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There are many things in life we should feel guilty about - stealing, swearing, throwing dirty diapers in public bathroom garbage cans.... but I have felt guilty for years now for not being a Couponer. I profess my belief in frugality and resourceful living - yet I ignore the little papers everywhere offering cents off my world. I've shied away because I know that doing it correctly is much more complicated than just clipping and shopping. You have to combine coupons with current promotions and sales to truly save. So you have to pay attention to those piles of grocery ads every Tuesday clogging the mailbox, dig through the massive Sunday paper, organize and file those flimsy coupons in an attempt to avoid the inevitable chaos they create, go to websites like savvyshopper or pinchingyourpennies for the info on which stores to go to with which ads and exactly when...cuz all these sales expire, the coupons expire... and then there's the rebates with receipts you have to enter online or mail in... and half the coupons are for crap food - and I don't care how cheap the crap is, it's not coming in my house. So we have to weigh out cost vs quality... I bet people have stopped reading this by now cuz it's so annoying just to think about.

But the burden of guilt has become heavier and heavier lately, as I see ladies trekking through the store, multiple children in tow, with their overflowing yet systematic coupon binders. I stand behind them in the register line and hear the cashier tell them "you've saved [five billion] dollars today, thankyou for shopping at Albertsons."
I assuage my guilt with reminders that we save by not going out to eat, and never letting edibles get expired and thrown away at home. Seriously - how many times have you been in someone's fridge/freezer/pantry and seen foodstuffs from 2005, or unrecognizable leftovers in tupperware containers stuffed in the back, growing things. That doesn't happen here. Like the other day - I had leftover chicken salad for breakfast, simply because I didn't want it to go bad. But... I paid full price for those chicken salad ingredients. Probably Costco full price, but I know for a fact that Couponers mock Costco shoppers.
I've also leaned on the excuse that we don't have a printer nor a newspaper subscription, so I have no access to coupons.
But the other day I received a call from the Deseret News Call Center (which happens to be in St. Lucia. The tropical-voiced lady was very impressed that I asked if she was in the Carribean. But it was actually a very lucky guess). As a past subscriber (like 3 years ago), I was offered a killer deal: $1.08 per week - all 7 days! Brian LOVES getting the newspaper, and since he's a little bummed about us not having TV, I decided to get him this as another Father's Day present. He now wakes up every morning and excitedly runs out to the driveway for our paper. Those who know him know I'm not exaggerating.
Of course Sunday rolled around, we got the ridiculously massive paper, and I found the SmartSource insert. Couponscouponscoupons. And more coupons that DOUBLE the coupons. With the weekly grocery ad sitting nearby, I noticed some of the coupons were for the same items already on sale.
[sigh]
So I'll end this extensive narrative with simply saying that... I did it. I became a PYP member and strolled (literally) over to Albertsons I spent $21 for $54 worth of groceries. And they're all items that we normally consume. I felt pretty good about myself... til I came home to find my mailbox stuffed with brand new ads for another week of sales. This will never end.