We are taking a course at church called Financial Peace University. For the uninitiated, that is a 13 week class (call it Budget 101) taught by Dave Ramsey. Overall it has been pretty interesting and eye opening and carried some good lessons about getting out and staying out of debt, investing money and other useful information. One class is labelled Buy only big, big bargains. This particular class wasn’t the ne plus ultra of how to get a deal but it is an interesting way to look at things. Dave’s mantra is, live like no one else so that you can live like no one else. It’s also a basic Patience 101.
I also took at morning long class on couponing and saving at the grocery store. This was the real eye-opener. I have never been a big bargain shopper and might have cut a coupon here or there thinking, ‘what a great deal…’ but this class takes it to another level. An example of this is as follows: I need to buy some coffee. It’s 5.49 a bag. So, I watch the paper and the web, (hotcouponworld.com). Oh, it’s buy one, get one free, you say?. Oh, I have $1.00 coupon for each bag. You can actually use a coupon even on the free item. So, I buy two bags of coffee for $3.49. And I buy 4 so that they will last until the next wave of coffee comes up but I still save about 70% overall. Who knew?
I shrugged it off for a long time thinking, I don’t want to be tied to a brand (or untied from one) and I don’t have the space in my little apartment to store those three extra bags of coffee, 4 cans of tomato sauce or boxes of pasta. But now I can’t deny it. It is fun to have the lady in line behind me at the grocery store ask in awe as the clerk announces my savings, ‘How much did you save?’