Cutting Coupons

Both of my children love being helpers - in the kitchen, doing home projects, at volunteer events, cleaning, and their favorite, grocery shopping.  They like to add things to the list before we go, and check items off as they put them in the cart.  We always use the self-checkout lane so they can scan our haul themselves and input codes for the produce.  They know what has to be weighed and what items are measured by quantity.  They discovered a new step recently, though.  I actually remembered some coupons on our last trip, and the boys got really excited watching the total price drop every time we scanned one.

So when I picked them up from school Thursday, Dane announced that he had a very exciting surprise for me.  When we got home, he was smiling ear-to-ear while dragging his backpack into the kitchen to pull out his prize.  He explained that the teacher had a newspaper at school, and she let him have the coupon section.
"I spent all of my free time today cutting out coupons for you!"

This precious child had painstakingly cut just so around pictures of items and their advertised sale price, but there was not a single actual coupon in the pile.  There were tiny pictures of soda, chips, marshmallows, donuts, ice cream bars, movies, candy, orange juice and many more.  It was not lost on me that most of these "coupons" were for junk food and toys.
"Mom, I think I cut enough coupons that we can get everything for free.  Can we go to the store right now to see how much money I saved you?"

Oh boy!  I explained to Dane that I would still have to pay something, just less than usual.
"When we check out, if it is free, will you tell everyone that your son found all these deals by himself?"

Obviously now I must go shopping for a cart full of goodies and pay whatever the cost, because there is no way I can crush this boy's spirit.  A little junk food will be worth it.  We will have to use a cashier this time, as the self-checkout lane will likely reject our coupons.  And I will have to hope that that person shows him the same enthusiasm he will have handing over his pile of savings.  

And the next time I am cutting coupons, my helper boys will learn how it's really done.