Guest Post: Nicole’s Money-Saving Story

PHOTO: Nicole’s shopping trip this week: 8 large boxes of cereal, 6 Warm Delights, 4 bags Chex Mix, 4 Green Giant Vegetables, 2 half gallons orange juice, 1 gallon milk,  1 gallon water. Grand Total??? Around $9.00.

Have you ever thought about how many groceries you can get for the price of your Venti Non-Fat Vanilla Latte that you order from a local beanery?  It never crossed my mind until a few weeks ago when I started using Macomb Money Saver's coupon matchups!  Walking out of Meijer with 4 bags of groceries in one hand and my Latte in the other hand, IT HIT ME!  Wow, these two things cost me almost the same amount of money!  Amazing!

I dove into this couponing concept about a month ago, January 1st.  Like most people do in the New Year, my husband and I sat down to look at our monthly bills and tried to figure out where we could cut some costs.  It seemed as if all of our bills were non-negotiables - bills with a fixed cost. He then showed me what we were spending on groceries each month.  I was surprised, appalled, disgusted, and a bit embarrassed.  I did most of the shopping for our family and when I needed something I would run to the store, with debit card in hand, and buy, and swipe, and be done.  This shopping habit cost my family a lot of money!  My mom discovered MMS and tried to convince me to coupon, but I had a lot of excuses: "I'm too busy!
I don't have the time!  I don't want to run from store-to-store."  She began saving money and after looking at our budget the only bill I could cut costs from was groceries.

Jolyn has made this transition so easy for me!  I literally changed my philosophy of shopping overnight with her support and guidance!  I now will only buy things on sale that I have several coupons for.  I follow the coupon matchups weekly and stock up on the good deals.  I also don't sway away from my "list," which was another bad habit that I had.   My husband has been keeping track of our savings and we are currently saving 70%!  I now have MORE food and MORE money!

Macomb Money Savers not only saved me money, but saved me time and saved me from arguing about money every month with my husband. My house is much calmer, plus we can afford some things now that we couldn't before and it is so refreshing! What a wonderful, positive way to start a new year!  Thank you MMS!!!

Nicole is a mother of two children and works as a part-time first grade teacher. Thanks for sharing, Nicole!