Extreme Couponing, or Beginning Stages of Hoarding

I love, love, love shopping, and one thing that I love even more than shopping is getting a good deal. When I saw there was a show called Extreme Couponing I new it was right up my alley! But here is my question - what is the difference between extreme couponing and hoarding? Is it that everything purchased is a good deal, or maybe because it's "stockpiled" neatly? Maybe because they have plans to use what they buy? Which leads me to the question, when do you know you have enough? I mean, how long will it take a family to go thru 500 bottles of body wash, and at what point in time do you say, shoot we're getting low on body wash, only 200 bottles left, time to start stockpiling again.

I think companies are loving the show and using it to their advantage (that and our love of consumerism) - think about how many store adds you see now where you can mix and match for a better price, or buy 4 boxes of cereal and get $1.00 off. I went to the grocery store the other day to get milk, and they had a special buy 4 of a certain type of yogurt and get free milk; so I'm thinking sweet, milk is what I'm here for, so I started selecting my yogurt flavors only to stop myself and think, "I'm willing to spend $8.00 on yogurt that may or may not get eaten, to get a gallon of milk that would otherwise cost me $2.50". I put the yogurt back, but it was hard to do, because I thought I was missing out on such a great deal!

There are somethings that I will buy in mass quantities (although to me that means 10 at the most), when they're on sale. Goldfish - yep, Capri-Sun lemonade - a staple for my boys, toothpaste - something we use everyday, soda - of course. But the other day I opened my pantry to get out cereal and thought oh my word we have too much food in here! I could never be an extreme coupon-er because for me it'd probably look a bit more like hoarding, which is one show I can't watch because all that stuff gives me anxiety!!

So where do you find the balance in spending to save and knowing when is enough? These are the questions that wake me up at night. How am I a good steward with our money; making sure I am taking care of the family but also being generous with the resources God has given us?

Oh, the paper is here! Time to look thru the sale ads!