I was a Coupon Queen
Last night I enjoyed what might have been the best meal I have ever eaten. The filet mignon was just the right amount of pink. The potatoes were mashed perfection. The cream of asparagus soup melted against my tongue. The wine was light, and the creme brulee made me want to sing a love song. (This is my very best attempt at erotic food description.)
There was a time that the bill for this fine meal would have been my grocery money for the month.
During that time, my coupon caddy was the size of a small country. My weekly routine included shopping in two different towns at seven different stores. My days were devoted to clipping and snipping those precious bits of paper that meant only one thing for me. FREE GROCERIES.
It is possible to play the system of coupons and rebates to get free stuff. You buy something on sale. Use a coupon. Mail in a rebate. And, items are free or if you are lucky, you make money. Like all systems, it has its flaws. It breeds a sense of deficit rather than a sense of sufficiency. There is never enough free stuff to make up for what you lack. Who really needs forty-seven tubes of toothpaste, sixty-two boxes of Glad trash bags, ninety-six boxes of band-aids or twenty-three bottles of shampoo even if they are free?
I will admit that a fever guided my hobby in those days. I raided my friend's cupboard shelves for UPC symbols. I hunted down triple coupon stores. I scavenged extra Sunday supplements from the recycling center. I was a madwoman.
Those who knew me thought I just LOVED to coupon and rebate. And, I did. For the first three months. After that, the fever was driven by need.
The truth was, I had a husband who had $250 of medication and medical bills a month with no health insurance. His stipend along with the house we had on campus was $500 a month. You do the math.
Every coupon that I clipped. Every rebate that I matched. Every dollar that I saved ensured that we had the money to pay for his medical needs.
2 comments:
We have tried doing the coupon thing before, but it's never been real successful. We tend to do better by just buying the store brand.
I've heard some people actually enjoy coupon clipping, but I just can't see how.
And did we students ever realize the sacrifices you were making? I know I certainly didn't. A belated thanks, because you and Jim did me a lot of good!
What exactly did you mean by "sense of deficit?" I didn't quite get that part.
The meal sounds wonderful. I love meat, especially beef. Wine, not so much. Sparkling water is more to my taste.
--DJ
Deficit: a lack or a shortage.
In the case of the boodle born of the couponing mania, I think the sense of deficit came in spite of the fact that I was amassing quantities of "stuff." With each new bottle of free shampoo, there was no feeling of sufficiency because who really needs that much shampoo?
It wasn't the shampoo that we needed. What we really needed was health insurance. Therefore the deficit--shortage--lack.
If you count faith as health insurance. I had it. My faith was mustardly and mighty in those days. I moved mountains with my coupon box. I did.
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