[scottiegazelle]

Loving this thread! My dh was very ho-hum, and certain that couponing meant you spent money on things you don't need. But we started while I was pregnant with #2 (#1 was 18 mos) and we had just moved out of his parent's basement and were NOT GOING BACK! I wanted a house so bad; we both did.

He raised his eyebrows when I brought stuff home and insisted it was free or they paid me! Started getting a little excited.

When #3 was born, I was able to take the last 2-3 mos off from shopping and just have him pick up bread and milk on the way home. I was too exhausted at that point to take out a 2 and a 3.5 yo while pregnant. That clarified why our stockpile was so good.

#2 is now 5 yo, so 5 years of couponing, with abt a year and a half break when we couldn't stockpile (lived in a motorhome with 3 kids and me pregnant). So I'm just getting back into it.

Our income has tripled in those five years (wow, hard to believe!), and we could financially not coupon. But I love "the thrill of the hunt." Just saw a post in the 'avg grocery budget' about someone's goal to spend $0 in 2007 after MIRs and everything. Hmm. I am thinking that, once my stockpile is strong, I might like that goal for 2009!

I love getting things for free or getting paid to take stuff home. The down side: after 5 years, dh's 'wow' factor has been stifled. I just told him that I paid $0 OOP for the Breeze2 monitors at CVS, got back $9.99 in ECBs, and am sending in for a $9.99 MIR. So making almost $20 on the suckers, plus giving them to his mom.

He goes, "that's nice, what's for dinner?"
GRRRR!