My little secret :-)

I have a little secret I'd like to share with you all. I'm a total grocery coupon fanatic. Several readers are from other countries, so I'm not sure if they have grocery coupons there. Basically coupons come from advertisements, typically in the Sunday newspaper, which can be redeemed at the grocery store for money off of the advertised product. Most of the coupons in the paper are pretty crappy, but a few special ones can make for FREE items when used on an item already on sale.

Sometimes grocery store chains offer their own coupons you can print and use exclusively in their store. Last week a local grocery store had a $2.00 off Oreos coupon and the small bag was only $1.99 so they would be FREE with the coupon. The same store also had Doritos on sale for $2.50 a bag and a coupon for $2.00 off so they'd be only $0.50. Now this week there are some Hot Pockets on closeout for $1.11 and there's a $1.50 coupon so they'd not only be FREE, but I'd MAKE money from the overage.

Herein lies my dilemma. I want to eat healthier, but everytime I turn around there's another free or cheap item they are dangling in front of me. As an avid couponer, I should never pass up a freebie. As a health conscious person, I shouldn't eat the junk food. I also feel guilty giving my kids something I wouldn't eat myself.

I know I shouldn't buy the stuff, and I won't, but I wish grocery stores would stop pushing all of the junkfood. This is why so many Americans are fat. We have all of this advertising pushing highly processed foods. They are easily attained, fast to prepare, and super cheap. They are also killing us one saturated fat gram at a time.

I've been "couponing" for years, but I've pretty much given up in the past few months because of this reason. After stopping I still have a big stockpile of free and cheap stuff which will take a while to finish. Wanna see a pic?