As I mention in my new book, Ditch the Coupons, I’m a former coupon-a-holic. I gave workshops on how to coupon, I couponed, I preached couponing, people wrote about how I coupon and I was on tv and radio discussing how I coupon. I did love couponing for a long time. It was a great game to play. Until I became fed up with the whole thing and at the same time lost my source of free coupons (I mean lots and lots of free coupons). Then, I was just a pedestrian couponer, relying on measly coupon offerings online and from the Sunday paper.
Until.
Until I figured out how to shop better, even smarter, and healthier at the store without using any coupons (except for one or two of the coupons found on the store circular, maybe a digital store coupon, maybe one coupon a week from the newspapers). Until I took Amy Dacyczyn’s advice (author of the iconic Tightwad Gazette books) and stopped relying on couponing to save money.
Where I used to rely on couponing, now I rely on zero couponing! I probably spend as much money or LESS now than when I was heavily couponing. Why? I don’t stock up on everything and anything. I edit my stock. Nothing goes bad anymore (many stories of which you can find in Ditch the Coupons!). I don’t hop from store to store to store on a daily basis to use up my coupons. I buy fresh items that are actually less expensive than their packaged counterparts. I feel less pressured and have more time during the day to cook from scratch or write books!
Ahhhhhh. The coupon-free life.
No longer a coupon addict, I decided to write an anti-couponing book about how I save money without clipping and all the other nonsense. It’s really for all those folks who came to my couponing workshops with no intention of couponing. All anyone really wanted to do was to learn how to save money at the grocery store. Couponing can sometimes be a pain-in-the-neck, as they found out through my couponing workshops. Or, there weren’t coupons for fresh stuff, like fruit! Vegetables! Meat! Not enough of them, at least. So instead of relying on coupons, I rely on old-fashioned good sense, which I reacquaint readers with throughout the book, plus a few store tricks every reader should know about.
In addition, you’ll find some unusual recipes in the book based on what to gracefully do with leftovers that you can’t bear to throw out and sale items at the store that you are tired of eating (like chicken). It’s a great resource on how to run a frugal, fragrant-filled and welcoming kitchen…without having to use those pesky coupons.
If you’re interested, by all means, pick up the Ditch the Coupons book and read about a few tried and true tricks that our moms and grandmothers probably knew about already.
~Marilyn, TFF
Two Frugal Fairfielders 
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