Guest Post: A Recent Coupon Convert

The following is a guest post from bloggy pal Dwan, aka MommaDJane.  As my loyal readers know, I love teaching newbies about the power of coupons. I think you will enjoy the beginning of her journey:

When Alyssa announced she was looking for guest bloggers to post while she was away at BlogHer, I jumped on the chance. Well first, I must say I shed a few tears over the fact I couldn’t fly with her to Chicago and hold her hand through her very first conference. During the BlissDom ’09 conference she followed along with updates via twitter from home since she was too far along pregnant with baby Colin to travel. It was then we realized we weren’t far from each other. Funny how you can tweet with someone and only live twenty minutes away yet not realize it.

I got the chance to meet Alyssa IRL quickly during the Battle The Bug Exhibit at the Fort Worth Zoo. Although this meetup wasn’t very personal we have shared many more chats via skype. I have to say I’ve sure learned a lot from this woman. One of the best nights was the DFW Chix meetup at the Melting Pot. I’m sure you read Alyssa’s review of the Melting Pot and how wonderful it was. Well let me tell you… not only was the food amazing and the company great, the conversation was even better. Most of the women at dinner are frugal bloggers, which I am not.

Picture this: about 8 couponers sitting at a table chatting; topic of coupons, stores they shop at, cashiers and their reactions to couponers, which coupons to use first… My head was spinning and the conversation was a little foggy to say the least. Then one of the women says something about receiving a penny back from her purchase that she paid with using a coupon ONLY. That peaked my attention.

Next I hear stories of all the FREE stuff they get and how they are able to donate to different shelters by using coupons and how they can use a $2 off coupon for an item that is less than $2 and actually get a credit towards something else! Okay at this point I was still very confused but I was also very interested. I love free stuff, one reason I hold giveaways on my blog. It’s exciting!

So needless to say, since that night was overwhelmingly full of information, I have taken it upon myself to ask many questions. Last Sunday was my first time to get two newspapers worth of coupons. My oldest daughter and I have now cut all the coupons and even organized them into different envelopes for groceries, misc., restaurants and pets. I have begun to try and actually pay attention to all the great coupon matchup posts from the local coupon bloggers. What’s next? Well I’m not sure but I do know that this is the beginning of me learning a new way to live. I’m proud to say I’ve got the coupons and now I’m ready to learn to use them.

My goal: as a single mother of three I need to save as much money as possible, get as many free products that coupons will allow and donate any extra left over that I am blessed with to Cook Children’s Hospital in return for the donations we received when my daughter was hospitalized.

I plan to update everyone about my learning process and becoming more frugal. I can’t wait for my first trip shopping using lots of coupons and being able to say I saved $XX amount today! Maybe even Alyssa will let me guest post again to tell you my progress!

MommaDJane from MommaDJane {Climbing the Ladder to Success: One Broken Step at a Time}