About Me

In a nut shell...I am 34 years old, have two kids under 7, and run a daycare.

For years I was a Chef. I have cooked for almost every kind of establishment (besides a prison, lol) from small bakeries to golf courses, Hospitals & Resorts. It really in a way, made me an organized shopper. Doing many inventories, menu planning, sorting through supplier invoices, comparison shopping with other companies...was all great preparation for my new couponing life.

When we decided to have kids...everything changed.

It was either go back to work after mat. leave, and then 75% of my pay cheques would go to some other woman looking after my kids, another chunk would go towards transportation, meals on the go...then the rest went to the tax man....all the while...my house would be a disaster, we were all exhausted all the time, my kids were angry with me cause I wasn't there for them. WHY would I do that!?!?!?! If I had a gov't job to go back to or something along those lines where I would loose my pension/years of seniority...that would be a different story all together.

The "Chef" life was no longer a great idea. The long hours, very early mornings and very late nights...working weekends & holidays, just didn't fit into our new life raising children. I chose to stay at home instead.

So! I am a stay at home mom, who runs a RLNR (Registered, Licence Not Required) Child Care..and I coupon to stretch a buck. My kids know what a thrift shop is,  and what a coupon is. We are not poor, but frugal. I cannot bring myself to go out and spend a lot of money on children's clothes and such, when the second hand clothing that we find has barely been worn (sometimes still has tags on it!) and I would pay $0.50 for an outfit instead of $30 or $40. Just makes sense to me. Would rather spend that money on things like outings to the Zoo and such.

Until a few months ago, coupons were just like any other junk mail. Hardly worth the effort to clip and save them....and hopefully remember to bring the darn thing when I went shopping next. It was much more likely that the coupon that I saved got pinned to the cork board in my kitchen, or shoved in a bucket or drawer and only looked at again when it had already expired.   Things are different now let me tell ya. When I realized how many coupons were actually out there, and that I could get things for next to nothing or for Free,  I was hooked! My monthly groceries have gone from $1100-$1300 a month to more like $750-$900 a month. And the more I pay attention, the more I save. Why in the world would I choose to hand over an extra $100 for my groceries when I don't have to?? If you had a choice, would you choose to pay $4 for your deodorant, or pay $0.49 for the exact same thing? ....Thought so.

Many people ask me how much time I spend doing this couponing thing. Well, the first two weeks of it was like a full time job and then some. I found all the sites, connections, printing coupons, researching store policy's. I stayed up many nights till 1am sometimes just googling coupon topics. After figuring everything out, it honestly could take maybe 5 min a day, then an hour of prep before going shopping. But I don't do that, lol. I am totally and completely addicted to it. Every opportunity I get is spent talking about, searching for, or blogging about coupons, lol. It is my life, and I love it. The pure rush of saving so much money at the grocery till is like winning at bingo. And I win every day.....saving money is a priority, not a hobby.

Some say that they just don't have the time to coupon, but will spend hours every night watching TV, facebooking, or playing games on the computer when the children are sleeping. They do have the time, they just choose not to.

Couponing is like an insurance policy, if we ever get laid off from our jobs, we won't ever have to stress about having enough food on the table. That in its self is a great thing.