Thursday, October 9, 2008

How I got started

My next planned post was going to be about places to shop and hints on how their coupons work but I decided to give a little more background on me before we get started on that.

My mom tells this really funny story about when I was young and she was a stay at home mom, she liked cutting coupons and looking in sale papers, getting her outing planned so to speak. Well one day she was all ready to go out, get away from the kids and make a couple of good deals and my dad calls to say, "I made groceries!" She thought what in the world does he mean by that. She asked him what he got. His response, "I bought 15 cans of tuna."

Anyway, her enthusiasm for couponing didn't pass along to me. In fact she starting working at some point and couponing seemed to no longer be that important.

Just to let you know I haven't always been this passionate about couponing. I am a generally obsessive person, those who know me personally know this very well. I have to have something to concentrate and focus my energy on. Oh, I have tons of little things going on, but I also need one major thing as well.

Couponing and saving money really all started because of shame. Here is my story:
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I was in Walmart doing my general weekly shopping and I was in the baby aisle looking at something and a lady is standing at the end of the same aisle with a sale paper in her hand. She informs me that this certain product is cheaper somewhere else and that she intends on price checking this item. Well I just firmly pointed out that I didn't have time to look at sale papers and clip coupons because, well frankly I have 3 kids. She just turned and looked at me and said, "So do I, that is why I have to do this." That woman will never know how profound a statement that has become in my life. I have never forgotten that simple conversation. Seems like I could always get out of doing things because I had three kids but so did she and she was doing it. Made me think maybe I needed to reevaluate my thinking.

I had a friend that was doing the CVS/Walgreens thing at the time. She would tell me all she had got and saved by going to these two stores. I just didn't get it. I don't know exactly when or how I discovered these stores and how they could work for me, but boy am I glad I did.

Lots of the you think that I am an expert but I still feel like a babe in this world. I learn new things everyday. Yesterday a friend called and told me I had to watch Oprah. Well I never watch Oprah but she was talking about thrifty families so I decided it might be worthwhile. It was a great show. That is were I thought to look for the http://www.kidseatfree.com/ website. That is why some of you have the great links to free local activities for your families.

Also the lady from couponmom.com was on Oprah yesterday and she had some wonderful tips on how to lower your grocery bill by 70%, all by going to Kroger! I will share some of her tips and mine in the coming days. She says what we are doing is called strategic shopping. She is so right! You have to really plan your outings for this to work. You have to plan your meals based on what is on sale and what you have a coupon for. This takes work, but it is so worth it.

I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about me. Tomorrow we will get back to business on stores, hints, tips, and more for making each shopping experience a rewarding one.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent post! I wish I had seen that episode of Oprah! I'll be looking forward to your tips!

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  2. I look forward to reading about your Kroger saving tips!

    Katherine P

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