Coupons stress me out and white bread tastes better.

The idea of saving money is a really lovely one...but it's one I can't manage. I am admitting right here and right now that the idea of cutting coupons and matching sales in various stores to save the most I can on toothpaste or macaroni stresses me out. So as a result I do not make a list, the bag full of coupons I cut and clicked expires, we run out of food, I continue to not make a list and we go spend money at a restaurant where someone else can deal with the stress of buying the food. So the obvious occurred to me recently. I said "self, do NOT do coupons. You are not saving money at all by not going to the grocery store and instead spending much too much in a restaurant for your family of 5. Self, you are released from the pressure to save money by using coupons, please commence shopping for food at regular price" Amazingly we have food again and meals are once again being prepared at home.

And folks let me tell you the pressure to use coupons and save money is there...it's huge and I was feeling like a big fat idiot for not taking advantage. OMG I could have 29 bottles of ranch dressing for FREE!!!! Even though I don't need any bottles of ranch dressing and probably won't for a year because we just don't eat it often. So I just decided to hold my head up high and NOT use coupons not because we don't need them--sure we could certainly use the extra $$ saved. Most definitely I mean hello I spent well over $200 in groceries the other day--granted this was after a food drought rolled up in here, but still. The problem isn't we don't need the moola it's that it's of no use if it is causing me mental angst and therefore costing us more money. Duh. Despite me knowing it's better to use coupons and despite me knowing it "is easy"...it's not easy for me. And I am cool with that. I do use coupons on clothes and other things so it's cool.

Another recent revelation that smacked me recently--just buy the damn white bread. Here's the thing...my kids eat wheat bread. White bread was this secret thing they didn't know about--kinda like koolaid (which I also bought recently--we are going for broke here folks--maybe literally) I am not a huge fan of wheat bread and much prefer my PB&J on soft delicious white bread. I could eat it all day long--ok not really but I love me some PB&J on white bread. But in an attempt at all things healthy-ish--sandwiches must be made on wheat bread-bought with a coupon only when they are BOGO of course. So what does Rachel do? Skip the sandwich and the semi healthy wheat bread PB&J and drove herself to Chik Fila more days than not. Until smart Rachel thought...."self this is dumb...I am sure the white bread PB&J is much better than 8 pcs of fried chicken nuggets, tasty salty waffles fries, and a soda...buy the white bread and live with less guilt, Duh". So people the lesson here--I am excepting defeat...no I am excepting that there are some things I am just not all that cut out for coupons and wheat bread are 2 of them. And we are working on baby steps here--baby step #1 stop purchasing food at restaurants. Then we can work on things like coupons and wheat bread....maybe.