Okay... a couple months ago, I was told by my co-worker and my husband, at two completely separate times, that I would make a fantastic "extreme couponer." Whaaat!?! I had never heard of it before. Andy said I should watch the show. There's a SHOW!?! I was in complete and utter disbelief. No way had I never heard of this before.... He explained to me what these people do. Hmmm, I thought. I was kinda upset that they would think this way of me. No, no, no, they explained. It's a good thing. It's your, um, controlling, no, that's not the right word, um... anal personality that makes it a good thing. WHAAAT!!! Now I was really pissed. But alas I was curious, so I watched the show. Oh-em-gee... These people are NUTS! I could never, nor ever want to, devote that much time and effort into shopping. Un-uh. Not happening. Oh, just collect coupons and give it a try, Andy says. You never know.... Okay fine. I'll collect coupons. I'll shop "frugally." But I will not be THAT extreme, I said. So over the course of the next 2 months, I collected those coupons. Every Sunday, my darling mother brought me her coupons out of the Sunday paper. I went online and signed up for weekly coupons, from big name companies. I also kept all the ones from my mailbox without throwing them away. Then, I used my paper trimmer (yes, I already had one) to cut out those wonderful "money saving" pieces of paper. End result? Check out the picture below.
It might not look like it but that's $252.37 worth of items. 66 items to be exact. After coupons, my total came to $81.77. That's about $1.21 per item. In the end, the bottom line was I saved $170.60!!! Not too shabby. And thankfully not as "extreme" as those crazies I see on the show. I will actually use all of the items I purchased within the next few months. This is not some crazy stockpile (as you can see) like those guys. Uh huh. See, I'm sane... somewhat. :o)
Then, Andy, the girls and I headed up the road to Dry Falls. This place was so awesome. It looked like a miniature Grand Canyon. I didn't know they had landscape like this in Washington State.
Below, in the picture, is the story of Dry Falls. Amazing how it was formed. This place was truly spectacular.
And finally, we hiked around to some of the other lakes in the area. Beautiful scenery everywhere we went. I enjoyed it so much.
And the last picture is the view from the top. Our car was but a tiny speck from way up there! All in all, it was a fun time, and I'd love to do it again soon. If you are ever up there, we rode at Eagle Creek Ranch in Leavenworth. They are fantastically priced, have awesome horses and have a very kind family that runs it. You should check them out.
