Coupon Conundrum

On my way to being thrifty and frugal I decided to give coupons a bit of attention. My sister-in-law handed me a bunch she wasn't using, so I figured "Hey, why not? The worst that could happen is that I save some money right?" WRONG! First, the best coupons are not on the internet, you have to buy a paper for $1.50. There is only one paper in my area with decent coupons for brands I may actually buy. I do not intend to change the brands I use, I am happy with my choices based on quality already. Every time I try something new, my husband or kids will say something like, "What is wrong with this tuna? It is different." I respond with something like "Well, I know we usually buy the canned variety, but the package was on sale, I had a coupon, and it was double-coupon day at Shop-rite. It only cost me like a quarter a package."
"Well, can we just stick to the one we like?" was the response from He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.
"Sure, I just thought we were trying to save money, it is the same brand, I know the texture is a bit different, but is the taste off or something?" I tried, I really tried.
"No, It tastes okay, we just like it the other way more."

What am I supposed to do with that? I was inspired by the family that is trying to live on $1500.00 for the year in groceries and personal items. I really wanted to give this coupon deal a try.

It gets worse. I had a whole group of coupons for a $1 off of items I usually buy. Since it was double-coupon day, I thought I was going to clean up. I had spent the week preparing my list and knew exactly how much money I was going to save on sale items combined with coupons. The coupons were a $1 off, if I bought 2 loaves of raisin bread, two of this two of that, and three of the other. Guess what? Shop-Rite does not double coupons over 99 cents. I had to return everything, because I would normally never buy two loaves of raisin bread at the same time, they are way too expensive. It was embarrassing being at the register and not realizing the savings I had planned for, then I had to wait on line for the customer service and return everything.
Coupons are just not worth all that time planning. I will carry them around and see if they work out for me, but it is not going to be a way of life in my house. I need to spend the whole day just to make it all work out. I buy a few of whatever is on sale each week and record the prices in my price book. That will have to do for now.

The internet coupons cost too much in ink to print out so I will have to print them out at the library. Superfresh does not take internet coupons, but Shop-Rite does.
If anyone has a real plan for using coupons that won't take up all my spare time, bring it on!