Photo Curtesy of Carla Blankenship Photography!
*Me being silly at my parents 50th wedding anniversary where I torn a muscle in my leg. Now, I am on bed rest from getting a blood clot in my leg! But, life is good. I have wonderful family who loves and cares for me. 
My Story
Everyone has a special story. My story isn’t much different than the many stories out there where people are hit with hard times and they have to learn a new way of living. I guess that is what you can say happened to us. Hard times hit. My husband, Jeff, owned a Civil Engineering Business. When the housing market tanked, so did our business. He hung on as long as he could, but eventually, we lost our business, our sole source of income, and his car.
The job hunt started. He applied for over a hundred jobs I know, but no one wanted to hire someone who was over qualified for some jobs and under qualified for others. Do you know how hard it is to start all over in your forties?
As time went on, it was getting harder and harder for me to put food on the table. We had help from family members and our church just when we needed it, but our debt started to grow with a second mortgage on the house and a credit card. I will be honest. It’s been really hard to see how these times put us into debt when all we had before the tanking of the market was our mortgage! No credit cards! No second mortgage. Nothing but our mortgage. What we have learned it that we had not planned well for a rainy day. Of course, we didn’t expect that rainy day to last so long!
My friend, Lisa, came along and encouraged me to start couponing. I was resistant at first because I just didn’t feel that I had the time and I just didn’t believe that I could do better shopping at PUBLIX and Kroger with coupons than I was shopping off brands at WalMart. I’m so glad she didn’t give up on me! One Sunday, Lisa handed me a book by Teri Gault, Shop Smart, Save More. I agreed to read it and it changed my perspective on couponing. My vision of couponing was what I remembered the few times my mom would use coupons. You clipped, put it in a tiny coupon binder and used that $.35 or $.50 coupon and felt pretty good about saving $.35 or $.50! This was a whole new game! At that time, I joined TheGroceryGame.com and started to follow Teri’s plan to save at Kroger and Publix. I was shocked when I started getting things FREE! It was so exciting!
My first big deal! Yes, I won’t ever forget my first big deal. While I was learning, I joined a coupon train with Lisa and a few other friends. One day, when I had the train at my home, I noticed everyone had put these $2/1 Gillette Body Wash coupons in the train. Obviously, nobody wanted them. So, I decided to snatch them up and put them in my binder. Well, my next trip to Target, I happened to notice that these Gillette Body Washes were on mark down to $2! I walked all around the pharmacy area and found every $2 Gillette Body Wash that I could find and pulled out my ten $2 off coupons! Score! I was so excited to go home and show my boys what I had gotten FREE! Well, I was hooked! There was no stopping me after that!
I soon noticed that I could get the same information and more online as I was getting from paying to be a part of the GroceryGame.com. Now, let me say that I am truly grateful that I did the GroceryGame for my first few months of couponing and Teri Gault has an incredible site. Yet, I found that with times being so tight, that I didn’t want to pay for a service that I would easily get for myself by searching online. So, I ventured out on my own and found some great sites where I learned how to maximize my savings even more and learned how to get some GREAT freebies. Well, I love getting freebies, so I started to share with my family and friends what I was getting free. Finally, they convinced me to start my own website. So, here you have it. Shopping Tips and Tricks was born.
As I write this, I want to first thank God for the hard times. Yes, even though sometimes it was hard, really hard, I know that He had a purpose and plan in allowing our family to go through such a painful experience. For one, I would not have learned how to be frugal and wise with our money and I would not have started a blog and gotten to meet and be a part of so many lives. Second, I am thankful for my husband. Though we have gone through some really tough times, he has kept working and trying and not giving up. He is a good husband and daddy. Third, I am so blessed to be the mother of four wonderful children. They have walked through this trial with us and it’s not easy for them either, but they have been wonderful throughout this whole process. Finally, our family and friends may this journey so much easier. Having their love and support is beyond measure and I thank God for each and every one of them.
I don’t know your story, but I hope that my story and site can be a help to you as you may be facing some of the same challenges that we have faced. Know that I do know and understand what it is like to struggle day to day with unemployment or low income and that I am here for each and every one of you. My heart is to be a blessing and a help as you walk through your journey.
Now, to share what I have learned.
*Coming soon…Shopping Tips And Tricks Handbook! So excited! 
