Welcome to Centsable Savings Stories and Struggles! I love reading the other people’s stories of how they became frugal shoppers. I find encouragement and motivation in every story. This week, Shannon from Shannie’s Saving Cents is sharing her story. Shannon writes about the curve balls life has thrown her recently and how couponing and bargain shopping have helped her family live within their budget despite the challenges. If you missed Tracey’s story last week, I highly encourage you to read it as well. Tracey is definitely someone who sees the positives despite the setbacks she’s faced.
If you’d like to share your story, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at centsable.katherine[at]gmail.com. More details are at the end of this post.
My name is Shannon. I am a wife and mom of three. I had my story all written out. It was about how my husband’s hours at work were cut and then he lost his job all together. Luckily he was able to regain employment in about a month, but since we made so many bad financial decisions in the past it didn’t take long to fall even further behind. One day while at work I heard a segment about BeCentsAble, just long enough to catch the web address. Later on that day, out of curiosity, I went on and checked it out. I had been an occasional coupon user, but I didn’t even buy the Sunday paper on a regular basis. Around the same time a friend had introduced me to Dave Ramsey and I began to see the error of my ways.
I began using coupons on a regular basis, I couldn’t believe the deals in a few short month my house was full of groceries. Before this I would go to the store and buy enough food to just last a week, and if something came up, well, that’s what pizza delivery was for. Now even my spare closet has been turned into a pantry.
I did not submit the original piece I had written because last week life threw me a curve ball. My seven-year-old son who has been struggling with school was now facing expulsion. The school wanted him medicated, and I wanted to try alternate ways first so I called a very well known doctor in the area and begged him to see us. We had an appointment and my son was finally diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia. The doctor agreed with me that at this time he did not feel medication would be the answer and wanted me to try some other things first. The biggy was his diet. Everything is to be homemade. No more packaged food. Let me be honest here; before this a home cooked meal for me included some type of meat marinated in a bought marinade, veggie, and those lovely rice or pasta sides. I honestly can’t think of one recipe I have been using that doesn’t call for canned soup or dry soup package. I am in the process of giving away my pantry items and it hurts a little. I was proud of the deals I have found and the fact that I was prepared for anything……well almost anything.
I am trying to be optomistic and view this as an adventure, but after a few days I am realizing how difficult this is going to be. I have to learn how to cook and shop all over again. I still plan on using the techniques I have learned but now my list has changed. As soon as I find a few recipes that are keepers I plan on using Sundays to cook meals and lunches to freeze. I know in the long run I will be thankful for this. I never realized how many items we were ingesting on a regular basis that had additives just to make it look more appealing or to enhance the flavor. Recently I was able to go shopping for the week and still stay with in my budget. I was very glad for that. I am learning that there is more to being a frugal shopper than just couponing. I plan on continuing to build my stockpile of household goods to keep that expense down and free up money for other items. I am trying to keep my children as involved as possible with menu planning and cooking. I am hoping the more they are involved the more likely they will be to eat the foods prepared (although this hasn’t proven to be true yet). I look forward to the health benefits this will have not only for my son but also for the whole family. We agreed as a family that it wouldn’t be fair to let him do this alone. I have never grown anything, but have been considering attempting growing a garden as this would not only provide food, but planting a garden is another opportunity to get my children involved. I truly think that we will be able to grow as a family through this.
Each week I feature a different shopper’s story. Centsable Savings Stories are the stories of people just like you who are working toward reducing their budgets, bargain hunting, living a more frugal lifestyle and constantly learning along the way. If you are interested in sharing your family’s successes and struggles, please contact me at centsable.katherine[at]gmail [dot]com. Bloggers and non-bloggers are both welcome to participate. Click here to read the stories of shoppers featured in the past.
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