Coupons....

A lot of times I get asked how we do it. "How do we manage four small children while working and being involved in church?" "How do we afford to keep food on the table in today's economy?" And many others....

The answer to the first one is easy - I can only do it with God's help. He gives me strength and wisdom. I also have a great husband too that helps out a lot. It makes a HUGE difference if you are or are not on the same page as your spouse. I have to say that we make a pretty good team, and we of course have LOTS of love to give to our four blessings!

The second one isn't as easy. I have to admit that there's times where I wish we had more money to spend on food, clothes, etc. But having the "stuff" isn't as important as raising my kids God's way. We've sacrificed in order for me to be able to stay home part-time. A sacrifice that has been well worth it. We've also had to rearrange our thinking about buying.

Our society yells at you "Buy now, pay later!" and "even if you can't really afford it, it's okay - buy it anyhow!" It's hard to combat that. One way we try to save money is at the grocery store. We generally try to go to Costco once a month to do our shopping. This means saving $400-$500 for groceries. Although it's a lot to spend at one time, it is also not a lot considering we are a family of six and that's a month's worth of groceries.

There are a lot of times though that saving that for the month is hard. Especially when your husband is paid commission only. So sometimes we also shop at Kroger. This is where coupons really come in handy. It is easy to spend $200 plus dollars at the grocery store each week when not buying in bulk. This can add up quickly, so coupons are a must. I never used to clip coupons because I thought the savings weren't all that great and worth my time looking and cutting. BUT.....

Last night, I saw a TLC show called "Extreme Couponing" and it showed four women who spent $600 plus dollars buying groceries, but with the use of coupons, only paid $10 or less. One woman paid just over $2.00! Amazing!! So I've tried to take this as a challenge....Let's see how much I can save!