I will start by explaining WHY I started to use coupons. I consider myself to be a person who doesn't like to waste money for nothing. I always look for deals, specials or coupons whenever possible. But over the years, with jobs and two kids, I didn't find the time to do this as often as I should have. All changed not too long ago. My husband decided to follow his dream of opening a video store in a time when video stores were going downhill with all this new technology and cheap DVD & Blu-Ray discs at any store. It wouldn't have been so bad if he had had the time and money to invest in his business, but he did not. Everything (including the business) was bought on credit. On top of that, I was 6 months pregnant with number 2 and had pregnancy-related health issues. NOT the best time to start up a business, but it was his dream. So we went along with it.
Less than a year into it, he realized it wasn't making enough money. He decided to work more at the store. A few months later, he realized how bad things were getting. The store was eating all the money we were making (which wasn't much since I was only working 3 days a week). He then started working at the store about 40hrs a week on top of his regular job. I had become a single mother to two boys and had to take care of the house, the kids and still go to work and make everything work somehow! I was exhausted, he was killing himself and the kids missed their father. At this same time, on the anniversary of my father's death, I learnt my mother had uterine cancer. For months I insisted she had something wrong, but doctors would say it was nothing. But it was. I was now faced with loosing my only parent left. This was not an option. So because of my mother and my husband's failing store, we decided to move and make a full apartment suite in the basement for my mother. We found a great neighborhood and built a new house. It was really nice!
In the mean time, the store was lost. We couldn't keep making it live. It was costing us thousands of dollars a month just to keep afloat. It couldn't continue. It was for sale, but with bad numbers and no profit, it was a loss. We sold what we could for peanuts and just absorbs then debt into our new mortgage. At this point, our credit was shot too. We just had too much debt. So we moved with hardly no money to survive. But we were determined to make it work!
In the mean time, the store was lost. We couldn't keep making it live. It was costing us thousands of dollars a month just to keep afloat. It couldn't continue. It was for sale, but with bad numbers and no profit, it was a loss. We sold what we could for peanuts and just absorbs then debt into our new mortgage. At this point, our credit was shot too. We just had too much debt. So we moved with hardly no money to survive. But we were determined to make it work!
So we moved, got stuff done, under estimated how much it would cost to make the house and land "livable" with 2 young kids (like a fence, grass and a deck for the 6' high patio door!) So I had to start working more hours, cutting into my family time. But what had to be done had to be done!
I know I'm blabbing on about how I got here, but I must explain for you to understand and to clear everything up in my head (to explain it to myself I guess!)
I know I'm blabbing on about how I got here, but I must explain for you to understand and to clear everything up in my head (to explain it to myself I guess!)
I will continue... I worked as much as I could as a supply teacher since I have to decide 6 months before time if I want to work full time or not and 6 months earlier, we seemed to be in OK shape. But even with that, we weren't making it. The work was not steady enough and we had a lot of debt to repay. At the end of the month, after making all payments, we couldn't live. So we had to pay for gas with our credit cards and buy food with the line of credit. Things were not getting paid off. Even our house taxes were late! We were in BAD shape. We cut everywhere we could, but things just added up too fast. We were sinking. Then winter came, and a 2-week break from school. Which I usually love, but not this year. It meant no supply teaching and no extra pay. My regular little 3-day pay would be nothing. This year, the kids got less than 10$ worth of gifts for Christmas and my husband & I got each other nothing for the second year in a row. We just couldn't afford it.
By January, we couldn't afford groceries. I would depend on people to bring us leftover or for us to use what we could from our freezer or cupboards. It was not ideal at all. We were living on meal plans, but barely making it. Even with skipping a bunch of payments (most lenders let you skip a payment a year if you ask them), we weren't making it! So my point was to work as much as I could while school was still on and think of something to make us live through the summer months (while I was off). I had a small sewing business on the side, but only making a big max of 10$/month (you don't go far with that these days!)
And then COUPONING came into the picture!
I had heard people talk about a show called Extreme Couponing. I hadn't seen it before, so I decided to watch it. It was VERY interesting! My husband & I were discussing how it would be great to be able to do this in Canada, but that it wasn't possible. But then I stumbled upon a site on Internet (Mrs. January) that explains how to extreme coupon in Canada! So I became addicted!
At the moment, I think our grocery bill hangs around the 500$ mark for a month for 4 people who eat a lot. That's great in my opinion! The first thing I started doing was price matching (they do this at Walmart and Maxi where I live - you bring in competitors' flyers and coupons and they will match them). Then, the coupons. I will not go into details at the moment, but I will leave you with this:
We went to Walmart, bought 30$ worth of food and products and they GAVE us 1,50$ back!!! Now that's impressive!
What we got...
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