Former Coupon Queen Comes Clean Part. 1

I use to be a Coupon Queen.

You know the kind, with my binder, paying $2 for $200 worth of groceries.

So much so I had my own "store" in my garage. Lovingly called, The Stockpile Room.

My friends and family knew if there was anything in the world they needed or wanted

that more than likely, it was in the The Stockpile Room.

For a year and half we paid maybe $500 for over $20,000 with of food, heath care,

cleaning supplies and toiletries. For the love of Glade coupons, I taught Coupon Classes.

So what changed?

After 18 months of this frugal addiction....errr... I mean hobby, God showed

us that gathering food was now going to be a tad bit difficult.

No more mindless filling the shopping cart with all of my great bargains.

It was near Halloween. Our family does not celebrate this holiday. But some

neighborhood friends brought over some candy for the kids. Candy Corn.

Who does not love candy corn? My oldest daughter for a day or so happily

munched on the candy corn when I said they could indulge. Then one night

as she was in the kitchen doing dishes she popped a piece in her mouth.

Her body said, enough.

She had an allergic reaction that made her throat close and for her breathing

to come to a small struggling wheeze. Thankfully after a trip to the ER, she

survived. Many children who have severe food allergies do not. I was so

thankful. I was also full of questions. The ER doctor just said in passing,

"No more candy corn for her." No one said why or what was in it.

It took many trips to her regular doctor and then a allergy specialist to

finally get to the bottom of why one day she was fine and the next she

almost died from this seemingly innocent treat.

The explanation?

Her body had had enough of artificial food dye.

What?!

But why I ask. I had to know. No one else in our family had issue with them.

Because they said, over time consuming "chemicals" and tricking our body

to think it's food is going to effect some of us. And given that her father has

a horrible allergy to honey bee's and I to shellfish....it was just a wait and see

game of what thing her body would reject.

And to make life interesting, her test for wheat showed a probable allergy there as

well. More test would need to be done to be exact but we should probably refrain.

I came home that day and sat in The Stockpile Room. I did something I had not

done yet. I turned over the packages of all this free fabulous food.

Red 40

Yellow 5

Why was there wheat products in my canned beans?

Modified Food Starch

My lunch meat was NOT gluten free. Huh??  

There is wheat in lunch meat?

Names of things I could not even pronounce much less know what it was.

By the end of the night I sat with a house of $1000's of dollars worth of

food that my daughter could not eat.

To be continued....