I’ve been a fan of the TV show “Extreme Couponing,” but it frustrates me 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 hope that the secrets would be revealed. I practically already 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 sticky situations and could have used getting free items. I’ve never been able to get the extreme items, but I’ve always been good at finding a fun deal here and there on a single item. Above all, I was content with what I had.

I found a blog that seemed useful, so plan on trying it out this week. Tomorrow, I will buy the newspaper and compare the advertisements of various stores 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 cash back. The limits have also been four per day. The frustrating part is having coupons for items that aren’t on sale and then they expire before you can use them. Then they go to the trash can. Another frustration is not having money to buy these items because you need to buy meat, dairy, and produce.

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

My best value budget has always been memberships because at least I always have something to do that I can count on. I also like the store memberships, but I can’t benefit from the same coupons. So, there was always the balance between processed food and healthy food. Now that my kids are grown, I want to transition to organic, 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 crack this system. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if none of my children or grandchildren had to buy groceries? If I could help them, I would feel like all those first few days of fighting made me a resource that nothing else could compare to. It would be a good feeling to be able to give as Joni has been able to do. Wish me luck. We’ll see what happens.