It's not about how much we save, it's about how little we spend

"Being frugal, shouldn't be about how much you save, it should be
about how little you spend.  Some days I could rack up great savings on
products I don't truly need, but I have to focus on spending less, not
saving more."
The above quote can be found HERE if you'd like to read the entire post.


Every class that I teach I'm asked the same familiar question..."How much money do  you save by couponing?"  That's a hard question to answer and for the most part I don't really answer that in a class.  Why? Because couponing should never be about how much we save.  I should be about how little we spend.  


We are all individuals with different incomes and spending habits.  What I want to stress to my readers is that you MUST have a budget and stick to it.  I know I've written about this before, but I'm seeing more and more women (and some men) that have started couponing who are spending way too much money.  Just because you have 30 coupons for product X and it will only be .75 cents after the coupon doesn't mean that your budget has that much wiggle room.  Do you really want to spend $22.50 of your weekly budget on only one product?  It might be fine for this week, but what about next week and the week after that and the week after that???  It all adds up and our shopping can really start to get out of hand very quickly.  


I challenge you, especially if you're new to couponing, to sit back and make a budget if you haven't done so already.  When you have a budget you know how much you can spend and will have better control when the couponing high hits you!  Every new couponer gets the high/thrill at some point....what we need to do is learn to control it so that it doesn't control us.  :)


The fact is this...maybe you "saved" money by stockpiling 30 cans of X, but if you went over your alloted budget by purchasing those things then you actually LOST money.  This defeats the purpose of what we strive to teach at Spot My Eye!


If you're interested in learning more on this topic we'll be teaching a "Beyond Coupon" class starting in early July.  Read more about the class HERE.


Do you have opinon/suggestions on this topic?  Feel free to leave a comment!