The problem with coupons. For me. Maybe not so much for you...

Okay - the problem is not so much with coupons themselves but the level of expertise involved in using them. I have them - I cut them I use them but in a very basic rudimentary way. I see it. I need it. I have a coupon for it - Yippie! More than that is more than this brain can handle.

Mind you - I am not stupid. I do not struggle with organization. The problem comes when I enter the store. I hear the lights. I smell the smell of the meat department and the smell of the refrigerator units. I get WAY too cold. Sometimes I get so cold my hair tingles. Even if I wear a sweater. In summer. Sometimes there is a song playing that makes my mind wander. Sometimes someone comes up to me and talks to me. And heaven forbid there be more than like two other people in the store!

All of this makes it woefully difficult for me to shop in under an hour. Add coupons into the mix - in any way more than the most basic way mentioned previously and I come unglued. I pick the wrong size or the wrong flavor or I count wrong - don't buy enough - buy too many. I need to buy three different items - I picked only two. It is extremely nerve-wracking for someone like me to do this the way my gal Mindi does it.

Instead - I just go to Aldi for most items. Everything else - I try to use a coupon or go to BJ's. I found a decent produce stand locally... It is not that I think I am too good for coupons; I just have too many - uhm - wuhl - "issues".