Day 9: Sales and Coupons

We're a "sale" kind of family. My mom shops sales and can get away with paying little to nothing for an item. My dad researches purchases until he finds the best deal for what he wants. My brother buys 90% of his stuff from Ross or TJMaxx. Me? I bargain hunt everything! It kills me to pay full price for anything. I will drive across town to save a few cents on a tank of gas. I won't buy bananas or Milk at Albertsons if I know I'm going to Costco in the next day or two because Costco's stuff is cheaper. I will, however, use the Albertsons app, which saves me anywhere from $20-$40 per shopping trip. Today I used a Subway coupon to save $.90 on my sandwich that I bought for lunch. My favorite is the free kids' meals that Cane's gives away at community events. I can buy the boys and I an entire meal for under $3! I've returned things that I've bought when I've looked at the receipt and found I had paid full price. I will NEVER, I repeat never, pay full price for a pair of shoes for any member of our family. You get the point, right? Well, last month I had scouted one of E's "wants" on his Christmas list for sale. But at the time we had 2 car repairs and a costly pool repair so it wasn't feasible to buy the toy. I was sick about missing out on the great sale but I was not about to put it on the "emergency" credit card. Fast forward to today. I was looking at the store's pre-Black Friday sales and saw that the toy was listed on sale. Imagine my disappointment when I saw it was on sale for less than a dollar off the original price. (What kind of sale is that??) Right after that someone on FB posted a 25% off coupon for the same store I had just been looking at. But, I figured it couldn't possibly work. Too good to be true. Well, I was wrong. I ended up being able to use it, and saving MORE money than I would have from the original sale! The way I see it, Rob and I give up stuff to work full time. We work hard for our pay. So why waste it? I'm okay spending a few extra minutes to save a few extra dollars. And around this time of year I like to use those few extra dollars to help out people in need. I am thankful that there are ways to save money and I am equally thankful that there are ways that we can help others with those few extra bucks.