Why I started couponing!

So I figured if I am going to post about deals I should first start off with WHY I started couponing! The first time I ever started using coupons regularly was three years ago with the birth of my son Dylan.  I was a first time single mom who had just given birth via c-section and was having a rough time financially as well as medically.  I was having a tough time healing properly from my c-section and was told I would be out of work (unpaid) for three months!  Never having imagined that I would not get paid for that long I knew I didn't have enough money saved up to last us through those three months.  So one day I started looking for different coupon websites and was amazed at the coupons you could print online.  I never had any big 80-90% savings but I was very pleased with the fact I was saving money! I never printed coupons for items I didn't buy and I never stocked up(back then anyways!) when things went on sale.  My small amount of couponing kept food in our stomachs and my bills paid for those months when I wasn't working. (thankfully I lived rent free or else I am not sure this would have happened!) 

Now for the last few years I can say I haven't been a religious coupon user. A few here, a few there never realizing just how much money I could have saved but still happy with the small savings I was having!  Then at the beginning of this year I was out of work due to an illness and we were once again forced to live within tighter means for awhile. This time we at least weren't going it alone.  We had my amazing boyfriend to help us through it all.  This is when I started really getting in to couponing.  I needed to find a way to keep us afloat on a reduced amount of income.  The more research I did the more I realized JUST how much we could save!! I was blown away.  My few dollars here and a few dollars there turned into $15-20 here and now sometimes its $30-40! 

Now fast forward to April 2011 when the coupon fun really started!!!! My boyfriend asked me to marry him and I was faced with the question how the heck are we going to pay for this wedding?!?!  My parents can only afford to help us a little so we were looking at paying for most of it ourselves.  I thought well I guess I need to beef up my couponing skills in order to save us the most money possible!  And here we are now I have turned into an official coupon LOVER! 

I started getting the Sunday paper delivered, and I even got a discount on that!!  I can scan through a store ad and recognize what I have coupons for and what the really good deals are!  I use a few wonderful couponing sites that I scan through after I have made my list to see if there is any other deal I just can't live without. I can also spot a coupon in a supermarket from a mile away, I am just in love with coupons and the money you can save with them!!