Couponing

I decided this week that I need to start clipping coupons. It all started because this past week I've had many conversations revolving around couponing. I felt a bit convicted and a lot curious. Besides, what else do I have to do. Some of my friends were saying that they save 30-40% on grocery bills. I was shocked. There is a new show on TLC called, "Extreme Couponing" that has everyone up in arms about saving money by using coupons. I've never seen it, and probably won't ever. We don't have cable. But the concept is awesome.

There are these huge bins at the commissary(on-base grocery store) full of coupons, separated into categories like, food, cleaning supplies, etc. The other day I spent about 30 min. searching through the many coupons to find my treasures. I got lucky with some of them. As I was looking through a woman came up and started a conversation with me about the coupon show. She said, "I just got so inspired." She looked in the bins for about 5 min., gathered her 5 coupons and proceeded into the store to shop. My thinking was, good luck lady. Five coupons probably equals a savings of about $5, if that...oh boy. Maybe it was wrong of me to think that she isn't as dedicated to this as I am. If you're gonna do it, then do it right...right??

The hardest part of this whole ordeal for me is actually finding the coupons that I need. We don't really have the Sunday paper option over here. We can, however, use coupons that have been expired up to 6 months past the exp. date. Awesome. I asked my mom to send me some. I'm also looking online to find deals that I would use here.

I haven't gone shopping yet with my pile of coupons. I'm still trying to find more. My technique isn't going to be to go shopping often. But rather to find coupons for most everything I buy, especially the items I buy on a weekly basis. I don't plan on stockpiling food. 1, there is no where to put it, and 2, its just Joel and me.

I'll keep everyone updated as to how much I save on my first shopping excursion. We shall see if couponing is worth all the hype.

What a great weekend.

This weekend was truly awesome. I don't know if it was awesome because of the amazing people that I got to share it with or because it was just so full of life.

On Saturday Joel and I participated in an island wide scavenger hunt with the youth group kids. There were about 15 kids that showed up (not as big of a turn-out as we'd hoped for). Most of these kids were jr. high students. We split the kids into 2 teams. Joel and I were leaders along with our dear friend Jessica. We had snacks and adventures and of so much fun. There was a car portion and an on foot portion. Here are some pics of our team.









The rains came.



The kids didn't mind though.














My favorite Japanese baby.


I think they played for about an hour. They provided entertainment for Japanese and American onlookers waiting out the storm. So fun!

Then on Sunday after church, Joel and I went snorkeling. Here is what the day looked like yesterday...



I saw TONS of different of colors of fish and coral. And I swam right up to an octopus... totally on accident. It freaked me out! But it was super cool.

All in all, this weekend was jam packed with great fun and friends. Ahhh. :)