How to Impress a Teenage Daughter With Coupons

I thought I’d share this little slice-of-life that happened yesterday. The reality is that my kids make fun of me all the time about coupons and how I only buy things on sale, blah, blah, blah. So, yesterday I broke two of my own rules: I dragged my 14-year-old daughter to the store (rule #1 broken) and it happened to be on a Sunday afternoon (rule #2 broken–it’s one of the busiest times of the week in grocery stores).

My daughter was too busy looking for friends (she happened to see a couple of boys she knows walk into the store so she went searching for them…) so I went about my business buying fruit, butter, cheese and bread plus a couple of other items, all on sale, and most with coupons.

Back in the car, I blurted out: “So, guess how much I spent on all of this food?” (p.s. the photo above is from another shopping trip, not the one I’m discussing in this post…)

Here’s the rest of the conversation:

Daughter: Uh, $75?

Me: Nope.

Daughter: $25?

Me: A tiny bit lower…$23!

Daughter (semi-sincerely): Wow!

…pause…

Daughter: So…um, how much would you have paid for all this if you didn’t have coupons?

Me: (pointing to receipt)…Well, I would have paid a little more than $75 for all this.

Daughter (sincerely): GET OUT!! Seriously? That is awesome, Mom! That is so awesome!

Me: I know! So, darling daughter, that’s why I don’t care if you make fun of me when I use coupons…

Maybe she was just happy I splurged on potato chips for her, but she was really impressed by this, and that just made my day!