Livin' Free in America

So far within the past week we really feel like we have been living free in America. We’ve gotten free food twice at chick-fil-a with coupons that came in the mail, been to the free movies and we just got a bunch of stuff for free at the new CVS pharmacy on Congress and Northlake today. Casey and I went and browsed the aisles with our hot little hands clutching our free coupons like treasure. I considered it a double whammy because it was like going on a free outing for the afternoon too. Casey was looking for something to do that didn’t involve one of her summer book reports that I keep making her work on, or anything involving cleaning supplies or garbage or recycling chores... or yard work (kid’s these days, go figure), and I wanted her to give the TV a break. So she received the coupon for one free candy item up to $1.00. (Yeah, we know how to live!). I had given Cally the free $5.00 worth of make-up coupon which we took with us on her behalf and got the revolutionary new eye shadow she’s been talking about for over a week. I had given Cael the coupon for a CVS brand item up to $3.00 for free so he could get something he needs for his new apartment. Since he hadn’t used it yet, I took it along with us and got him some laundry detergent. We also had a free greeting card up to $2.00. It was like we were poor people from a third world country walking into a brightly lit store with all it’s glitter and glam, seeing something like that for the first time, seeing all the goodies displayed in their opulence, and us with our free coupons in our hands had our heads in the clouds. It was a regular shopping spree. The free coupons just seem to keep coming in the mailbox...and I’m using ‘em. So we got $11 worth of stuff. It was fun. Yes, free is fun. Now, I’m not saying everything we’ve done lately was free. Oh no. Yesterday, I took Cael to Bed Bath and Beyond to continue our college apartment purchases. Little by little, I’m knocking things off the list to trick myself into not really grasping the enormity of the associated costs, although, like all my lists, this college purchase list is rather long. But, I can say we used either a $5.00 off or a 20% off coupon on each and every item we bought. It was quite a joy. We saved enough to feel good about it despite the fact that we still spent plenty. We’re buying the generic things at Target and such but certain things that we liked at Bed Bath and Beyond were still good deals and then the coupon helped too. You know, if I went through all the neighbors’ recycle boxes, I could probably find a ton of those free CVS coupons and have free summer fun all over again. I guess there are times when being gutless is a good thing. Otherwise there might be a scene.