My love/hate relationship with coupons...

I love coupons one minute and I hate them the next.

Yep.  It's true.

I love the money that coupons paired with a sweet sale can save me.  I've even posted photos of the great deals I've gotten in the past.  I love the blogosphere of couponing mavens who help me to find the best deals and match-ups.

I hate the "stress" that couponing brings with it. 
Today is the perfect case in point.
I discovered today, not yesterday, not Sunday, but today that Super Doubles were starting at Harris Teeter.  And guess what... they were starting TODAY.
No big deal you say.  But to a die-hard couponer (oh, yes, this is a verb now), this is a very BIG deal. 

Super Doubles at HT is the gold mine for coupon clippers in the South.  You can, if you plan very well, and have all the appropriate coupons stockpiled for the last few months, go into the grocery store and buy 20 items a day for the seven days the event runs and get many things free or for under a dollar each.  Obviously, not everything I need or buy falls into that free or almost free category, but you can still save a whack-load of money.  I've heard there are shows on TLC now about Extreme Couponing, and while I haven't seen them, I believe it.  If you go into HT during this event, you'll see other people with binders, folders, accordion files, and all other manner of coupons sorting systems. 

And when I'm "ready" for it, I'm a huge fan of Super Doubles.... it just happens that this week I'm so not ready for it.  We've been battling colds for what feels like forever.  So a mom who's tired from being sick, taking care of sick kids, has very little desire to go into a store with her just-recovered-and-still-pretty-whiny-even-though-I-love-them-to-bits children, wander up and down the aisles looking for the right size of the right variety of Cheerios, that are on sale and that match the coupon I have, if it's still in stock, because I didn't get there before 10am today. 

There's just this guilt... it must be a variation on the usual mommy-guilt that we all seem to have.  If I don't use coupons, especially now that I have learned to work the system, with all the help of those smart coupon ladies, I feel guilty!  If I go to the store and buy something, and I don't have a coupon.... I feel guilty.   If I let my coupon inserts pile up,  I feel guilty!  Why can't I just go grocery shopping anymore?  Why can't I just move back to Canada where they just don't have the same amount of crazy coupons?  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

Obviously, my kids aren't the only post-sick whiny ones around....