Behind the Scenes: Why I Coupon & Budget

In January 2010 I began a new adventure in life: motherhood. My handsome Levi was born January 13th, and my life has never been the same since! As my husband and I began the greatest learning season in our life (and we both have BA's!), we wouldn't trade it for the world. We learn so much about God, about ourselves, and about life in general, from a little person who can't even talk coherently yet (but his faces tell lots of stories!).

Before "motherhood", my husband and I lived on a basic monthly cash budget (we took Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" early on in our marriage and would recommend it to everyone). This helped us truly know where our dollars were going every month, and for me personally, it took the stress out of shopping, because I knew I could purchase something if I had the cash for it (and it also made me think twice before handing over the cash!). Using cash definitely helps keep a person accountable! My husband works full-time, and I worked part-time (before Levi).

After having a baby, I became a full-time stay-at-home mom. I love it, but within months we definitely had to start revising our budget and adjusting it as needed. I learned some new creativity when it comes to shopping clothing, food, and other household supplies! (and I'm still learning).

In July 2010, I started this crazy fun adventure of "Couponing & Deals". I can't believe how doing some basic things have radically changed our household finances, and coupons/deals even enabled us to do some fun things together as a "family" that we didn't have room in the budget for before.

There are so many other blogs on deals, freebies, and coupons out there. I follow several on a daily basis. But I'm also learning things personally that help out. Several months ago I started this blog to share with friends/local people, to save myself time on the phone and in person sharing about a deal. :-) I had the goal of blogging more intentionally starting in January after several other commitments I had made were completed.

Now it's January, so the fun begins! Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to share some of the small things that have saved us big, and some of the surprises that I didn't think were actually possible (like earning free gift cards through Swagbucks or ShopItToMe). If you already know all this stuff, bear with me. If you are at the beginning of this journey, or have a friend who is, then I hope some of this helps (feel free to pass this info on to your friends!)

I will be posting here again soon!