I’ve been a fan of the TV show “Extreme Couponing,” but I get frustrated that they don’t show you how to make it happen. I bought the book written by Joni Meyer-Crothers with Beth Adelman in the hopes that the secrets would be revealed. I almost knew the information, but I have never achieved the same results.

It was nice to read about how you started using coupons. I could relate. I’ve been in those tough situations and could have used to get free items. I’ve never been able to get extreme articles, but I’ve always been good at finding fun bargains here and there in a single article. Most of all, I managed with what I had.

I found a blog that I found useful, so I plan to give it a try this week. Tomorrow I’ll get the newspaper and compare the store ads with the coupons and see if any of them match. I signed up for a coupon workshop.

The hurdles I’ve had are finding stores near me that double, stack, and give cash back. The limits have also been four per day. The frustrating part is having coupons for items that are not on sale and then expire before you can use them. Then they go to the trash. Another frustration is not having money to buy these items because it is necessary to buy meat, dairy products, and farm products.

I get excited when I receive a reward, but I had to spend a lot of money to get it that I probably shouldn’t have.

My best value budget has always been membership because at least I always have something I can count on. I also like warehouse memberships, but I can’t benefit from the same coupons. So, there was always the balance between processed foods and healthy foods. Now that my children have grown up, I want to make the transition to organic and unprocessed foods. I would like to know how I can make that happen.

I plan to experiment over the next year to see if I can figure out this system. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if none of my children or grandchildren had to buy food? If I could help them, I would feel that all the first days of fighting made me a resource that nothing else could compare to. It would be a good feeling to be able to give like Joni has done. Wish me luck. We’ll see what happens.