This past May, with the birth of my second child, I officially became a full-time parent. I tried referring to myself as the CEO of the family, but then my husband claimed he was on the Board of Directors and could have me replaced, which took all the fun out of telling him what to do. Anyway, the advent of my new position brought with it many changes for our family, mostly financial. It wouldn’t have worked from the very beginning if we didn’t have a game plan starting a year before. That was when, knowing our goal was for me to stay home, we started putting away half of each of my paychecks. The other half went to daycare for our firstborn as I continued to work. We reasoned that not only would we save up a nice chunk of money over the course of the year but we’d be forced to live off of his salary alone. Well we did it. It was hard, and there were a few months we came up a bit short, but we proved that we could survive on one income.

It was those few times of being over our budget that I started to think about where our family could save some money. I read a book called “1/2 Price Living: Secrets to Living Well on One Income,” by Ellie Kay. The chapter on cutting your food bill in half caught my attention, not because I thought the ideas were so fabulous, but because I was incredulous. How can you get $30 worth of groceries for $1.80 using coupons? I had no idea that there are methods you can use to grocery shop (and shop at drug stores) that can not only help you spend less each week but also get some things for free. After one month of couponing I’m hooked. This blog is going to be a way for me to track savings, report great deals, teach others as I learn and try out some new ways of making a little extra money on the side.