About Me

Hi there!

In case you want to know a little about me...

The basics are:

I am a wife to an amazing husband who works hard to provide for our family.

I am a mom to 3 beautiful children, including 2 biological daughters and 1 adopted son.


And finally, and most importantly, I am follower of Christ and child of the One true God. I believe that everything we have belongs to the LORD, including our money. God calls us to be good stewards of what He has given us, including his monetary provision.

I learned about the amazing money-saving world of coupons in late 2008 and began this blog simply because I couldn't keep it to myself! As the author of CouponSavingGame.com, I strive to post pertinent information to help you save. I started this website as a ministry and have seen it grow. It's fun to hear people say how much they've learned and saved through the Coupon Saving Game!

I hope you find this site to help you save and learn to be a better steward of God's money - one coupon at a time!

I've been tagged... So why not?!

I have been tagged by Southern Savers to share seven things about myself. I'm not sure how many blogs I'll send this on to, but here's some info about myself... in case you were wondering...

These are the rules for tagging…
1) Link back to the person who tagged you and share the rules on your blog
2) Share 7 facts about yourself
3) Tag seven people and list their links in your post
4) Tell those 7 people by commenting on their blog!

1. I am a recent coupon gamer and started all this back in August. It can be highly addictive when you start seeing the savings and the bills decreasing.
2. I met my wonderful husband in college and after some hardship in having children, God blessed us with 2 biological daughters and 1 adopted son. We are truly blessed!!
3. I have another blog called The Organized Homemaker, but really, I'm not that organized... I'm attempting a lifestyle of organization, but it's hard when you have 3 young children and homeschool.
4. I was raised in Michigan for the first 15 years of my life, and have now lived in sunny Florida for 15 years. (Yes, I'm 30 years old.) I love it here! We are part of a wonderful church family and have been blessed with amazing friends.
5. My favorite time of the year is Fall, but I do miss the changing of colors in Michigan. Florida gets next to nothing...
6. I love to sing praises to my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ!!
   
7. I'm trying to think of one more tidbit of information about myself... I asked my oldest daughter and she said, "You love your children!" I like that tidbit. :)

Instead of tagging, I'll give you the opportunity to let me know if you'd like to be tagged and share information about yourself on your blog. Leave me a comment and I'll add the first 7 people who do!

It's Fun to be Frugal!!

Though you may think it's a hassle to live a frugal lifestyle, I actually think it's fun to be frugal! Granted, there are times when it can be a challenge to stay on a budget, but overall, the results of frugality far outweigh the challenges.

I love to see how God can work through our finances. My husband and I have developed a new way of looking at finances through saving. God has richly blessed our family in more ways than one ever since we took the challenge to live on less. Whether we're saving for that next car, a family vacation, or just want to be able to give more back to the Lord, it's exciting to see how it can add up.

With times changing and more people looking for ways to cut back on costs, it can sometimes become a necessity to live a more frugal lifestyle. Either that, or we go into debt! I choose to be frugal. If you don't look at it as a burden, but rather a challenge, it can be fun to find those great deals (whether it's using coupons or simply cutting out some expenses in our lives).

When we learn to live on less, we tend to not miss the things that we had. Sometimes those "things" are more of a burden. An illustration in the book I'm reading (The Treasure Principle) shows an example of this. The writer says,

"Let's say I get a television for free. Now what? I hook up the antenna or subscribe to a cable service. I buy a new VCR or DVD player. I rent movies. I get surround-sound speakers. I buy a recliner so I can watch my programs in comfort. This all costs money. But it also takes large amounts of time, energy, and attention.
. . . So what's the true cost of my "free" television?"

Saved an Additional $110 in September!!

The savings keep coming! I'm so excited to share and hopefully encourage all of you new coupon gamers out there that the savings will come. I absolutely believe that it is a process that does not happen overnight. We had been paying over $600/month on groceries and now are at $320/month for our family of five.

In August we saved over $250 in our groceries and toiletries spending. This month we saved an additional $110 making it a savings of $360 more than what we were spending before coupons. On top of that, our debt is decreasing substantially. We still have a little ways to go, but pray and believe that God will bring us to the goal of being debt-free again. (Yes, we were debt-free at one point...)

For those of you who don't know me real well, I'll just share a little bit about a blessing in my life... My husband and I have 2 beautiful biological daughters and adopted our beautiful son from Guatemala 1 1/2 years ago. God has blessed us with 3 amazing children, and I can't imagine my life without them.

Due to the expenses of adopting internationally, and us starting out our adoption process with merely $3,000 in our savings account, God showed us his complete provision to bring in over $34,000 (I tear up just thinking about it...) in order to bring our son home. We scrounged for every penny during the journey to bring him home, never went out to eat, spent minimally on gifts, and held many garage sales to help save money. Of course, throughout our adoption all extra money went toward our adoption expenses, which didn't leave any extra for non-scheduled expenses.

Well, in the midst of adopting we ended up needing a new air conditioner, termite control, and some car repairs. This all ended up going on the credit card. So, here we are over a year later trying to pay it off. And once again God is providing through The Coupon Game.

Everything we have belongs to Him. If we lose all that we have, let it be for His sake. As Randy Alcorn states in his book, The Treasure Principle, "God owns everything. I'm His money manager."

This is the start of something Great!

Hey ya'll! I have been inspired to start my own blog to help others save money on groceries, clothes, and everyday items. I hope that you will join me in the journey to saving and becoming a better steward of the money God has lent us.

I have many friends online who blog about their finds, coupon hunts, and deals and will regularly send you to their blogs for more information. My hope is that through my blog, you will have access to almost every possible deal out there!

Come along with me!