Ask any of my friends or family. I love coupons. I clip them and feel like I have an extra dollar tucked away in my wallet.
I am not one of those people that feel embarrassed to use a coupon. I feel clever. I’m on to something that others are not. After all, if the manufacturers, restaurants or retailers didn’t want us to use the coupons why would they have them? They want us to use them. Using coupons lets these folks know we want to try new things and we need a little marketing enticement to do so.
I started “clipping” in college when money was tight and a deal was meant to have. I admit it – I was a coupon nerd. I had a Pendaflex coupon book when I was in college. I was just waiting to get an A+ on that next coupon deal.
I was the one who got the Sunday paper and sifted through the advertisements searching for the coupon inserts. Clipping and categorizing each one so carefully into my well-stocked coupon book. Each one filed away just waiting to allow me the pleasure to gleam with joy at each dollars saved during each grocery store visit. After the initial embarassment, my roommates loved grocery shopping with me. Their $50 a week shopping budget lasted at least a month.
After college it was no surprise to my family & my roommates, who got jobs at large accounting, high tech and financial institutions, that I was starting a grassroots start-up company that distributed samples and coupons to shoppers from card tables set up at the end of grocery store aisles. No one ever worried. I guess they knew all knew I would never starve since my coupon clipping prowler habit would get me through those lean entrepreneurial days.
Coupons became my life. I searched them out. I clipped them. I used them. I saved money with them. And, amazingly, I had actually found a way to incorporate them into my professional life.
Then things changed. I got diagnosed with celiac disease and I needed to be on a gluten free diet. I sifted and sifted, searched and searched … every week I continued to pour over each page of the Sunday paper coupon insert reciting internally “I can’t eat that”, “I can’t have that” and “no more of that”. My Pendaflex coupon book became empty.
What was a gluten free coupon junkie that was in the food sampling / coupon business to do?
Welcome BeFreeForMe.com. I decide to start my own coupon book euphoria. A coupon book that had my scissors going clipping crazy away. A coupon book that included coupons for each and every gluten free or allergy free coupon junkie. A coupon book that would leave folks like me smiling and clipping. Smiling and clipping.
I’m now reliving the good old days, and yes…entrepreneurial life is good now that I have a well stocked Pendaflex coupon book.
There’s nothing like a good cup of coffee. Especially a cup that you can make at home… allowing you to save tons of money by avoiding those fancy-schmancy coffee shops.