Back to Blogging – Clip those coupons

Back to Blogging – Clip those coupons

I started this blog back in June and then stopped it on the advice of multiple recruiters.  I think they were being overly cautious as I’m writing about money, financial things, etc and not talking about anything too risqué, so I’m going back to what I had started. My goal is still the same; to discuss financial and money issues related to those of us in the GLBT community and hopefully pass along useful and helpful information.  Many of the things that I will be writing about are universal to any and everyone dealing with money and finances.  So I hope that everyone; gay, straight, bi, lesbian or “undecided” will benefit from the information.

I have been fascinated with couponing since I was a little boy; if any of you don’t know what a coupon is then please email me and I will educate you.  My Grandma Cleo was a coupon clipper and I was amazed that she could cut these coupons out of the news paper for things she wanted to buy and then give them to the check out person and they would take some off of the bill.  It seemed to me to be free money and who doesn’t like that?  As I grew up and started shopping I started clipping coupons myself, and I unashamedly give them to the checkout clerk and love to watch my total go down. 

Over the years my interest level in coupons has gone up and down; however I recently came across this show on TLC called “Extreme Couponing” where people take couponing to a level I had never seen before.  To get an idea of what I’m talking about take a look at this link to the TLC site for Extreme Couponing: TLC . Some of these people have elevated couponing to an OCD level of obsession that most of us don’t have the time or desire to do.  I have seen episodes where these folks will walk out with over $1000 worth of merchandise and end up spending less than $50 out of pocket.  I get the feeling that for some of these folks this is their form of hoarding.  I mean if the shit hits the fan and we have some type of apocalyptic zombie event I’m not sure what good 87 bottles of ketchup and 52 bottle of body wash are going to do you.

I’m not looking to get to that level of extreme couponing; however I would like to be able to knock a few bucks off of my grocery and drug store bills.  So, I’m looking for some practical advice and methods that I can use and pass along to my readers.  If any of you have success stories, methods or resources you would like to share then please either post them in the comments or email me directly.  In the coming days and weeks as this unfolds I will be passing along the outcome of my efforts as well as whatever is share.

Here are some other topics that I’m looking for input on and that I will be blogging about in the coming week.

Inexpensive decorating ideas

Investing for GLBT dummies

Banking

Kids-they are expensive

Bankruptcy

The Gay Divorce’

Living on a budget

Gays and taxes

Gay charities-where does all that money go