Coupon Mania

When I was a little girl, I remember spreading out across the hallway, cutting coupons out of the newspaper with mom. We both had a pair of sissors and would flip through the glossy advertisements deciding what products we might use, and cutting out the coupons. We'd put them in an envelope, pick up the appropriate item (before the expiration date of course), and proudly put the stack of coupons on the conveyer belt at the grocery store. At some point this practice ended in my family (It either had something to do the fact that the local paper was hideously sensationalist and my father decided it was no longer worth paying for or my mom realizing that her time was more valuably spent seeing patient than cutting out 25 cent coupons from the paper.) I didn't really take note of this, and by no means was the end of my coupon cutting in my family a psychological hardship on me. I'm not sure I even noticed when we stopped.

In college, I had no newspaper - and I wasn't grocery shopping with any regularity (I think the only times I went down to the co-op was to buy seminar break food or Thanksgiving Dinner supplies...) Coupon cutting wasn't really on my radar.

In DC, I was all about Giant's weekly specials, and when given the choice, always got their deals. But again, no newspaper, no coupons, didn't even cross my mind.

But oh has my life changed. Three weeks ago, I got an e-mail from United Air (now, how you ask will this connect to this coupon tale I'm recounting? just be patient...) They told me that if I didn't accumulate or spend my 16,000 miles within the next month. I had no intention of flying in the near future, but also was dangerously close to getting a free flight (20K miles) - no way was I going to loose my miles. So, I needed to spend some. The cheapest item on the list of qualified purchases was a 10 week subscription to the Washington Post, delivered to my doorstep daily. Great - sounds good. (There's nothing like drinking a cup of tea and reading the Post in the morning before school.) So my subscription starts.

Then Sunday rolls around. You guess it: coupons. I was like, "woah! Coupons! They still print these?" And proceeded to flip through and cut some out. $1 off of Tazo tea, $.40 off of 2 cans of Campbell's soup, $1 off of toilet paper. I was in heaven. I've redeemed a fair number of them. But the best game is holding on to the coupon until the grocery store has a sale on the item. That way, you get the store's discount, and the coupon. I got a bottle of Garnier Fructis shampoo (large size) with a free conditioner for $1.25. Sweet. But you gotta watch the expiration dates :)

As I was mulling over writing this post over dinner last night (at Revolutionary Soup before ice skating with friends), in walks BK and Liz. And what do they have in their hands? A coupon for buy one get one free ice skating. I was in nirvana. It is true. (The two of them had coupons for Soup too.... fancy that...)

So in sum, coupons rock. And I can't wait to get tomorrow's paper....

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to be continued....