Giving Back While Couponing

Before I get into the meat of my post today, I thought you'd want a little update on my Piece by Piece Paleo adventures. You may have noticed that I have not given you a weekly review in a while. No fear: I HAVE NOT QUIT....but I have put it on hold for a few weeks here. Things have been extra crazy around here lately for a variety of reasons and I have not had enough time to plan out grocery shopping and meals, so I was finding myself resorting to my old go-tos like cereal, which I discussed in an earlier post, take out and other non-paleo approved foods. I want to set myself up for success, so when things calm down a bit next week, I will jump back in with week 3 of Piece by Piece Paleo.



So, now for today's post:

I use coupons. I am frugal and like saving money all the time. I would probably use coupons and search for good sales even if we were not living on one very modest salary (ah, the life of a resident doctor's wife) just because that is who I am.

I am not an extreme couponer like you see on that TLC show. I don't watch the show regularly, but what I have seen of it makes me a little crazy. Some of those people go way overboard with their couponing. I hope they donate things!

I don't have a "stock pile." I don't refuse to buy things if I don't have coupons for them. I don't have binders full of coupons. I very rarely will use a coupon to buy something that I wouldn't normally buy or don't really need.

I do like saving money on what I already buy, though. I do love getting a great deal and saving money.

I also love being able to help others. That's what this post is all about.

If you use coupons (or even if you just get the inserts and throw them away toss them in the recycling pile), I would highly recommend considering helping Troopons.

The skinny on Troopons is that you can send your unused coupons to Support Our Troops and they will distribute them to domestic and overseas military families who could really use the extra savings opportunities. A few extra minutes of your time and the cost of a stamp can make a difference in the lives of others.

Look here for the official instructions, but I'll run you through what I do.

I grab my Redplum or other coupon inserts and instead of just cutting out what I can use, I go ahead and just clip them all.

After cutting out all the coupons, I sort them. Sometimes I wait too long to start my clipping, so I have some expired coupons. I sort into 3 piles:

• unexpired coupons I can use
• unexpired coupons that I cannot use 
• expired coupons (less than 2 months past expiration)

I then set MY usable coupons aside and store them to use on my next grocery trip.

Remember to recycle all those extra paper bits!

With the remaining piles, I sort one more time. Note: This time, I happen to only have 1 pile to sort because I waited too long and ALL the coupons were expired or would be before reaching Florida where the program is based (whomp, whomp).  That's ok though, since they can still use the expired ones as long as they are less than 2 months past the date.

I take my pile(s) and sort into 4 categories:

• Food items
• Non-food items
• Pet items
• Baby items

So, since all my coupons are expired this time and there were no baby item coupons I only have 3 piles here, but you could have as many as 8: Unexpired Food, Unexpired Non-food, Unexpired Pet, Unexpired Baby, Expired Food, Expired Non-food, Expired Pet, Expired Baby.

Whew. Ok. I know that makes it sound a little complicated and like a lot of work, but truly it is so easy and only takes a few minutes. 

You'll want to put each pile in a baggie and label it with the type/category (i.e. Expired Food). 

Troopons requests that also label the value of the coupons inside each bag. This is probably not required, but for me it just takes a few extra seconds and helps the company see how much the program is helping and lets me see how much I contributed.

Today I was able to help families save over $60. Totally worth the 20 or less minutes it took me to cut and sort. 

All you have left to do now is stick your baggies in an envelope and send them off to Troopons!

That address is:

Support Our Troops

P.O. Box 70

Daytona Beach, FL 32115-0070

So, if you're cutting coupons anyway and are willing to go through a few steps to help families that are serving our country, give this cool program a try!