Amazing Mom: Deborah Devine, Queen of Savings

My name is Deborah Devine. I am 26, married for 7 years, and a mother of 2! I have a 3 year old and a 2 year old. I work part-time as a petsitter and babysitter! I am involved in my church choir and MOPs leadership through our church. My life is busy, even hectic sometimes! However, money is tight and needs are many, so I have learned the art of couponing!

It has taken me a while to really learn how to do this so-called “art” but once you get in to it you quickly learn it is an art! It takes more time than I often have, but the savings are tremendous and I truly can’t resort back to a life without coupons because the savings can be so great! I have found a great website through a friend at http://www.faithfulprovisions.com/ . You can subscribe to this woman’s blog and she will email you daily with amazing deals and great ways to get things free or nearly free! She has been very useful to me!

To tell you about my couponing I must tell you that I mainly shop at Kroger! With Kroger’s Plus Card you can go to websites and download digital coupons that will come off of your total at checkout after you present your card. Here are the sites you can download digital coupons from:
www.kroger.com Click on “In Store” and then “Coupons” to download coupons to your card
http://www.upromise.com/, http://www.shortcuts.com/, and http://www.pgesaver.com/.

The great thing is that you can also use a paper coupon printed from the internet or from your local Sunday’s paper. Pair them up with your digital coupons and often get things FREE!

I have a 3 ring binder that I use for my coupons. This can be quite a task to get started, but well worth it once it is all organized. I use picture slotted pages to put my coupons in and have them separated by tabs: Meats, Cheese, Canned Goods, Pastas/Soups, Baking Needs, Personal Hygiene, Diapers/Baby, etc. I cut out the coupons I know that I will use and place them in these slots by their category so that they are easy to find at a moment’s notice. I will admit that I am a little OCD and have the tabs categorized according to the layout of my Kroger store! lol

Often, things you don’t normally use will go on sale and with a coupon you can get these things free. So you may not have used it before, but you probably would now since it’s free, right?! So, I take the rest of my circular (this is what the ads are called) and I use sheet sleeves and have them organized by the name of the circular and the date. I place the ad in the sheet and then I still have it to use for later, if I need it! I have them organized like: Smart Source 8/1; 8/8; 8/15. Redplum 8/1; 8/8; 8/15. Etc.

If you subscribe to www.faithfulprovisions.com and she finds a great deal she will tell you that you can find a certain coupon in your Smart Source 8/1 Ad (for example). So then you can go back to your 8/1 Smart Source and then cut the coupon out that you need. This way you haven’t wasted time cutting out tons of coupons you may not use or throwing away possible coupons that you can use later!

I get free things weekly from CVS & Walgreens. I usually save anywhere from $50-$100 on my grocery bill each time I go! Couponing can be very time consuming, but consider you may spend 3 hours a week working your coupons and you save $50 on your grocery bill that week… then essentially you’ve made $16/hour! The benefits are wonderful! So, I encourage all of you to be great stewards of what God has blessed you with and consider becoming a “Coupon Queen”!