Not So Extreme Couponing

I've been watching the new television show on TLC called Extreme Couponing. It shows shoppers who are consumed with clipping coupons and come out of the grocery store with something like $968 worth of groceries for $7.43. My first instinct was to think that I would like to try to save that much money. After I put some thought into it I decided that kind of couponing is just not for me. First of all the people on the show spend 30-40 hours a week clipping coupons, organizing, and studying weekly ads. That's like a full time job. Second, they have stockpiles of food and merchandise that takes up quite a bit of room. That's fine, but much of it seems to be things that they will never use (like 800 tubes of toothpaste or 400 sticks of deodorant or 52 bottles of mustard), but they are proud to have it because it was free. And they have to pay for the coupons, either through purchasing a newspaper or ordering them from a coupon web site. Actually I've seen some of them who dumpster dive to find coupons! Finally, most of them have spent years learning all of the tricks to getting so many free items.
So I'm just not willing to go that extreme. I don't have the time or the energy or the interest. But it has inspired me to work a little bit harder at finding coupons, organizing them, and planning to get the best use of them. I probably spent about an hour clipping and printing coupons for my trip to Target today and for my Kroger trip later this week and then matching them to things that were on sale. I ended up saving about $20 out of $100 today, so I thought that was pretty good. I'm going to be content to be a not-so-extreme couponer.

Michael's First Communion

May is off to a fabulous start. After working all school year in preparation, Michael received the precious body and blood of Jesus at his First Holy Communion! Even though we thought spring was here to stay, we had a cold front roll through North Texas, and it was quite a chilly and windy day. He looked so handsome in his black coat and tie. And despite getting annoyed at me for taking so many pictures of him before and after Mass, he had a smile on his face all day. The Mass was beautiful with great music, and he had lots of family there for his special day.

At this First Communion Mass, the parents got to sit with their children. It was neat to get to walk up with Michael to be right there with him when it was his turn. The only twist was that there was no room for siblings in the reserved seats, so Luke had to sit with the rest of the family away from us. We enjoyed not having to wrestle with the one year old, but we saw him leave the church with Nick, Todd, and then Grandma. Then I had to smile when after all of the First Communion kids had received the Eucharist, we saw Nick carrying Luke up to communion.

We went to Chili's to eat dinner afterwards to celebrate. Michael got to eat some of his favorite foods - quesadillas, french fries, and RIBS!

We are so proud of Michael. Now that he has made his First Communion, he can be an altar server. Tonight was his first time serving, and although we were nervous he did great. It was awesome to see three of my boys all serving together at Mass.