Thinking outside the coupon binder

My friend Mike recently posted a note on his Facebook page that made me very happy.  He gave me permission to repost it here; it brings up some coupon issues that I hadn't thought of before, and he's come up with a creative solution for several nagging issues in one neat package.  I love it.

It all started with my internet friend who runs this blog thing (she's a very cool individual, regardless of the coupon thing):

The Angry Cheapskate

It didn't really resonate with me at first since, as a single guy, I don't buy that much coupon related stuff. (food items and paper goods, and toothpaste, etc.) Stuff I buy at the grocery store tends to last me a while because I'm the only one using it. Saving fifty cents on trash bags every three months isn't that massive an incentive to me in the long run. I did, however, pass the URL on to a coworker that has a six person family (husband and four kids plus her). She had been talking about that coupon based reality show (barf) on TV, and I said something along the lines of "Here, check out the blog and maybe you'll get some ideas." Like everybody about now, she was looking at ways to economize a bit and with four kids heavily into the tween/teen years, she needs it. (one just got accepted to NC State, so college tuition looms heavily as well)

At first she kind of dismissed the idea as something old ladies do in the checkout line in front of you and bottleneck the line, but it wasn't long until she had a big binder full of coupons to organize her weekly clippings. Suddenly she (like my bloggy friend) was reporting savings weekly in the one to two hundred dollar range depending on what she bought and what the deals were that week. Sure, she has indeed ended up with thirty pounds of pasta during one shopping adventure, but with the kids, it won't last as long as you might think and it was nearly free when she was done. It is a bit of work to make sure you go to the right store for the right deal, scour the papers and fliers and keep everything organized, but you can't dismiss the results. I encourage anybody, especially with a big family, to check out Chellie's blog and try it out for yourself.

This all led to a discussion at lunch one day about just how much we spend on going "out" to lunch. When you add it up, it's astounding, especially when you consider the relative quality of the food. Not a great situation at all looking at cost/benefit ratio. Now that we are getting older and, let's face it, ain't nobody getting any smaller/healthier, the quality of food issue really sticks out. Over the next few lunches we hatched a mash-up of the coupon and lunch issues and have decided to maximize food dollars with the coupons, and then use the fresh food and cooking it ourselves to maximize the food quality as well. We figure that with careful shopping, coupons and buying healthy fruits, veggies and chicken with some other carefully selected meats tossed into the menu, we can do this for about sixty bucks a week for 5-6 people. If you consider that we spend on average ten dollars a day (and I bet you do too if you eat at places with anything above a dollar menu, and if you're eating dollar menu you know what quality you're getting there) eating out during the week. For me that's fifty a week, minimum. That works out to $200 a month I'm blowing on lunch. That could be going to something useful, like lottery tickets. Or, you know, gas or retirement or something silly.

We have equipped the office break area with items like a crock pot (that I had just sitting around in my house), flatware (from the dollar store), plates, baskets to hang veggies and produce, toaster oven, and other such cookware for little to no real investment. We have worked out a menu that calls for salads a couple days of the week with fresh produce, crock-pot (slow cooker to some of you) dishes that we can set-and-forget in the morning, things that freeze well to keep in the freezer before preparation. It's a work in progress, but it's promising. We eat well with freshly prepared foods, better nutrition, more portion and calorie control and we still set aside one day a week to do shopping and eat "out" just to give us a break from the office. All that and our personal budgets will be much happier for it. Especially after garden season cranks up here. Fruits and veggies out the ying-yang from family gardens and farmers markets will really max out the budget nicely all summer.

Add this to the walking course we've mapped out through the neighborhoods around the office, and hopefully we'll all be healthier and slimmer in a few months to come. Again, it's a work in progress, so things will get massaged and tweaked as we go, but overall it's a workable plan with good short and long term benefits. It's not like we come up with good, workable, beneficial plans here very often, so it's kind of a new area for us.

Now, my thoughts:

Point 1 - Mike is just one person.  For someone like him, coupons to the extent that I use them don't always make sense.  Now, you may be saying, "Hey, Chellie, you're just two people!  How is that so different?"  Well, I shop like the apocalypse is coming for one.  Not everyone wants to have a year's worth of shelf stable food in their pantry, and that's okay.  I was also raised in a family that has always kept a decent pantry of nonperishables "just in case," so buying in bulk is second nature to me.  I get twitchy if we're on the last pack of toilet paper, ya know?  But I'm not the norm, and I realize this.  For the Mikes in the world, chasing deals is more time-consuming than the money it would save him.

Point 2 - I grinned so massively huge when I read about his co-worker and her coupon binder.  I feel as though I've helped someone, and that makes me really happy.

Point 3 - Going out to eat is so very expensive.  Andy and I go out once a week because even at Taco Bell it's like $15 for the two of us.  If we go to the decent Japanese restaurant, it's more like $40-50 with tip and that's assuming I don't go apeshit over some sushi.  Mmmmm, sushi.... *ahem*  Anyway, like I was saying: as Mike points out, it's easy to spend $10 on a restaurant meal for one person and it adds up over the course of a month.  $200 a month is a car payment or a lot of lottery tickets.  Nutritional value of restaurant meals aside, that $200 per month on "work lunches" is a frightening number, and it's a number that's real stealthy.  It sneaks up on ya.  The $8 Chipotle burrito & soda doesn't seem like much to spend at that moment, but ten of those meals?  Twenty?  You don't really notice spending $200 when you're spending it a few bucks at a time.

Point 4 - I absolutely adore the idea Mike and his co-workers have come up with!  It makes so much sense I don't quite know why this isn't happening at workplaces all over the country.  A group of like-minded folks can pool their weekly coupon inserts and hit the sales to shop in bulk, thus maximizing their savings.  By using the bulk ingredients to cook an "office meal," they're going to see an almost immediate improvement in their personal budgets and, truthfully, will probably eat better than if they were going out to restaurants. 

Point 5 - Why stop at co-workers?  My family and I already share our coupons and coupon hauls.  When my mom's favorite shampoo was free after coupon & rewards, I picked up a bunch to give to her; when canned tuna was free after reward, she picked up a bunch for me.  My sister gets all the diaper & baby product coupons from my papers; she gives me the coupons from her papers she won't use.  What about your neighbors?  I've already talked some about being able to help my neighbor's family out of my loot stack, but now I'm thinking of other neighbors with whom I could trade products for coupons.  I may have no need for Product X, but the elderly couple nearby may need it and would probably be happy to give me their coupon inserts in exchange for my picking up said product while I was out and about.  Look for ways to group-up with friends, family or neighbors to take advantage of coupon savings.  Mike's idea is ingenuous and I think it can be adapted to fit all sorts of situations.  It may not make sense to gather your extended family for a group lunch every day, but working together to share coupons and save money?  Anyone can do that!

Thanks for letting me repost this, Mike.  I can't wait to see what you guys come up with as this experiment goes along!