Aww, Look At The Baby! Pt. 3

And we shall call this post in the series "the shopping trip that changed my life."

In case you missed them, you should absolutely and most definitely check out the prior posts in this money-saving series:

Part 1 - The Beginning
Part 2 - This One's For The Haters

Anyways, to follow up on Part 2, I told you that there were people who were questioning the trip that changed my life, so I wanted to clear up that little situation.  The trip did in fact happen.  How can I prove it?  Check out the pictures, below, and let your mind be blown.  (Please excuse the cell phone quality - I had no idea I'd be so awed at the conclusion of this trip or I would have taken my camera!)

My business partner, L, being taught about the binder by the artist formerly known as the Coupon Queeny, Tanya - Divine Deal Diva!

Cart 1 in progress

Cart 2 in progress

Nervously waiting in line at my local Kroger - how will we do?!?!

Before coupons (but after Kroger Plus Card savings - we scanned it before we started! BOO!)

After coupons!  WOW!  $210.48 in coupon savings alone!!!

With our fabulous cashier and our hella long receipt! WHAT A RUSH!

So, as you can see, the shopping trip with the DIVINE DEAL DIVA, Tanya, actually went down - and it went down in MY city!  I was there. I pushed Cart #2, thank you very much!  And this was the shopping trip that changed my life - because it put into action what Grandma Chicken Wing had been telling me for years.  Coupons are money and when times are hard financially, which they are for me right now, I have to do what I can to help my money go further.  As I said in the post prior to this one in the series - my couponing isn't about you.  It isn't my goal to make your life harder - it's to make mine better, and sometimes, I think it's okay to put yourself first if you are constantly courteous to others.

So, I hope that each of you who wants to try to start saving money enjoyed this trip through my local Kroger, and I hope that you found motivation - it CAN be done.  I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying that, for me, it's worth it.

Next post in the series?  I shall call it - the method to my madness!

Until next time,

Awww, Look At The Baby! Pt. 2 - This One's For The Haters

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I have been so surprised by the amount of questions I've gotten regarding the first post in my series about coolpon-ing (You thought I was going to give that up, didn't you?)!  You can find the post HERE if you missed it - and if you missed it, how dare you??! Just kidding!  The interest is definitely there, but I think that what's surprised me more than the interest were the haters that came out of the woodwork - the nonbelievers or downright angry folks, if you will. 

They have asked all sorts of questions that I didn't anticipate (and a few that I did), so I've decided that this post will be my rebuttal post.  Up first was the growing-in-popularity question:  Chicken Wing, are you going to become one of "those people?"

Cue the horrified face.

No, I am not going to become a glorified hoarder, and it's true that sometimes super extreme couponers make me angry.  I like to think of myself as a courteous coolpon-er.  I don't cut coolpons from 10+ papers so that I can swoop into your favorite store and steal every last item that you are looking for, just because it's on sale, and just because I can (insert evil laugh here).  I only buy the things that I need and I rarely EVER buy the last item.  The only way that happens is if other people buy all the items but one or two.  In my opinion, that's not my fault.

My primary goal is to only stockpile things I need/things I will use/things that will not go bad for forever.  For example, things I would love to create a stockpile of:  toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste, deodorant, soap/bodywash, dental floss, etc.  These are things that I need and that I use every.single.day, so it makes sense to buy these things when they are at the rock bottom prices so I don't have to make spontaneous trips to the store because I accidentally ran out.  I'm not coolpon-ing in order to donate to charity, I'm coolpon-ing to make my life more comfortable, people!

I'm satisfied with my answer that NO, I will never be featured on Extreme Couponing, but if TLC wants to give me my own show simply for being awesome, I'm down with becoming famous for being famous - it's kind of a big trend right now.  Am I right, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Kristin Cavalleri?

On to the next question/statement from the haters.  "Oh geez, remind me never to go grocery shopping with you.  I bet that takes forever."  You know something, yes.  Yes, coolpon-ing takes time.  It takes time to cut the coolpons out of the paper.  It takes time to organize them.  It takes time to read the weekly circulars and try to figure out what items I use are on sale and where to get the best deal. It takes time to actually DO the shopping.  And for gosh sakes, it might take me a LITTLE bit longer to check out. 

Again, I refer back to trying my best to be a courteous coolpon-er.  If there is someone in line behind me, I inform them that I have coolpons and give them the option to move.  If they have less than me, I offer them the option to go in front of me.  If I have a coolpon for an item that isn't my favorite, and I see that someone in line behind me or in front of me has it in their cart, I will give them a coolpon, thus saving a complete stranger money.  I know that not everyone out there has the same practices and that sucks, but there isn't anything I can do about them.  But hating on the "regular" coolpon-ers, which I am a part of - the group who just needs to save their family's hard-earned money as best they can - is not cool, yo!  We take the time and put forth all the effort to coolpon and thus we get the reward of saving some money. 

As far as I'm concerned, YOU CAN

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Finally, I've gotten the question from the haters of whether or not my account of my shopping trip with the Coupon Queeny is accurate.  For the answer to that, stay tuned to the next post in the series.

Until next time,

Aww, Look At The Baby! Pt. 1

Okay, I know you all are "awww-ing" in unison, and yes, that insanely adorable baby is none other than yours truly.  I was my Grandma and PaPa's little princess and the apple of my parents' eyes, for I was the first born child and the first born grandchild on my Mom's side of the family.  I also happened to be the first girl grandchild on my Dad's side of the family, but who's really keeping score of how awesome I am?

The subject of this post makes me revert back to those days in certain ways because when you're just a young-un as I was in the photo above, everything is a new experience and you have so much to learn about everything!  You're vulnerable and you need guidance and protection from harm.  So, what exactly are we talking about here that would send me back to baby-dom in all its terrifying glory?

COUPONING.  Yes, folks, I said it.  My name is Chicken Wing and I am a baby couponer.

The photo I chose for this post is actually quite fitting as I actually first learned of couponing from my maternal Grandma who was married to the wonderful man holding me up in that picture (my beloved PaPa).  For this post, we'll call her Grandma-the-Great.  If there is one constant that has always been associated with my Grandma in my life, it's that she is a lean, mean, couponing machine!  (And she can cook some amazing Southern staples, let me tell you - she is a Jedi in the kitchen).

Anywho, Grandma-the-Great has oft preached about the values of couponing.  "Chicken Wing, it's like they are giving you money to shop with," she would exclaim.  I oftentimes would scoff at her outbursts or would just brush them off with a nod and a, "You're right, Grandma."

Fast forward quite a bit more than a decade, and yours truly was a twenty-something trying to make it in this big ole world (fairly unsuccessfully if you're looking at the world through monetary-measuring glasses).  I was actually contacted by my part-time job boss while we were in the midst of planning one of our biggest events - the Women's Show!  She had been bogged down by a ton of tasks that were running over in time, and she would no longer be able to take our special celebrity guest of the show on her errands.  Who was this guest, you ask?

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The COUPON QUEENY, I answer!!!  Hello, people, she has received SO MUCH PRESS for her amazing couponing efforts!  Not buying what I'm selling you?  Check out her website here.

So, little-ole-me got to take famous-ole-her out shopping for hours and I quickly came to realize that I had found another couponing sensei to teach this little grasshoppa how to save money with coupons.  This was so awesome, I have changed the name of these little magic pieces of paper to cool-pons.  I'm sure this will catch on.  (When the terminology sweeps the nation, make sure you let people know that Chicken Wing started the revolution.)

We shopped at Kroger, Food Lion, and Dollar General, and what a day it was.  At Kroger, I believe we got $300 worth of groceries for $100. At Food Lion, we stocked up on free toilet paper.  At Dollar General, we got a handful of items, and the store ended up owing us so much money, we had to each buy a bottled soda and a candy bar, just so we could break even (apparently, you can't leave the store with them owing you money, and DG can't pay you overage in cash.  Overage, I learned, is when a store owes you money because you saved so much.  Wal-Mart will actually pay you cash!) Are you finding this to be a tall tale?

I know, right!  Source.

Check out the photographic evidence that this day of shopping did, in fact, happen.

Yes, this is my PT job boss, my biz partner, the Coupon Queeny, yours truly, & my three PT job colleagues holding the longest receipt ever - OURS!

Thus began my own personal cool-poning journey.  I'm not making any more money (thank you, Econo Me McSuckerson), so every penny counts these days.  Financially, it has been an exceptionally stressful couple of years, and I've decided to make the most of my hard-earned cash.  Sure, I could join the "in-crowd" and not work, have ten kids out of wedlock, and be way richer than I am right now by living off the government (I may have pondered it once or twice after witnessing so many people who are living large and not working for a cent of their income).  But, I was raised better than that and I will just make do with what I've been given (because I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would kill to walk in my shoes).

If you'd like to know more about my journey, what methods and resources I'm using, and how it's going so far, stay tuned!

Until next time,

It's All Good

Well, Peeps, I hadn't acknowledged this on the blog yet, but it's officially November. You heard me. NOVEMBER. I know, I can't believe it either. It's hard to believe but Thanksgiving is upon us and Christmas is juuuuuust around the corner! The shops and stores are out in full force, trying to get you to pull your wallet out for them - they've got just what you need! You're trying to round up everyone that you want to buy for and get them to at least hint to you what would bring them joy around the holidays. Then you want to price check, make the purchase, come home and wrap it up, and you're set!

I have to admit that Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays! I love all holidays, but these two take the cake for me. It's the family, friends, love, FOOD, and good times that make these most important to me. They give us reason to get together, and the memories I have of these two holidays are among the best of my life.

The other reason why I love this time of year is because something especially moves me - moves me to want to do good for others. I've come to realize that it doesn't matter how much or how little you do for others - what matters is that you're doing for others. That's what counts, especially during what's supposed to be such a joyous time of year. And this year, I'm trying to incorporate some smaller ways to help others out.

For example, did you know that for $1.30, you can feed a family of four at a soup kitchen? I didn't literally until tonight. I have been wanting to stop using plastic bags for my groceries for a long time now. I, in all honesty, have two LARGE gatherings of plastic bags - one for Walmart and one for Kroger. I know that I can recycle them, but for some reason, I can never remember to take them with me! :( Tonight, I decided that I needed to make myself take the first step, and I decided to start off small. That's why I purchased two of these for $1.99 apiece:

When I purchased these at $1.99 apiece, Kroger donated $1.30 of each bag's purchase to a local soup kitchen, and now two families can be fed there! :) That's something good for two families I may never meet and something good for me and the planet! (No plastic bags!)

I'm definitely not as green as I need to be, but I'm a work in progress. And, in case you want to go green, here are some really cool reusable bags! You honestly don't have to sacrifice style when saving our world!

Even though these may be a little pricey to me for what they are, I still may end up investing in a set of these Baggu bags. You can choose pretty much any color, and you can buy a set of 5. They seem to be really sturdy, and they're machine washable - can't beat that!

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They're really cool, and if you do a quick and easy Google search, you can find some awesome reusable bags that suit your personal style. The experts say to buy several and keep them in your car so you don't ever forget them at home. So, multiple cars = multiple sets of bags. But, all in all, I think it's worth it. Tonight's groceries would have been packed into five plastic bags, but I fit them into my two bags with room to spare! That's a pretty considerable difference!

So, as I stated before, it doesn't matter how much good you set out to do, just that you do it. Whether it's contributing to the planet, animals, or people in need makes absolutely no difference. There was never a better time to do something better than you've ever done it before - it's not too late. With the holidays fast approaching, embrace the reason for the season and just make a change...make a difference in some small way. You'll be amazed at how it makes you feel!

Until next time,
A Semi-Green Chicken Wing