So I Married A Couponer – Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Paper Boy Hates Me

Living with an extreme couponer means sometimes you have to have thick skin.  There will always be some finger pointing or eyes being rolled at the check-out line, but after awhile you start to ignore it or forget about it.  Sometimes though, there are casualties in the war against high prices.  In my case one of the biggest losses I have endured during this was losing my neighborhood paper boy.

The paperboy – it’s just too painful to say his name-  and I once enjoyed a great relationship.  As an ex-paperboy myself, we enjoyed that unspoken bond between those of us that know the thrill of home paper delivery service. He never threw my paper into the bushes, up on the roof, or out in the wet lawn. He’d ride by and I’d give him the “You’re the best” nod all the time and he’d wave back.  All that changed however when the coupon train rolled into town.

If you really want to have an impressive stockpile from couponing you of course need a lot of coupons. Believe me there are more episodes about this subject later but for now just know the more coupons the better. One of the general rules of couponing is that you should order a newspaper for every member of your family. That meant we increased our Sunday paper order from one to six.  For the typical scrawny 80 pound paperboy that’s a big load to carry. His paper bag sling already looked like it was going to break him in half before we started couponing and now I swear it hangs so low his tires are going to pop.  My wife says it’s good for him and will build up his scrawny little legs, but I feel bad for the boy.  Now every Sunday morning I get woken up to the sound of multiple Sunday newspapers being hurled at my door one after another like a sledgehammer.  The paperboy shows no mercy.  Now when I see him he looks at me, rubs his sore weighed-down shoulder and shakes his head.

My wife of course treats every Sunday morning like its Christmas and loves to un-wrap all the coupons and ads from the newspaper for the week.  I get to read six copies of the sports section and each kid reads his or her own comic section before we add more weight and height to my paper recycling pile. Although my wife experiences joy and excitement when she sees all the 6 newspapers, I just feel guilt for making our paper boy work so hard.

It’s easy to brush off the impatient guy in line or the grumpy old cashier when it comes to couponing, but having the paper boy hate me still makes me a little sad.

Next is Chapter #5: Child labor – Not Such A Bad Thing After All

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So I Married a Couponer is a fun series about an average man trying to deal with being married to an extreme coupon shopper. His story must be told.

About Karrie

Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...