Couponing

I'm not normally a couponer. I tend to grocery shop with my list in hand that's filled with necessary ingredients for a week+ worth of meals. Consequently, on Sunday when I get the paper, I will go through it and figure out which meats are on sale. Then, I flip over to foodnetwork.com and find recipes that correspond to what I have in the house and what I intend to purchase. Once I have my recipes printed out or figured out, I will start compiling a list of groceries. Then, after I look in the pantry and determine which staples are running low, I have a completed shopping list.
Coupons are sometimes a part of the list, but more than likely... coupons are an afterthought.
I will try to print out coupons on coupons.com and sometimes I will clip the coupons that I know we will use. Then, they often are left on the counter and I'm couponless.
Yesterday, I saw a woman who has a blog called http://www.pocketyourdollars.com/ on Twin Cities Live. She was inspiring. There was a deal for General Mills Cereal that with coupons from online and in circulars plus the sales, she was getting everything for free. So, I went to her website and printed out coupons from coupons.com. Then, as I was compiling my shopping list and adding ingredients for Pad Thai, Mexican Pizza, Meatloaf, and Maple Glazed Pork Chops, I realized that Wednesday is double coupon day.
So, I decided to try it. I went through all the work of clipping, printing, and compiling my coupons. Then, this morning, I dropped off Cecelia at the bus stop and headed to Rainbow. Of course, once we were in the parking lot for Rainbow, I realized that I had forgotten my list [very necessary]. So, I went into Rainbow and used 5 coupons (because they only double 5 coupons), then headed home to get my list. After putting away my first batch of groceries, I had already saved over 25$.
We went back to Rainbow and I knew the kids were almost at the end of their allotted good grocery shopping behavior. As we finished with the list and handed over another 10 coupons (3 of which I found as we went on top of the products I was purchasing), the savings was $32. So, I feel pretty good... I saved over 57$ and managed to do it all with three children. As I was checking out for the second time, Jack was climbing on the car portion of the cart. He was definitely done. *sigh*
At least it's done. Now, I have more than a weeks worth of groceries and several meals ready to be prepared. I feel accomplished :) I don't know if I will become a couponer, but it was a fun experiment.