A new hobby.

I have quite a few friends who are avid couponers and consistently score amazing deals.

I love a good bargain but coupons have never worked for me.

It requires a certain level of organization that I just don't have.

If I come across a coupon for something I would normally buy then I'll clip it.....but then I usually forget it at home or lose it in the black hole that is my purse.

So generally I just grab what I need and throw it in the cart without much thought.

I always compare brands in the store, and if there happens to be a coupon hanging there then I'll grab it, but half the time I've lost the coupon by the time I get to the register.

Once I joined the Grocery Game website, but in the end I never used it.

I've checked out some of the many couponing websites that do all the work for you, but I didn't even know how to read all the abbreviations or where to find the coupons they were talking about. It's like a secret language.

I've even bought the Sunday paper for the coupons and there wasn't a blessed coupon to be found in it.

So this past fall when our local MOPS group asked for suggestions I said "Couponing!" mostly because I wanted someone to explain it all to me. It kind of annoys me that I haven't figured it out.

So they brought in a local expert--a sweet christian lady named Erin who was on the Extreme Couponing show using our local Price Chopper. {Some of her information is region specific, but she has a video series on her website}.

She started talking and it was like drinking water from a fire house. The amount of information was completely overwhelming. The hour she spent talking was just the tip of the iceberg.

So I signed up for her class.

That's right, I spent last Saturday at a couponing seminar.

I've always been a little afraid of those binder-wielding, shelf-clearing, register holder-upers.....and now here I was spending a Saturday morning surrounded by them.

But thankfully, that's not what this class was about. No binder lugging required and she teaches good coupon etiquette.

I learned all kinds of things I didn't know....like our local Price Chopper doubles all coupons under a dollar, and if you see a special that requires you to buy $25 worth of merchandise to get $5 back it's actually referring to the regular shelf price not the sale price....so it may actually only be $15 worth of merchandise. Add your coupons, get your $5 store credit...and you've got a bargain.

So armed with my new knowledge I bought the Sunday paper {apparently they keep the coupon inserts behind the counter because people steal them}, made my list, gathered my coupons and headed into Price Chopper with great trepidation.

While fumbling through the aisles in a store where I never shop, I ran into a fellow couponing classmate who gave me a tip-off about a half price nut sale in aisle 9. And she had a coupon. There was a wild look in her eyes. She scared me a little. I decided it would throw off my game to pursue the nut deal, and stuck with my original plan.

My #1 goal was to only buy things we can actually use. Unless of course it ends up being free, then I'll get it anyway because someone will use it.

I have to say it was kind of fun. I felt victorious because I finally know how to do it!

My first attempt:

All of this loot was about the same price as one box of Thermacare, just over $10.

{I wouldn't normally buy this random assortment of stuff, but it's all things we will eventually use}.

So this will be my new hobby in 2012....dabbling in the art of couponing and potentially saving lots of money in the grocery department. {Or just ending up with a stash of medical supplies big enough to save a third world country}.