The Joys of Coupons!!!

I didn't used to pay much attention to coupons - we don't get a lot of the grocery manufacturer's coupons here in Australia. More so there are the coupons like two for one cappuccinos at McCafe, buy one meal get one free at the taverne just out of town; buy one burger get one free. Well, today - it is school holidays here in Australia in my state for two weeks, so kids are bored and want to do stuff, so I took the boys with me to the mall.
I had the two for one hotdog offer - singly the hotdogs were around four dollars each, and I got two of them for $5! What a bargain. So then we moved on to the McCafe, and they enjoyed their frozen Ogre drinks (Yay Shrek!!).
I read in Prevention Australia magazine (October 2010) http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/prevention/nutrition/
an article about eating clean food - they said it was good to follow the 80/20 rule. So for 80% of the time, eat clean whole unprocessed foods, and cook from scratch, and allow the other 20% of the time for when you go out and about and socialise. So today I took advantage of the Wendy's hotdog coupons and got the boys a hotdog each. Cheap holiday "tucker" LOL. Then we walked around town going here and there for a while - they wanted to know why I was walking everywhere (er kids it is good for you!) and then we came home. I am hoping to be able to book a holiday up the coast with the aid of a coupon (woohoo!!!) which includes some meals at an expensive cafe near the beach. Hoping to get away in the first week of November for a few days. It is starting to get warmer around here - soon it will be summer!! And I will be losing more pounds, but anyway - I sure have enjoyed coupons this week.
Oh yeah, and my hubby and I and the kids love to go to the cinema, but for all of us the price can be a little prohibitive - not a problem really - I got myself a discount coupon there as well, and we have cinema loyalty cards which allow a free movie every so many films that you see; so between the coupon and the loyalty card - I can save some more $$$$$$, and pay down some debt!!! Check out The Dollar Stretcher too, for some great money saving lifestyle ideas. You can subscribe to a mailing list, and I really look forward to the weekly Dollar Stretcher newsletter in my inbox, and readers have the opportunity to submit tips in a tip competition, so it really is worth checking out: http://www.stretcher.com/
Enjoy :-)