I absolutely adore contests and free stuff.... who doesn't? I have enjoyed several free birthday coffees this month, as well as a free icecream from Tim Horton's this past Sunday. I participated in a Tic Tac competition for their new flavor and was rewarded with a free package of Tic Tacs. I have coupons waiting which can only be used on specific days for free bread, cereal, and snack bars.

One thing that I've been unable to commit to is extensive couponing. I'm not talking about the occasional coupon, I'm sure everyone's done that at some point. I mean what the shows and newspapers call "Extreme Couponing". I tried - I really did. It's soooo hard!!! Not only do you need to ask your paper boy/girl for a dozen extra newspapers (or more), but you need to belong to as many online couponing sites as possible. Sometimes they send you coupons, but more often than not you need to print them yourself.

Hours and hours are spent cutting out these money-saving pieces of paper. I couldn't believe how long it takes. Then, you have tons of paper left over for your recycling - which I found to be rather wasteful.... although I guess it's going to end up there anyways.

Then, you need something to organize all of these coupons - a purse simply won't suffice. So you need to be a master organizer, as well.

Then, there's expiry dates. All coupons have one - and since all this work has been put into it up until this point, it would be a shame to waste them due to an expiry. So - they need to be organized in a way that ensures you will use the appropriate ones by the appropriate date.

And then there's storage! The only way that extreme couponing works is if you buy things in bulk. This means that all the items won't fit in your freezer - and if they do then you've got zero change in what you're eating for the next month or so.

And, if that wasn't enough, you need to find a retailer that accepts multiple coupons on the same items. For example, you find a coupon for buy one, get one free shampoo. Then, you have a coupon for $2 off the same shampoo. You have fifteen of these coupons, or so, which means you're picking up 30 bottles of shampoo. But that's not the end - if you can, you wait until it goes on sale at the store - sometimes they will even owe you money*!

This is just too much work for me.... and it seems impractical. Of course everyone loves saving money, but it's so much work.... and if everyone did it then the economy would be in some serious trouble.

The point to this rant? I'm perfectly happy with my free coffee and icecream in my birthday month, and the occasional pack of free Tic Tacs..... but that's me ;)

* some stores will not provide you with cash, but instead take that amount as a credit towards additional merchandise