You all know the thrill of finding that awesome deal-where you score items for free using your coupon and store sales. You know what I am talking about, right?
The kind of trip where you are almost skipping out of the store as you savour the fact you just used your coupon smarts to get FREE stuff. It’s amazing, and I truly think that unless you are a coupon-er (is that a word?), you don’t “get” what I am talking about.
Fast forward to when you get home and you add your items to your stockpile. I am not sure I even like that word because with the advent of the TV show Extreme Couponing that word has managed to get a negative connotation in come circles. But anyway, you add it to your stockpile and you realize you are amassing a large volume of a particular group of items.
For us, it seems to be toothpaste and aerosol air freshener. Oh yeah, and bar soap…and toothbrushes…
You know what I mean!
We know we don’t need 55 tubes of toothpaste.
If I do the math and assume it takes us about 4 weeks to go through a tube of toothpaste that means we “need 13 tubes a year. So, if we stopped couponing right now we would not have to buy toothpaste for 4 years! OK, I think we are set. So what to do with the extra stuff? For most couponers storage becomes an issue and we are faced with finding creative ways to store our excess freebies. Even if we are maxed out on space we CAN NOT turn away free stuff; in our minds that is just silly. We know there is greater good to be done with the free items and our knowledge of savings so we continue to bring home more stuff.
You too? Hooray–we are in good company.
Do you donate? We do, to local needy families and the food pantry and the pet shelter. It feels so good and we know that we are going to continue to donate because we feel that by sharing we will acquire more.
But here are some other interesting ways we have recently shared our stockpile items.
- We gave a small gift pack of a tube of toothpaste and a deodorant to our insurance agent and his staff as a thank you for their help during a recent claim.
- When the Culligan man came to give our water system a tune-up, we gave him a bottle of body wash as a thank you (he had done some “extra” adjusting that we were not charged for).
- Our mailman picks up our business packages every day from our garage. We like to leave him little packs of candy or gum as a thank you … yes, it is his job–but we appreciate him!
- A local elderly woman lost her husband recently and we know she is having a hard time finding joy in her days. We gave her a lovely lotion, soap and air freshener tied up with a pretty ribbon to show her we care. Seeing her smile warmed our hearts.
- A friend recently had a baby and we gave him a bundle of Johnsons baby items “just because”
We can go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Think outside of the box and share your bounty with others who don’t expect it. 99% of the people you encounter have no idea that they too can be saving incredible amounts of money by shopping smarter with coupons. Educate them and entice them to give it a try…it will make you feel good (we promise)!
How do you share your extra items?
