Coupon luxuries
Things are actually calm here for a few days. I have to run a couple of errands and I may turn it into a field trip: browsing the library and taking my laptop along to Starbucks for a latte (prepaid) and wifi (free with my card). I’ll be making one stop at a drugstore today, too. Mercedes at Common Sense with Money has a post detailing how to get free Hershey’s Bliss chocolate at Walgreens and since I’m married to a chocoholic, I’m picking some up. I don’t have the B1G1 coupons, but I should be able to buy three bags and still come out ahead.
Which leads to my point: because of carefully matching coupons and sales in the past couple months, we’ve gotten to spoil ourselves a little. I have Almay mascara and L’Oreal lip gloss that I wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise. Our linen closet overflows not only with Pert, Fructis, and Pantene, but also premium hair care products. We’ve had chocolate and snack food in the house — not my thing, but the guys like it and don’t overindulge. They also got an infusion of quality clothes into their wardrobes at a very low price. We’ve been able to have guests without it costing us an arm and a leg. We’ve gone to movies that we wanted to see at a much lower cost. I have loads of free magazine subscriptions that will entertain us for months. I was able to give extra free items to my parents and grandma and I have leftovers to donate.
There are times when I get frustrated with keeping to a tight budget (and then I tighten it even more!). I get tired of clipping coupons and reading sales circulars. My eyes glaze over from scanning money-saving blogs. I hate shopping and wish I could just go to one store instead of four or five each week.
That’s when I need to remember this: if I didn’t put in the time for careful planning but kept to the same budget, we would have to make do with a lot less. Treats would be very infrequent. Luxuries? Never. Having a comfortable lifestyle is worth the 12 hours or so that I devote to saving throughout the week, especially since most of those hours are multitasking and low-effort.
