My Secret Life

It has recently come to my attention that my dear faithful blog readers have been left in the dark about one huge area of my life. I've never really blogged about it on this blog, but I do have another entire blog that is dedicated to this hobby/addiction of mine.

I am an extreme couponer!! And I have been for two years!!

I rarely buy anything without a coupon.

I get excited about the weekend newspaper and I don't even read any of the news in it, I just love the coupons and sales flyers.

When I go grocery shopping I usually head to more than one store and carry around my enormous coupon binder.

I lost my coupon binder one time and I literally cried about it for days.

I find paying full price for something downright unnecessary and depressing.

I recently bought 8 bags of dog food and I don't even have a dog, but they were FREE and I can't hardly resist a good deal (I'm giving them to my sister's enormous dog)!

It is not unusual at all for me to have 30 boxes of cereal in my pantry. I wait until I can get them for FREE, then I stock up and won't buy cereal again until it's FREE.

Here's one of my grocery store receipts from January! Notice the part where it says "Your Total Savings": 99%!!! I saved $30.14 and paid $0.52!!! And that receipt was for Perdue chicken!!!

Here's another fun deal! That's 15 boxes of brand name cereal and I got it all for FREE!!

Deals aren't always that good, but most of the time they're close to it!

I can honestly say that the only way we can afford to live in the house we live in is because I'm a coupon shopper. I consider it my part-time job and for me it makes the chore of grocery shopping fun!!

I have a local friend named Millicent and she is the ultimate couponing guru and my frugal kindred spirit! Together we write the "Deal"ightful Savings Blog! We used to spend so much time emailing each other back and forth about various deals and finally we decided to just blog about it. That was a year and a half ago and today the blog has become a great couponing source for our local friends. We do mainly post local deals, so it may not be super helpful to some of you that don't live near me. But Millicent and I do have other favorite deal blogs like: Hip2Save and Money Saving Mom!!! Millicent and I also teach local couponing classes. It has been such a blessing to us and to lots of people in the community. When we first started teaching the class we had about 12 people come. Our last class in January had over 60 people in attendance (what does that say about the economy??) We have found that sharing the "how to's" of couponing has become a ministry for us as we've been able to help families get control of their spending during economically tough times.

If you're interested in learning more about couponing, check out THIS LINK!!

Couponing can be a little overwhelming and confusing at first, but seriously...if I can do it...you can do it!!!

Let me know if you have any questions about getting started with coupons. I would love to help. There are so many resources out there that can make it so easy. I could point you in the right direction so you can start saving money at the stores where you already shop!

So that's my big secret. Well, actually I wasn't really trying to keep it a secret. My "deal" blog definitely reveals where I live and I've sort of tried to keep that separate from my personal blog just for safety reasons. So that's why I haven't linked the two blogs before and that's why I probably won't be mentioning my "other" blog again anytime soon.

And if you want a baby update...there isn't one. Boohoo...contractions on and off for days now, but apparently this little guy just wants to keep us in suspense awhile longer. I was having a little pity party about how miserable I felt this weekend, but I think I'm over it now and ready to face a new week. Only four more days with my two big kids. Thursday is the big day and I really beseech your prayers for a healthy delivery of this baby boy. I can't wait to share him with you :)