I proudly admit that I am a coupon addict. I know that my friends and family who do not clip coupons either cringe or jump for joy every time I announce “I have a coupon for that.”
Couponing has come out of the darkness and into the bright shiny spotlight of today’s economy. Many people see it as an economic opportunity that they never had to rely on before to make ends meet.
I have a long personal history with using coupons and found out at an early age what they could do for me. Initially, it was junk food. Next, it was using coupon savings to fund my summers in Italy. And now it enables me to live debt free in today’s uncertain economy. Let me explain.
I clipped coupons when I was a kid to get my Mom to buy me junk food. The coupon amounts were small back then, five cents to twenty-five cents.
My persistence resulted in chocolate chip cookies, my favorite.
As I grew older, I used coupons here and there with no rhyme or reason until one day the coupon light bulb went off for me. I was on a very expensive 3-week all expenses paid trip as a companion to my Grandmother to Ireland, Scotland and England. (Thanks Uncle Ed!)
There was a family of four traveling on our tour, and we happened to be seated at dinner together one evening. They mentioned how they used coupons all year wherever they could and placed the saved money in an
account for travel somewhere fabulous in the world.
My mind was whirling with my own possibilities. I had been bitten by the traveling bug some years earlier, and this was my new found passion. I could use coupons all year long, save the money, and travel anywhere in the world with that money. Oh my!
I made my dream come true 2 years later with a small apartment I rented in Rome for 3 months that summer with the money I had saved by clipping coupons. I continued to rent it for the next four summers on the same system.
I am proud to announce that I am debt free in today’s economy mostly because of that fact that I do not hesitate to Clip It, Baby!
