Need a reason to coupon?

How about this? Would you clip coupons if it saved a life? Dumb question right? Maybe not. See I recently read a post on using coupons to stock local food banks. I was interested but not sure how to start. Luckily, God had a plan as usual.

Our church is designating March as the month to help a local charity group stock its shelves. They even had a wish list of items they always need. Things like hygiene items, baby food, diapers etc... Now it so happens that this week was double coupon week at Kmart. By spending under $60 I got:
4 jumbo packs of diapers, (normally sell for around $11 each)
6 packs of wipes, ($4 each)
1 ointment for rashes, ($4)
1 can baby formula, ($10)
6 deodorants, (4each)
6 nail clippers, ($2 ea)
10 shampoos, ($4ea)
12 toothbrushes, ($3ea)
10 toothpastes, ($3ea)
6 bathrooms cleaners to donate. ($4 ea)
Total: almost $250 in merchandise

(Plus 10 boxes of cereal, 2 dusters, toilet bowl cleaner and 2 large packs of TP to keep.) Now in BC time I would have spent at least $60 on the items I kept alone. So basially I am able to donate several hundred dollars of merchandise to people in desperate need without costing myself any money. I could never afford to buy that much stuff without hurting our budget, nor could I "just write a check" for anything close to that amount. And even if I did, it is doubtful if the charity could get as much with it. So by investing $9 in newspapers and 2 hours of time I was able to contribute to a worthy cause.

In BC time I thought coupons were worthless or at least not worth my time. I also misunderstood using them, thinking that stores lost money on them. I didn't realize that companies reimburse for them. So stores don't lose money. Now while sales like this one that "double" coupons do cost the store money, they wouldn't do it if it wasn't profitable. Besides, I never shop at this store due to its location, so I gave a store $60 worth of business (Plus almost $200 from the coupon companies) I wouldn't otherwise. In these times I'm sure they appreciate any extra traffic. So I helped a charity, I helped a store, and I didn't hurt my own family's budget. Still think coupons are worthless? Anyway this is just another reason to consider using coupons, if not for yourself, perhaps to help another. Who knows how many lives you could touch.