make me happy.  Little indulgences here and there, and maybe larger ones every once in a while, are all I really need.  I figure I would rather save when I can and when those times come up that we really want to treat ourselves to those bigger, maybe more unjustifiable things, I can better justify it.  Does that make sense?

As parents, it’s amazing how quickly you learn it isn’t about you anymore.  For example, I like shopping for Tony and Declan way more than shopping for myself.  In fact, Declan needed new jeans last week, so I headed out to Marshall’s and found two pairs of Paper Denim jeans, which I later found out were premium denim that normally cost $65, (sidebar – who spends $65 on jeans for a toddler? seriously.) but I found two pairs for $9.99 each, which means my two year old son officially has nicer jeans then me.  But did I ever walk out of that store with triumph.  Not that I would EVER spend $130 on two pairs of jeans for my child, but still to think , I saved $110 and not to mention, he looked totally adorable in them!

So, I challenge you.  If you are a coupon cutting virgin, I dare you to give it a try sometime.  Flip through this week’s Sunday paper.  Don’t throw away your junk mail until you look through it first.  Try one generic item and see if you can tell the difference.  I recommend bottled water, laundry detergent, paper towels, or milk.  Trust me, I too used to think it was a lame thing to cut coupons, and something only cheap housewives did to save $.35 on dishsoap, but I promise that you will quickly see how fun it can be.  And maybe, just maybe, you might find yourself in the market for a new fanny pack.  Since fanny packs went out of mass distribution in 1993, I have provided a nice resource for you should you decide you will need one.