Coupons

I don’t know why I clip coupons. I rarely use them. Clipping coupons and then actually using coupons is not for the faint of heart. For example, if you can’t stand pulling apart a pre-sliced English muffin (which never breaks through in the middle - leaving you with a lumpy half of an English muffin, and another half with a hole in it’s middle -) you probably don’t have the patience and follow through for coupons. But this new year, I decided I would clip. And so it has started.

Last night at the restaurant.

“I have a ten dollar off coupon at home on the kitchen counter.” I hopefully said as I held out the bill and money to the waitress...without letting go.

“Oh.” She leveled back, her hand firmly trying to take the check from me.

Suddenly, instead of leaving full and happy, I am leaving Taco Mamasito feeling ripped off.

Having a non-expired coupon when paying for something is spice of life.

“OMG! That hamburger was the BEST I have ever had!”

“OMG! These potato chips I never would have bought if they weren’t twenty cents off are SO fresh!”

or... “OMG! Thank God I paid for that Zumba class with the half off coupon since I only went half the time!”

One Mother’s Day, when he was in second grade, Shane gave me a book of “mom” coupons. “Present these to me at any time and I will do....” such and such. They were created in newly learned kid cursive on pink construction paper, bonded by yellow yarn. Lovingly scrawled were things like:

Help with Dishes.

Take a walk with You.

Empty the Trash.

Today, searching through the junk drawer for a roll of tape, I come across that pink coupon book lodged in the corner of the drawer. Looking through it, my eyes slow down and loop around the curly kid cursive. I finger the fraying yellow yarn fuzz between my thumb and fore finger. There is no expiration date on any of these coupons! I rip one out.

It is almost Ditch Day - January 17th. It’s the day we all quit our New Year’s resolutions apparently. I will stop clipping coupons and eat again at restaurants happily....shop for stuff that’s actually on my grocery list.

I will see Shane soon, and collect on this “walk”. This is what coupons are. They are hope and promise and the feeling that you are maybe getting something long due to you. Whether it’s two for one bottles of Magnesium, or a walk with a son who has turned 27.