No More Coupons!

I used to be a coupon collector.  You know, buy an extra Sunday paper just so you can collect more coupons ...  I had a whole system for organizing them,  and I remember taking a whole box full to the grocery store each week.  I was so proud to save my family money and loved finding the best deals!

That was probably 25 years ago.  I continued to clip coupons for several years, but then I realized I was buying stuff we just didn't need, simply because we had a coupon.  I started to cut down on the coupons, only clipping the ones for products we currently used -- or for something we wanted to try.  Sounds like a good plan, right? 

I enjoyed the feeling of saving money, and I still clip a few to this day, but it is pretty rare.  What's the change?  Well, did you ever notice the type of products that have coupons?  There are some trends - mostly because a particular company wants to push their merchandise.  So, Keebler pushes their cookies and crackers, Clorox Co. gives you a dollar off their cleaners, and Proctor & Gamble pushes shampoo, soaps, and other personal products.  What's wrong with that you may ask?  

Recently, I paged through a coupon circular that is delivered every week in a pile of junk mail.  I came to the realization that just about everything offered is either full of sugar and artificial ingredients, or full of toxins that can really mess with your body systems - especially your endocrine system.

And who do these coupons target?  Families with limited income who try to make ends meet by using coupons.  But now, they are buying foods full of sugar and low on nutrients.  Not good for anyone.  And since sugar is something that cancer cells feed on, the health implications can be devastating.

Detergents, cleaners, and other household products can be bought for SO cheap at the Dollar Store, but if you have a coupon, you can get the name brand and save!  But nearly every single one of them (name brand or not) is full of harmful toxins that linger long after the scent fades away.

And the shampoos, conditioners, body washes, soaps, deodorants, and baby products offered are just as bad - maybe worse.  So many chemicals and synthetic ingredients that these become toxic to our bodies.  Whatever you put  on your skin DOES get into your body, so this is no joke.  Our bodies are great at detoxing, but when we are bombarded by artificial ingredients and toxic chemicals, we can't keep up.  And we purposely stop ourselves from detoxing, too!  Don't know what I mean?  Americans don't like sweat, so we plaster our underarms with antiperspirants.  But we need to sweat in order to release toxins.  When you

stop perspiration, you force your body to hold in those toxins.  That's when disease sets in and our health deteriorates before we can even know what's happening.  It's the reason a person may seem perfectly healthy, and yet find out the next day they have cancer.  

A quick note - use an all-natural deodorant for sweat.  You will still sweat, but you won't stink!  

Moving on!  So, I don't use coupons anymore, unless it is for something healthy and clean and not something that will affect my body in an adverse way.  Perhaps I can do this because instead of one income back 25 years ago, we have two and can afford to make better choices.  Perhaps it is education.  In several articles I scanned, it revealed that eduction is a factor in good health.  The better educated, the healthier, and vice versa.  I certainly do still have my own nutrition challenges, but I know what's healthy and what's not.  It's the sugar devil inside me that contributes to my health issues.  But it is something I am aware of and struggle to make work each and every day.  And why I make the choice to avoid coupons - and the temptation to buy one of those delicious looking, whipped cream covered heart attacks in a plastic stay-fresh wrap, coming 10 to a box.

It's also why I spend my money on good quality, non-toxic products for my household and personal use.  I figure I put enough toxins in my body by accident (or not by accident, as I shove something "forbidden" into my mouth...), so I am doubly sure not to add to that by using products I know are harmful.  It was a pretty easy switch to make.  I don't have to worry about what something tastes like - these are products I use on my body or clean my home with.  And, the best part is, they all smell great!  No chemical smells - just beautiful scents from nature.


So, I'll avoid the free sugar crap by not using coupons, and keep buying my non-toxic, essential oils infused personal products and cleaners, and just keep working to free myself from sugar.  Yup.  Still working on me.