Coupons Again

I noticed a coupon on the side of my ceral box today. A long time ago I considered using coupons and adding this amount to the Double Challenge, but I never made a final decision. After seeing this coupon, I thought about it again. The point of the Double Challenge is to make money without affecting my real life finances, so if I would never use the coupon (and I NEVER use coupons), then it should count. But this is a very slippery slope, because I may convince myself that I would have bought something when really, I'd just be buying it to use the coupon, which would mean I would be negatively affecting my real life finances. I've decided in the end to allow coupons IF and only IF the following two conditions are true.
1) It needs to be something I definitely would buy anyways. Like the exact cereal I eat all the time, not tickets to the latest theater production.
2) If it is for a different brand than I would usually buy, I have to check and make sure the new price plus the coupon is the same or better than the usual brand.
The coupons on the cereal box were two for $1 off Cheerios. Since this is practically all my son eats for breakfast, they qualify. Next time I buy Cheerios I'll have $2 extra for The Double Challenge.

Flip