Coupons

Funny how life works.  I've always hated couponers.  I always thought they were a little wacko.  And here I am joining the ranks.  The lady behind me in line must not have liked me much and the cashier wasn't too annoyed when I had a free item that we had to dig back out of the bags because I didn't know to keep free coupons with the item.  But when I spend 47 and save 71...I don't care.  I'm quite proud of my shopping today.  I won't bore you with the details although secretly I'm understanding the desire of couponers wanting to frame a good receipt.  I never understood why anyone would bother clipping a 50 cent coupon when they could have saved the time, energy, expense of buying a paper, etc and just bought the stupid item and saved themselves, the cashier, and all the people behind them in line the time.  But now I get it.  It isn't the 50 cents.  It is the $1 when it doubles.  It is the stacking with other deals, coupons, or both.  It is buying stuff you would never have bought because it is more expensive than the cheaper variety, but because of the previously mentioned ways, is now way cheaper than the off brand.  When you can buy a box of cereal for .07 cents....come on...  I think I'm hooked.  Now I just gotta learn a good system for me, figure out what I will use now that I'm buying name brand for cheap, and figure out how many papers I need to buy every week....