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This week Beeb at Super Coupon Girl is here to share her story
My Family: Our household consists of myself and my boyfriend of six years, Jai. None of my extended family are in the area – they live all over the world – but most of his family live locally, which is nice.
Struggles: My grocery budget used to be a monkey on my back. I’ve always been an extremely frugal person, and I would shop the sales and buy the least expensive items I could find. But despite my best efforts, I was still shelling out a fortune every month. I didn’t want to live off Cup-O-Noodles and Spam, but I hated how much it would cost me just to buy basic pantry staples and fresh produce. Adding to this problem was the fact that I live in a small town with very few stores, so prices are high are a result. I wished that I could lower my expenses, but I thought I had no choice.
I didn’t give much thought to coupons. Like most people, I assumed that the most you’d save with coupons would be a few cents. As overwhelmed as I was with work, remodeling my house, and other commitments, I didn’t even want to think about keeping track of coupons.
This all changed at the beginning of this year, when I had some minor health problems that forced me to slow down temporarily. I missed some work in February, and as I recuperated, I spent a lot of time surfing the web. Somehow, I stumbled upon hotcouponworld.com, and my life would never be the same. I read posts from members talking about the $50 worth of groceries that they snagged for $5, and I realized that there was definitely something to this! It also appealed to my interests, and I really enjoyed learning about coupons and figuring out how to use them. And since I had some downtime as a result of getting sick, I actually had time to learn about it in depth, instead of dismissing it.
It was a fun challenge, and I started doing it just as a hobby. Some people watch a movie or play video games to relax; I would surf coupon sites after work. It was addicting, and I quickly began to save an astonishing amount of money. I couldn’t believe it! These items that I had previously spent a fortune on were now free or cheap – even produce. My little hobby turned out to be hugely profitable, and I quickly saw that I couldn’t afford not to spend time on it, even with a hectic schedule. I did the math, and I figured that if half an hour spent on coupons could save $50 that I would have otherwise spent, then it was a very profitable use of my time.
Where Are We Now: I’m still astounded by how much I have saved by using coupons. This time last year, I would have dropped $600 on groceries for the month without even blinking. In November, my grand total for the month was $63 – that’s for both food and household items. I did even better the previous two months; my grand total for September was $11.80! And what’s surprising to me is that we actually have a higher standard of living now than we did when we were spending hundreds. As I once remarked to Jai, “I never had a freezer full of steak before coupons.” We eat well and we have a full pantry, not to mention a stockpile of cleaning supplies and personal items.
What Next: I am excited to be approaching my one year anniversary in the wonderful world of coupons! My goal for 2009 is to stockpile, stockpile, stockpile. I’ve gotten a great start stockpiling this year, and next year I want to stuff my pantry full! I also want to score more deals on food and household items to share with the local food bank. I look forward to discovering new opportunities to save, and I can’t wait to see where coupons take me next. Thank you to all of the great coupon resources, like BeCentsAble, that share information and make this all possible!
Beeb
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loving your post