I'm an addict

I've recently turned into an insane person. I have an addiction, and I'm fairly embarrassed to admit it. I am a couponer; a crazy couponer. I scout the internet daily for free and cheap deals. I take advantage of Wal-Mart's double coupon Tuesdays (although I've learned that you really have to get there at midnight on Monday night to get the free stuff), and I get 5 Sunday newspapers and my Mom's paper to equal 6. I'm crazy. I can't pass up a free deal, even baby formula (My baby is 16 months and doesn't drink formula; I did give the formula to a neighbor though).

There are a few things; however, that I absolutely REFUSE to do: Take this lady. Let's call her the dumpster diver.
I call diving in dumpsters to find coupons totally psychotic. This lady actually takes her kids with her when she participates in this horrific behavior. Those kids are going to need some serious therapy (Although Ava did say to me today, "Coupons are happy little friends." Maybe she'll need some therapy too).

Then there's this lady:

She actually said, "People probably think I have a lot of money because of my appearance." Um, if you're using hundreds of coupons and taking 4 hours to checkout on your shopping trips, I'm pretty sure people don't think you have a lot of money. Your lipstick does look great though.

This lady actually looks at foreclosure listings and steals Sunday papers from the driveways of uninhabited homes:


And these two lovely stockpilers are single twins with no children, yet they have a HUGE amount of diapers on hand.

This guy has an OBSCENE amount of toothpaste:



And my last crazy is this lovely woman who puts her MBA to good use by creating Excel Spreadsheets to calculate all her purchases and savings:

If you've ever watched Extreme Couponing on TLC, you'll have witnessed these people's huge savings and crazy behavior. In all my spectating of this show, I have, however, found one couponer that I really admire a lot. This lady is an extreme couponer who gives at least half of what she gets to charity, then she allows her family and neighbors to come shop her stockpile for free. I was impressed by her.

If you've ever turned a $70 transaction into a $3.22 transaction, which I did recently, you know the rush that comes from doing it. Ultimately, my plan is to build a respectable food storage. I'm definitely NOT going to dive in dumpsters, nor do I plan to apply lipstick 20 times during my shopping excursions. I'm just a sweats-wearing mother of 5 trying to save a buck. Is that so crazy? You don't have to answer that.