SAVINGS and Chick Fil A

I feel like I must apologize before I even begin writing. My thoughts for this post are going in all kinds of different directions and I am not really sure where they will end up! So sorry for any rambling you might come across!

I have always been a coupon user. That is the main reason I subscribe to the newspaper, for the coupons that come in the Sunday paper. Until recently I would cut out the coupons I might use and throw the rest away. Did you notice I said until recently? Well, my friend Joy introduced me to the website Hip2Save.com and since then, I have not thrown out even the dog food coupons!Why, might you ask? Well this website offers ideas on the best way to use your coupons! It tells you some of the great sales going on at local stores, like Target, Walmart and such and then how to use your coupons at these sales to get the most for your money! Sometimes, with the sales and coupons you can get free products! This is where the "I haven't thrown any coupon away" comes in, because sometimes these great deals are on products I wouldn't normally buy, but you can't pass up on free...can you? I am willing to try different products, especially if it is cheap to buy!

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Now, this brings me to a thought I have had many times over the years about coupons and where I am going to take a detour for a moment. I often wonder if coupons, even though they are suppose to be a tool for saving, sometimes actually make you spend more money? Many coupons are save so much if you buy a certain number of products. So the question is would I normally buy 3 of the product if I didn't have the coupon?

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For my house and the way I shop, it doesn't really matter. I don't shop with a particular weekly or biweekly menu in mind. I shop to fill the pantry and freezer with different meal choices. So, buying three of something fits into this. If I really want to save on my groceries I know what I need to do, which is plan a menu, shop only for that menu and not detour from that (along with not going out to eat as much...but that's for thought later :) ).

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So all these thoughts together bring me to this...I am trying to save money, I have enjoyed the hip2save website, but just like coupons I think I sometimes spend more using this website and coupons buying things I don't really need, but is such a good deal don't want to pass it up!

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Now that I think about this, I did this when I was introduced to the Fishing for Deals website, bought lots of stuff because of the "deals". I don't use this website as much anymore, so maybe this to will pass and I will go back to my usual way of doing things!

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Have you looked at the title to this post? You might be wondering where does Chick Fil A fit into all this...well I have become somewhat of a cheapskate and a recent trip to Chick Fil A is an example of this!

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My friend Joy, yes her again ( :) ), sent me a link to sign up for a free Chick Fil A sandwich. Chick Fil A was getting ready to unveil their new spicy chick and they were offering a free sandwich preview to people who signed up. Well I like Chick Fil A and I like free so ok, I signed up!

I have a bunch of free coupons from Chick Fil A, including free kids meals, fries, drinks...all sorts, but I didn't want to use them all in one trip to the store. I like to save them and get a little savings each time we go. Anyways, for this trip to Chick Fil A I decided to bring the kids some of their meal with me. This way I could use a few of the coupons and get them some food, but then I wouldn't have to spend to much money at the store. I brought along grapes and chips and capri suns for the kids, with my coupons and of course the free Spicy Chicken Sandwich, I ended up only spending $3 and some change!

Let me tell you...that sandwich was SPICY!!! But it was free and I suffered through it! While there they gave us another coupon for a free spicy sandwich which I will definitely save for Thomas!

As you can see, the kids love hanging out and going places with their friends and we like to do a lot of this during the summer. I have to do everything I can to save a little so we can, in the end, do more!