A few years ago, I used to do "couponing". I did it quite well, too. For many different reasons, I quit doing it. Couponing was in another lifetime for me. I was married to another man and he was always looking for something for FREE. His sister was doing it and was quite well at it. She taught me how to coupon the right way.
Her and her husband were coming home weekly with free toilet paper, cereal, pastas, cleaning products, etc. I could not figure out how they were coming home with these things and it not costing them hardly anything.
They had an auction house and they would run these items through it and actually make money. People would buy these things from them cheaper than they could go to the store and buy it. I began to dabble around with couponing and not really saving much money on my own. A little at a time, I began to watch her and learn from her. My husband (at that time) and I began to coupon shop more. We found a couple of stores that offered "triple" coupons on certain days and they only offered it once a month. We had to travel several miles to get to the stores, but it ended up paying off.
Couponing began to consume my whole day on some days. It turned into a full time job for us. From purchasing the newspapers, clipping the coupons and sorting them to spending many, many hours in the grocery stores. Once I caught on how to do this and seen how much money we saved, it didn't seem like such a chore to do.
I've watched people on Oprah and other shows that did couponing and they had earned the name of "Coupon Queen". I would watch them and giggle because there were many times we had done way better than they had.
I used to go into a store armed with three big plastic boxes with lids full of coupons. I had them all in their different categories, and usually knew right where to find everything in my box. We got so good shopping at the 'triple coupon stores', they they have actually paid us money when we checked out. (Not all stores will do this.) I used to hate checking out because it was embarrasing for me. I didn't want people to get upset with us because it took so long in line. But after awhile, the embarasment wore off and it became quite fun. People enjoyed watching with us as the grand total showed up and then what little we were going to have to pay. It was really exciting the times they paid us money! There was one visit they owed us like $60 so we went and got things like steak to eat, some diapers and baby wipes for free, since we had a small baby at that time.
I remember one night, we actually spent 8 HOURS in one store! My grocery receipt reached the cash register all the way to the front door! I think we had three, maybe four buggies full of groceries that night. You would be surprised at how much you can get into a buggy when it is neatly stacked and organized.
It was so funny, when the stock boy loaded our car. At that time, we drove a Mercury Tracer station wagon. One of the smaller ones. I now laugh and call it a "granny grocery getter". The next time we went back to the store, the person on the register remembered us and told us that the stock boy came in the night of our last visit, holding up his pen and said, "I would have given them $100 if they could have gotten this pen into the car!" I laughed and told them, "I would have told my husband to bend over!" LOL
Now, moving ahead.... like 10 years. I have since married a wonderful, loving man. He knows how hard it was on me when I was couponing, having to spend countless hours sitting in the floor cutting and sorting them, not to mention the time at the stores. He has never wanted me to clip coupons since we've been married. I have often thought about it, but then he discourages me from it. My husband has told me that he will work harder if he has to. He does not want me couponing. Couponing was in a past life, with another man, another marriage and he does not want me to be reminded of that.
Two years ago, I quit a very good paying job to stay at home with my kids. We have done okay financially without the second income.
Things haven't always been easy and we have had to give up many things we used to enjoy doing. The Lord has provided and has taken care of us and blessed us tremendously.
Almost six months ago, my oldest moved in with her children and now has a baby six weeks old. Things are still tight financially. Just recently, my husband quit his trucking job due to financial difficulties his employer was having due to the economy.
I am now looking for more ways to cut expenses and to help us save money. I would like to be able to have a little extra savings for rainy days or for extra things that we cannot afford right now.
I recently began looking on the internet for ways to save money.
I came up with an idea to put together a blog after seeing many, many ways.
I don't know if I will ever go back to couponing or not. If my husband has his way about it, I won't. For now, I will look for alternative ways.
I would love to hear from you. What ways do you have of saving money? What works for your family? How much have you saved? Tell us your story.
~Lisa Holland
Simply Frugal Nana
Her and her husband were coming home weekly with free toilet paper, cereal, pastas, cleaning products, etc. I could not figure out how they were coming home with these things and it not costing them hardly anything.
They had an auction house and they would run these items through it and actually make money. People would buy these things from them cheaper than they could go to the store and buy it. I began to dabble around with couponing and not really saving much money on my own. A little at a time, I began to watch her and learn from her. My husband (at that time) and I began to coupon shop more. We found a couple of stores that offered "triple" coupons on certain days and they only offered it once a month. We had to travel several miles to get to the stores, but it ended up paying off.
Couponing began to consume my whole day on some days. It turned into a full time job for us. From purchasing the newspapers, clipping the coupons and sorting them to spending many, many hours in the grocery stores. Once I caught on how to do this and seen how much money we saved, it didn't seem like such a chore to do.
I've watched people on Oprah and other shows that did couponing and they had earned the name of "Coupon Queen". I would watch them and giggle because there were many times we had done way better than they had.
I used to go into a store armed with three big plastic boxes with lids full of coupons. I had them all in their different categories, and usually knew right where to find everything in my box. We got so good shopping at the 'triple coupon stores', they they have actually paid us money when we checked out. (Not all stores will do this.) I used to hate checking out because it was embarrasing for me. I didn't want people to get upset with us because it took so long in line. But after awhile, the embarasment wore off and it became quite fun. People enjoyed watching with us as the grand total showed up and then what little we were going to have to pay. It was really exciting the times they paid us money! There was one visit they owed us like $60 so we went and got things like steak to eat, some diapers and baby wipes for free, since we had a small baby at that time.
I remember one night, we actually spent 8 HOURS in one store! My grocery receipt reached the cash register all the way to the front door! I think we had three, maybe four buggies full of groceries that night. You would be surprised at how much you can get into a buggy when it is neatly stacked and organized.
It was so funny, when the stock boy loaded our car. At that time, we drove a Mercury Tracer station wagon. One of the smaller ones. I now laugh and call it a "granny grocery getter". The next time we went back to the store, the person on the register remembered us and told us that the stock boy came in the night of our last visit, holding up his pen and said, "I would have given them $100 if they could have gotten this pen into the car!" I laughed and told them, "I would have told my husband to bend over!" LOL
Now, moving ahead.... like 10 years. I have since married a wonderful, loving man. He knows how hard it was on me when I was couponing, having to spend countless hours sitting in the floor cutting and sorting them, not to mention the time at the stores. He has never wanted me to clip coupons since we've been married. I have often thought about it, but then he discourages me from it. My husband has told me that he will work harder if he has to. He does not want me couponing. Couponing was in a past life, with another man, another marriage and he does not want me to be reminded of that.
Two years ago, I quit a very good paying job to stay at home with my kids. We have done okay financially without the second income.
Things haven't always been easy and we have had to give up many things we used to enjoy doing. The Lord has provided and has taken care of us and blessed us tremendously.
Almost six months ago, my oldest moved in with her children and now has a baby six weeks old. Things are still tight financially. Just recently, my husband quit his trucking job due to financial difficulties his employer was having due to the economy.
I am now looking for more ways to cut expenses and to help us save money. I would like to be able to have a little extra savings for rainy days or for extra things that we cannot afford right now.
I recently began looking on the internet for ways to save money.
I came up with an idea to put together a blog after seeing many, many ways.
I don't know if I will ever go back to couponing or not. If my husband has his way about it, I won't. For now, I will look for alternative ways.
I would love to hear from you. What ways do you have of saving money? What works for your family? How much have you saved? Tell us your story.
~Lisa Holland
Simply Frugal Nana
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~Lisa
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